There are income limits for direct contributions to Roth IRAs, but you may have heard of a strategy some high income households use to build Roth assets when they are over the limit called a backdoor Roth or Roth conversion strategy.
You may consider using this strategy if you are over the income phaseout limit for making a full Roth IRA contribution, which is $153,000 MAGI for single filers and $242,000 for those married filing jointly in 2026. It involves making a non-deductible IRA contribution and then converting that contribution to Roth instead of contributing directly, but if you have a substantial amount of pre-tax IRA assets, this strategy may not work for you.
In addition to using the backdoor Roth, if you are able to do so, you can build Roth assets through employer-sponsored retirement plans, converting assets to a Roth IRA, and what’s called a mega backdoor Roth.
Check out the short video below if you are interested in learning more about backdoor and mega backdoor Roth conversions!
