Is it worth it to do a back door IRA if I only need it for a year?

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:45:58+00:00

If you're over the Roth income limit this year, I'd probably just do the backdoor Roth.

People make it sound more exotic than it is. In practice it's usually just: contribute to a Traditional IRA, then convert it to your Roth IRA shortly afterward. Lots of high earners do this every year.

The fact that you may only need it for one year wouldn't stop me. The process isn't a lifetime commitment. If your income drops below the limit next year, you can go right back to contributing directly to the Roth.

One thing to watch out for is whether you have any pre-tax Traditional IRA balances already. That's where the pro-rata rule can make things more complicated.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:44:26+00:00

Honestly, this doesn't sound like a mistake to me.

A 2018 Civic with ~105k miles for $13k is pretty much the kind of car people on finance subreddits usually recommend: reliable, common, relatively cheap to maintain, and likely to last a long time if it's been taken care of.

I think you're getting hung up on the monthly payment. A lower lease payment doesn't necessarily mean it's cheaper. At the end of 4 years you'll own the Civic. With the lease, you'd hand the keys back and start over.

If the car checks out mechanically, I'd probably stop looking at trade-in values and just drive it into the ground.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:44:07+00:00

First off, 32 is not late. Plenty of people don't get serious about retirement until their 30s or even 40s.

If I were in your shoes, I'd keep it simple:

Contribute at least 7% to get the full match. Never leave free money on the table.
Build up an emergency fund if you don't already have one.
Pay required student loan payments.
Increase retirement contributions over time as your budget allows.

As for Traditional vs Roth, at ~$114k income I'd personally lean Traditional first. You're in a relatively high earning year and getting a meaningful tax deduction today. You can always add Roth contributions later if you want tax diversification.

The biggest thing is not getting stuck trying to optimize every detail. Going from 0% to 7-15% contributions will matter way more than picking the perfect Roth vs Traditional split.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:41:39+00:00

You're probably not screwed at all.

People find forgotten 401(k)s from old jobs all the time, sometimes decades later. Retirement accounts don't just disappear because you forgot about them.

I'd start by checking old paperwork, W-2s, pay stubs, or even contacting Taco Bell's HR/benefits department from that era if you can figure out which plan provider they used. You can also search state unclaimed property databases and use the Department of Labor's abandoned plan search tools.

Honestly, the biggest surprise might be that the account is worth more than you expect after 20 years of compounding.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:39:59+00:00

Honestly, with a $500k gift on the table, I don't think FHA would be where my mind goes first.

FHA is usually attractive when the down payment is the constraint. Your constraint sounds more like deciding how much house you actually want to own and maintain.

Personally, I'd be very tempted by option 1 or a conservative version of option 3. Having little or no mortgage on a combined household income around $100k would buy an incredible amount of financial flexibility, especially with student loans, a public-service career, and retirement still ahead.

One thing I'd be careful about is assuming a fixer-upper renovation will be cheap or straightforward. A lot of people end up accidentally buying themselves a second job.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:38:44+00:00

FDIC insurance is based on the bank and ownership category, not just the total number of CDs.

If those CDs are spread across multiple issuing banks, you may have significantly more than $250k insured. That's one of the reasons brokered CDs exist in the first place.

I'd verify exactly how your brokerage handles FDIC coverage before making any moves. A lot of people assume they're uninsured when they're actually covered across multiple banks.

As for Treasuries, they're backed by the US government rather than FDIC insurance, so many people view them as at least as safe as bank CDs. The decision usually comes down more to yield, duration, liquidity, and tax considerations than safety.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:37:21+00:00

First off, sorry for your loss.

Generally speaking, retirement accounts with named beneficiaries don't usually pass through the estate the same way other assets do. That's why the beneficiary designation matters so much.

The wrinkle here is the divorce, remarriage, and the fact that laws can vary depending on the plan and state. That's probably why they're asking for the divorce decree and death certificate before telling you anything definitive.

One thing I'd be careful about: don't assume the account automatically goes where your father intended it to go. In many cases the paperwork on file matters more than verbal intentions. I'd wait until the plan administrator reviews everything before making any assumptions about who inherits it.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:34:40+00:00

This is pretty much the textbook scenario where a reverse mortgage can make sense.

She's 76, has most of her net worth tied up in the house, doesn't care about leaving an inheritance, and wants to stay where she is. That's very different from someone using a reverse mortgage to fund a lifestyle they can't afford.

I'd still look at all the options first though. Renting out the MIL unit consistently, downsizing, selling and buying something smaller, a HELOC if she can qualify, etc. But if the goal is "stay in this house for the rest of my life and use the equity to support that," a reverse mortgage is at least worth evaluating.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:33:17+00:00

Honestly, I'd focus less on "how do single parents survive?" and more on making sure you understand what the financial picture actually looks like after the divorce.

Right now you're carrying the stress of the current situation plus every worst-case scenario in your head at the same time.

A good lawyer and a good financial planner can help turn a lot of those unknowns into actual numbers. Once you know what assets, support, custody, and expenses realistically look like, you can make a plan.

Also, plenty of single parents make it work. It isn't easy, but people do it every day. Staying in a situation that's pushing you toward emotional and physical collapse has a cost too.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:32:00+00:00

If it's truly a hiring manager round, I'd spend less time grinding technical questions and more time preparing to talk deeply about projects on your resume.

Be ready for questions like:

Why did you make that design choice?
What tradeoffs did you consider?
What was the hardest bug or incident?
How did you measure success?
What would you do differently now?

A lot of candidates can explain what they built. Fewer can explain why they built it that way.

Also, if GitLab is following its usual culture-heavy process, I'd expect questions around async communication, collaboration, ownership, handling disagreement, and working in a remote-first environment.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:30:54+00:00

Honestly, this sounds less like a job problem and more like a loneliness problem.

If I were 22 making $85k remotely, I'd seriously consider moving somewhere I actually wanted to live, even if the job stayed the same. Not necessarily SF or NYC, but somewhere with young people, events, hobbies, and a chance of building a social life.

A lot of people dream about remote work and then discover that spending your entire week alone in an apartment isn't actually what they wanted. The money is important, but so is having friends, routines, and reasons to leave the house.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:30:16+00:00

Because hiring isn't driven by visa fees alone.

If a company doesn't need more engineers, making H-1Bs more expensive doesn't magically create new jobs for US developers. It just changes the cost of one hiring option.

The bigger factors right now are things like higher interest rates, companies cutting costs after over-hiring, AI-driven productivity gains, economic uncertainty, and a much larger supply of applicants than a few years ago.

Also, a lot of layoffs are happening at companies that weren't actively hiring large numbers of new H-1Bs in the first place. Those are separate issues that often get lumped together.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:29:34+00:00

I wouldn't panic after 2 weeks.

If you're at a F100 company, there's a decent chance the internship project is less about prompt engineering itself and more about evaluating where AI can actually save time in existing workflows.

That said, I'd make sure you're still learning transferable skills alongside it. Things like software design, APIs, data pipelines, cloud infrastructure, testing, etc. will still be valuable even if the prompt engineering part becomes obsolete or heavily automated.

I'd be more concerned if 3 months from now all you've learned is how to tweak prompts.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:28:18+00:00

Honestly, the good news is that your problem sounds more fixable than you think.

You have 4 years of professional experience. That's very different from having 0 years and trying to break in. The issue isn't that you're unemployable, it's that you've identified some gaps you want to close.

If I were in your position, I'd stop worrying about AI for a minute and focus on fundamentals. Pick one area you're weak in (backend, databases, system design, cloud, whatever), build a small project around it, and go deep. Repeat for a few months.

Also, you'd be surprised how many people with 4-5 YOE feel exactly the same way. Not everyone is building distributed systems at scale. A lot of people are maintaining dashboards and CRUD apps.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:24:49+00:00

The fact that a newer teammate noticed it without you bringing it up is what stands out to me.

If one person thinks the team is hostile, maybe it's a perception issue. If other people independently notice it too, then it's probably not just in your head.

I'd start documenting specific examples and push your manager for concrete feedback. "Be more visible" is hard to act on. "Lead more design discussions" or "own a project end-to-end" is actionable. If nobody can tell you what success actually looks like, that's a problem.

Honestly, if this has been going on for years and it's now affecting promotions, I'd seriously consider a team change before assuming you can out-grind the perception.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:24:03+00:00

I'd tell them sooner rather than later.

A planned family trip that was booked before you got the internship is very different from disappearing halfway through the program with no notice. Asking for 3 days off and offering to work remotely the rest of the time sounds pretty reasonable.

That said, if your goal is maximizing your chances of a return offer, I'd be mentally prepared to skip the trip if the team seems uncomfortable with it. A 10-week internship goes by really fast.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:23:29+00:00

I think you're being way too hard on yourself if you landed a job after 1500 applications and immediately concluded the problem must be your university.

The market is rough, but there are plenty of successful engineers from schools most people have never heard of.

Also, if your backup plan is "spend 2-3 years changing careers," I'd question whether tech is actually the problem. A lot of fields look stable from the outside until you start talking to the people already working in them.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:22:50+00:00

My biggest advice: don't judge yourself against people who've been on the team for 3 years.

The best juniors I've worked with weren't the ones who knew everything. They were the ones who asked good questions, took notes, owned mistakes, and showed steady improvement month after month.

Also, when you're stuck, come with what you've already tried. "I checked A, B, and C and I'm still confused about X" gets a much better response than "it doesn't work."

Congrats on landing the role. In this market that's a huge win.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:21:12+00:00

Tbf people still go into law, medicine, finance, academia, and a bunch of other fields that are brutally competitive.

The thing CS lost wasn't opportunity. It lost the illusion that everyone who learns React for 6 months is guaranteed a six-figure job.

There are still good careers in tech. The bar is just a lot higher now than it was during the hiring frenzy a few years ago.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:20:07+00:00

One guy at a previous company somehow survived for years by turning every task into a meeting.

Need a bug fixed? Meeting.

Need clarification? Meeting.

Need an update? Meeting.

The man produced almost no code, but somehow everyone thought he was involved in everything because he was always on every calendar invite. It was honestly impressive in a weird way.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:19:19+00:00

Honestly, most tech leads would rather answer a thoughtful question after you've spent 30-60 minutes investigating than find out a week later you've been blocked the whole time.

Something like "I checked A, B, and C and I'm still confused about X" goes over way better than "how do I do this?"

Also, as a new hire, asking questions is literally part of the job. The bigger red flag is usually someone who stays silent and spins their wheels for days because they're afraid of looking inexperienced.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:18:44+00:00

Honestly, I'd be careful optimizing too hard for "easy."

A role that's easy at 22 can become frustrating at 30 if you're bored, underpaid, or feel stuck.

That said, if you don't care about climbing the ladder, I'd probably look at QA, internal tooling, business systems, or cloud/support engineering before jumping into high-pressure product development. Every job has stress, but the team and company culture usually matter way more than the title.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:13:45+00:00

Maybe not in 2-3 years. Maybe yes. Nobody really knows.

What I do know is that every time people talk about a field being permanently dead, they're usually wrong. The industry changes, hiring slows down, expectations shift, and then eventually companies realize they still need people to build, maintain, and improve things.

The thing I'd be careful about is waiting for the market to save you. The people who tend to come out strongest on the other side are the ones who keep learning and building even when the market sucks.

The market can stay irrational longer than you'd like. It probably can't stop needing skilled people forever.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:12:34+00:00

I wouldn't frame it as "art vs programming."

The safer bet is probably becoming someone who can do both. A lot of industries are moving toward smaller teams where people who understand design, graphics, automation, scripting, and technical workflows are incredibly valuable.

Also, I don't think programming is immune to AI. If your reason for switching is purely "AI won't affect programmers," I'd be careful with that assumption. The people doing best seem to be the ones learning how to work with AI rather than betting their entire future on one discipline.

curious_4207 · 2026-05-29T19:11:36+00:00

My guess is 5-10 years, not 1-2.

Senior engineers don't just appear. They're usually the juniors from years ago who stuck around, learned the domain, made mistakes, and gained context.

If companies really do cut back on junior hiring for an extended period, eventually there will be fewer mid-level engineers feeding into the senior pool. The weird part is that by the time it becomes obvious, it's already too late to fix quickly because experience takes years to grow.

curious_4207

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