Adler, Just wanted to make sure you were aware that these after tax contributions can be rolled into a Roth IRA. It's a pretty good method to fund a Roth

How does one go about doing that?

At one time I was told that you could not withdraw the after tax contributions separately, or that you would have to pay tax on the gains. I might be wrong, but please provide more info.

Also, have any over 50 guys investigated the Roth 401K option? Does it make any sense for us old guys?

I am trying to educate myself, but I don't trust financial advisors to give me the straight skinny, they seem to all want to get their hands on my money, and I don't trust them with it.

I like Vanguard due to the low fees.

Yes you will have to pay a tax on the gain. Vanguard will walk you through it. As to the over 50, I guess it depends on when you plan on spending it. I would recommend it.

Thanks, Lag.

It should like I should wait until retirement to do that when my taxable income will go down?

Is that what you did?

I think if I do it now, I will get stuck with higher taxes. Perhaps I can wait until the tax year after I retire when my bracket should be lower.

When I talked to Vanguard they said the law had changed and you can roll it all into a Roth IRA and they can step you thru the process. You will pay tax as others above have said. I plan to do it the year after I retire when my taxable income will be lower. I'm trying to max out the after-tax until retirement to take advantage of this.

If you have some post tax money in there; go to the vanguard site, manage my money, loans and withdrawals (I think). Put in for a withdrawal and it will show you the estimated tax you will pay before you execute it. You may be surprised at how little the tax actually is, but either way you can make a good guess on the tax you will pay to convert it now. Yes I convert some every year, the year over year gains aren't that much.

Thanks Lag and Knight.

I have been doing the "back door Roth" IRA conversions for the last several years.

Do you guys know if the after tax conversion to Roth has an upper limit?

Or if it will affect the limits on my back door Roth conversions?

This might help:
https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans...-make-for-2017

Rollover contribution do not count towards limits. But vanguard was very helpful and will answer all your questions.

If you are rolling out of the Pilot Retirement Savings Plan, to IRAs, you can take any after-tax balance and split the rollover to a Traditional IRA for the earnings and a Roth IRA for the principal. There is no tax consequence. If trying to leave it within the PRSP, you cannot split the earnings and principal.
Vanguard will have you set up a separate Roth IRA and a separate Traditional IRA outside the PRSP, and this is where the split will go.

This has been verified thru our R&I committee.

Keep in mind that if you want to rollover your 401k when you retire to your own IRA, you have to split out the after tax 401k monies into a ROTH IRA at that point. You can't wait and do it later---forbidden by the IRS.