But that's it and when you start taking money out in retirement there will be no tax consequence. You've avoided the tax consequence up to this point and actually got a tax benefit from the deductibility of your contributions. From now on you'll pay taxes on your earnings and then make your contributions to the Roth without any further tax consequence.

Better to tax the seed than the harvest. With the old traditional IRA and 401k it was reversed.

Traditional IRA's and 401k's are tax time bombs that explode right when you need the money the most and have no time to change course. Good move. Better to do this sooner rather than later.