@fanfare wrote:
"And why would you even want to "
Because you can get a deduction.
For some, the short term is more important than the long term.
also, there is the challenge of investing two accounts instead of one.
If you have not filed your 2020 tax return and you have an extension, you can recharacterize your 2020 contributions only, up until October 16, 2021. If you are thinking about 2021 contributions, you have until April 15, 2022 to recharacterize them as a traditional IRA (or October 15, 2022 if you get an extension). You can't recharacterize prior year contributions, prior year rollovers, or earnings.
@jazwickler , it is perfectly acceptable to own a Roth IRA even if you are no longer eligible to contribute to it. Roth money has several long term advantages that you should keep in mind, such as when you retire, there is no RMD on a Roth account. Also, since Roth withdrawals are not taxable, they do not increase the tax on your social security benefits like regular IRA withdrawals can.
If you want to consolidate accounts and you have a 401(k) or 403(b) plan at work, you might be able to do a rollover from the Roth IRA into a designated Roth account within your workplace plan. But it still has to be separate from your pre-tax workplace contributions.
