If you make a tech salary, you've probably been told you "make too much for a Roth." That's half true — and the other half is one of the best deals in the tax code that high earners routinely leave on the table.
There are two legal moves — the backdoor Roth and the mega backdoor Roth — that can get serious money into Roth accounts, where it grows and comes out tax-free for the rest of your life. Done together, they can mean tens of thousands of Roth dollars a year that you were told you weren't allowed to have. Let me walk through both.
A quick refresher on why anyone cares. In a Roth account, you contribute after-tax dollars, and then everything — contributions and decades of growth — comes out completely tax-free in retirement. No tax on the gains, ever. For someone with 20–30 years of compounding ahead, that tax-free growth is enormous. The only catch is that high earners get blocked from contributing directly. These two strategies are the workaround.
For 2026, you can't contribute directly to a Roth IRA if your income is above the phase-out range ($153,000–$168,000 single / $242,000–$252,000 married filing jointly). Most tech pros are well past that.
The backdoor is a two-step sidestep. You contribute to a traditional IRA (which has no income limit on contributions) — up to $7,500 in 2026 ($8,600 if you're 50+). Then you convert that traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. Because you contributed after-tax money and converted right away, there's little or no tax on the conversion. You've just put $7,500 into a Roth through the side door.
The one trap: the pro-rata rule. If you have other pre-tax money sitting in traditional IRAs (say, an old 401(k) you rolled over), the IRS makes you convert a proportional, taxable slice of it — you don't get to cherry-pick only the after-tax dollars. This is the mistake that turns a clean backdoor Roth into a surprise tax bill. There are ways around it (like rolling old IRA money into your current 401(k) first), but this is exactly where you want a CPA before you press go.
This is the one that moves real money, and it lives inside your 401(k) — not your IRA.
Most people know the employee contribution limit ($24,500 in 2026). But the total that can go into your 401(k) from all sources — you, your employer's match, and after-tax contributions — is much higher: $72,000 in 2026. The mega backdoor fills that gap.
Here's the mechanic. After you max your regular contributions and collect your match, you make additional after-tax contributions to your 401(k) up to that $72,000 total ceiling. Then — and this is the key step — you convert those after-tax dollars to Roth, either through an in-plan Roth conversion or a rollover to a Roth IRA.
A rough example: $24,500 employee + say $12,000 employer match = $36,500. That leaves about $35,500 of room up to the $72,000 cap that you could fund with after-tax dollars and convert to Roth. That's potentially $35K+ of extra tax-free-growth money in a single year, on top of everything else.
The catch: your 401(k) plan has to allow two things — after-tax contributions and in-plan conversions (or in-service withdrawals). Many big tech employers' plans do; plenty don't. Step one is literally checking your plan documents or asking HR/benefits whether your plan supports it.
These aren't tricks to do in isolation — they're a sequence. Generally: capture the full employer match first, then max your regular contributions, then run the backdoor Roth, then the mega backdoor if your plan allows. Where exactly they fit depends on your cash flow, your equity vesting, and your tax bracket today versus retirement. But for high earners with a long runway, getting money into Roth is one of the highest-leverage, lowest-glamour moves available.
The move: Want to know which of these your plan supports and the right order to do them in? Book a Clarity Call and we'll build the sequence around your situation.
Educational only — not personalized tax advice. 2026 figures; confirm current limits and your plan's rules with a CPA and your benefits team.
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