Traditional IRA Question

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone:

So DH and I have HHI of about $250k. We both work and contribute to the max for our 401k. However, I was wondering if we could also contribute to a traditional IRA. I know that the max is $5,500 each. So could DH and I both contribute in addition to our 401k, additional $11k to our traditional IRA? Is that possible? This would decrease our taxable income and we do need to contribute more to our retirement since I was a stay at home mom for a bit. Would love to get feedback.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

you cannot, because you make too much. you can do a non-deductible IRA (doesn't help your taxes now, but it does grow tax-free until you withdraw). there is also a way you can do a "back door" conversion from non-deductible IRA to roth IRA. (just google it).

[Anonymous]

Quick question about the backdoor conversion. I already have a traditional IRA (from rollover of 401K) of about $60k. I was told that I can't just do a simple backdoor since I already have traditional IRA that I do not want to convert. Is that correct? Or else now I have to pay taxes on a portion of the total.

[Anonymous]

OP here again...so it looks like I will be taxed on the percentage of the total IRA. But I found a way to bypass it. Turns out if I roll all my traditional IRA into my work's 403(b) plan, then I won't have any more traditional IRA. Then from there, I can start doing the backdoor conversion from non-deductible IRA to a roth IRA.

Thanks to the previous post that told me about the back door conversion.