Any Reason to Wait on Backdoor Roth?

[RandomGuyOnInternet]

Bogleheads,

In past years, my income income has always been low enough to make Roth IRA contributions throughout the year without worrying about hitting the income limit. This year, it's going to be very close and I likely will not know whether I'm below until December. I have the money now to max out 2025 contributions for myself and my spouse. Is there any reason not to just do the backdoor Roth contribution now? I do not have a traditional IRA so I should be able to just open a traditional IRA, make the full contribution, and immediately move the money to Roth. My Roth is at Schwab and I would open the traditional there as well. Thanks for your guidance.

RandomGuy

[exodusNH]

Bogleheads,

In past years, my income income has always been low enough to make Roth IRA contributions throughout the year without worrying about hitting the income limit. This year, it's going to be very close and I likely will not know whether I'm below until December. I have the money now to max out 2025 contributions for myself and my spouse. Is there any reason not to just do the backdoor Roth contribution now? I do not have a traditional IRA so I should be able to just open a traditional IRA, make the full contribution, and immediately move the money to Roth. My Roth is at Schwab and I would open the traditional there as well. Thanks for your guidance.

RandomGuy

No reason to wait.

Only risk is that you lose your job and can't find another one before the end of the year and didn't have enough earned income between you and your spouse to cover the contribution.

[Silk McCue]

No reason not to do so now. Many folks here do just this as outsized EOY bonuses can push them above the limit.

Cheers

[celia]

If you and your spouse don't have any kind of tax-deferred IRAs now and won't be putting any more tax-deferred money into accounts this year (such as a transfer of 401k money), you are ready to do the Backdoor Roth.

Keep the new IRAs at the same custodians as the Roth IRAs are. Make sure your spouse understands the Backdoor Roth and, if possible, does the transactions every few years. Understand the Backdoor Roth and ask questions here before you begin.

[RandomGuyOnInternet]

Thanks everyone. I will wait a couple weeks just to make sure we hit the $14k in income and then execute the backdoor Roth contribution.

RandomGuy