Gotcha! Thank you so much for continuing the conversation with me.

Right, but I guess the part that confused me was the implication that because I had not hit the yearly maximum for 401k contributions I would not perform a backdoor roth conversion. Wouldn't the interest accrued in the trad 401k be growing and taxable?

According to this link backdoor Roth conversions are taxable?

I think I misunderstood how taxes work with the backdoor conversions. That's my bad! That totally changes everything!!

Great point. I was thinking about it a little wonky. Additionally, I believe I missed the part where (mega) backdoor Roths aren't required to pay tax on the conversion. I always figured that since taxes weren't paid going into the Trad 401k that they would get their taxes when I performed the conversion....

Is there a reason that it only comes once you have maximized contributions? Why wouldn't you perform a mega backdoor Roth even if you were contributing say 80% of the federal limit?

You caught me :P! My math was bad, I am the third highest tax bracket.

I think I understand what you're saying, I have been making contributions to my employers Roth 401k for the past few years when I should have been making my contributions to the trad 401k this whole time.