Roth IRA conversion or rollover to a solo 401k. Is there a way ?

[Daniel Gerardi]

Hello BP Community ! 

I live in Phoenix AZ and in my quest to choose the best self managed retirement account (for me), that I can fill with a few hand picked investments from the NYSE to grow my wealth for retirement with diversity. I have found that I want a Roth IRA and believe Fidelity may be the best option to suit my needs in the meantime. Moving forward down the road perhaps a few years or so I will want the flexibility of something self directed. Perhaps with larger contribution limits and no limit on income so I can incorporate real estate investments into the mix ( Understanding I will no doubt have to move my money from Fidelity to a brokerage specializing in real estate and self direction). That's when through shuffling around on BP I was introduced to the idea of a solo 401k as a potential option to roll or convert my prospect Roth IRA account into. But soon discovered a Roth IRA cannot be rolled directly into a Solo 401k but a traditional IRA can. I understand I don't qualify for a Solo 401k at this point in time due to me not being self employed yet.

My questions are as follows

* Am I allowed to convert a Roth IRA into a traditional then roll that into a Solo 401k?

* Would it even be worth it? 

* And if this way is a no go is there another way I don't know of yet?

  Any additional information on the subject is of course greatly appreciated, thank you all in advance for your time!

[Will Fraser]

HI @Daniel Gerardi! I want to zoom out and ask a fundamental question here: why would you want to convert a Roth IRA to anything? You could transfer your Roth IRA from Fidelity or whichever investing house you have it at to a Self-Directed IRA account (like Equity Trust, Millennium Trust and Capital, etc) and use this SD Roth IRA account to invest in . . . darn near anything!

Then, as you gain the ability to contribute to a Solo 401k account you can do so at a Self Directed Solo 401k place (like the same place you have your SD Roth IRA account) and you can use the SD Solo 401k alongside your SD Roth IRA account to purchase a broad spectrum of investments.

Occam's Razor leads me to conclude that you should not transfer money from a Roth IRA here.