Mega backdoor Roth is capped at $35000 (highly unusual to be able to fully fund this amount, since it requires a 401(k) that is structured to support it).
Backdoor Roth / direct contribution is capped at $5500 a year.
So in a perfectly optimal world of all the right situations, you could put up to $40,500/yr into a Roth IRA.
Currently, I'm getting about $15k into my Roth IRA annually (got lucky with the properly structured 401(k) plan at work) and I feel pretty fortunate about that.
Yes, but read the "mega backdoor Roth" technique. It allows many people to effectively contribute much larger sums into Roth IRAs, even though there is a $5500 "front door" limit.
If you have a low current marginal rate and a lot of money to stash away for retirement (that might be a semi-uncommon combination), it's absolutely something to look into. I have a high marginal rate, so I haven't done it.
So it's basically opening a Trad IRA, putting money into it, then immediately rolling it into a Roth IRA? I thought the contribution limit was across all IRAs you own, so you still wouldn't be able to put any extra into the IRAs in general?
This is complicated and weird. I might hold off until I understand it better.
Don't get hung up/paralyzed into doing nothing for fear that something slightly better might be available if you did hundreds of hours of research. The most important thing is to get started, IMO.
Just to be clear. The Mega backdoor Roth requires a 401k that allows After-Tax Contributions. Most won't let you do that. Their software will say "that contribution percentage you have selected will result in more than $18k/year in contributions and that isn't allowed" or you'll get to the end of the year and they'll just refund you the extra contributions. Which also doesn't help you.
Backdoor Roth / direct contribution is capped at $5500 a year.
So in a perfectly optimal world of all the right situations, you could put up to $40,500/yr into a Roth IRA.
Currently, I'm getting about $15k into my Roth IRA annually (got lucky with the properly structured 401(k) plan at work) and I feel pretty fortunate about that.