SEP
Seprod Group
stock NYSE

I understand having bonds in pretax but wouldn’t the time you want access to them most be in the first 5 or so years of retirement.
That would be tougher for FIRE because you could have 15+ years before you can take them out without a SEP (seems dangerous for SORR) or Roth conversions but then you need to do it I think 5 years before you need the money.

"I'll pay the taxes for the 2026 year on the Roth conversion plus the $1k in earnings for that 2025 traditional IRA which I converted."
Not quite.
Any pre-tax (deducted) contributions made or rolled into a Traditional IRA, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA (Excludes inherited) and any earnings (never taxed) are going to be aggregated and will create a Pro Rated (pro rata) taxable conversion, whether you do this as Backdoor or regular conversion, because the magic of Backdoor is two steps:
Make a nondeducted contribution to a Trad IRA. This is called Basis, it's post-tax.
Convert funds from Trad IRA to Roth IRA, and if that is Basis, it's not taxable again.
This means, even if you put $7,500 into a Trad IRA for 2026 and don't intend to deduct it on taxes, and you put $7,000 in for 2025 under the same conditions, and then you converted $14,500 right now, that $1,000 of earnings creates a pro rata conversion = % taxable. It's not the amount that is the same specific dollars, in other words. It's all from one large pool.
"and take advantage of the Backdoor Roth IRA for 2025."
Conversions are always for the year of the conversion. This is 2026. Your total converted is reporting on a 1099-R for 2026. This is why you typically put a nondeductible contribution into an Empty account, convert it right away, do not invest it until it is in the Roth. No earnings, no growth.
If you convert everything in your Trad IRA, you still have a pro rata conversion, because you allowed for growth and earnings in that account. You want the Trad IRA account to have $0 balance in it, when using the Backdoor process.
Hope that helps.

COVID 2020
GME HYPE ... missed the squeeze 2021
sick of running my business and all the stress
watched YouTube videos on short squeezes
learned about AMC ... was supposed to be MOASS mother of all short squeezes... bought 1000 shares avg $9 ... squeezes finally occurred months later .... sale of shares at $51. JACKPOT
2022
watched ClayTrader videos and was intrigued that it would be possible to learn how to trade every day and maybe get decent enough to replace my business income. Signed up for courses and studied
2022 thru 2025
full time trader
never profitable except for JUL AUG SEP OCT 2023 earned $170000 in 4 months
2024 thru mid 2025 still full time but not profitable
late 2025 thru present... profitable finally as a full time trader. 9 green months in a row
lessons learned
the price of tuition trading real money is way too high
should have used simulators and practiced strategies while journaling wins losses and emotions
first we learn technical analysis ... going long ... going short ... chart patterns ...etc
then we learn about the demons within ourselves
it is those demons that we must understand i.e. greed, chasing, fomo, discipline, revenge trading ... leads to trade trauma, mental exhaustion, and anxiety.
Let a few losses run against you for a 5 figure loss and you will know what I am talking about
I had issues with all of these and took me a very long time to recognize when the demons appear and how to handle myself accordingly
in my opinion fwiw
improper risk management and failure to cut losses quickly is the reason 95%+ day traders lose money
ask me how I know
glta

The backdoor Roth IRA process works properly when you maintain no pre-tax/traditional balance in *any* Traditional, Rollover, SEP, or Simple IRA (all the IRA that aren't Inherited or Roth).
The reason is that if you have any pre-tax/traditional dollars in any IRA in your name on Dec 31st of the year you perform the Roth conversion step of the backdoor process, you'll have some taxes due because of the [Pro-Rata Rule](https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/backdoor-roth-ira-tutorial/#:~:text=of%20this%20process.-,Pro%2DRata%20Rule,-The%20most%20important). This means you can actually cause the problem *after* performing the Roth conversion by creating a rollover IRA later that same year.
So if you're approaching the MAGI limit to make Roth IRA contributions directly, you generally want to avoid creating rollover IRA.
If you need to clear out a traditional IRA to prepare for the backdoor Roth IRA process, you've got two choices:
1. Rollover from Traditional IRA to current 401k. Requires your 401k plan supports this, not all allow roll in from IRA (sometimes called a reverse rollover). This is the most tax efficient option if you can do it, because the rollover is not a taxable event.
2. Convert the entire balance from Traditional IRA to Roth IRA. This will cost your ordinary income tax marginal rate on the whole conversion, so it could be expensive depending on the size of the IRA. Don't withhold taxes on the conversion if you go this route.

I’m retired at age 67. one of my employers do not allow ROTH conversion of 401k. I have about 1.9M in that account. This account is managed by PRINCIPAL but for previous 30 years it was managed by VANGUARD. I do have SEP, ROTH IRA, Traditional IRA, Brokerage Act, Cash act with Vanguard. What is the best way to handle this?
Thank you in advance for your suggestions.🙏🏼

401k, IRA, and their Roth variants. There are also tax advantaged accounts(SEP IRA) for people that are self-employed, but your average person is working with a 401k with their employer and rolling that over into an IRA when they change employment. You can also contribute annually to an IRA. Both 401k and IRA have pretty low annual contribution limits from a FIRE perspective, $24,500 and $7,500 respectively. For people investing more than that per year, it goes into a taxable account.

For my SEP IRA, I have $1,500/mo I can deposit pre-tax. I transfer it over and buy some shares of VTI/VXUS within the month.