2026 Retirement Contribution Limits: 401(k), IRA, HSA and the New Rules That Actually Matter

What actually changed for 2026

Every autumn the IRS releases the cost-of-living adjustments that govern how much you can shelter from taxes the following year, and for 2026 those numbers arrived in Notice 2025-67. The headline is simple: the employee contribution limit for 401(k), 403(b) and most governmental 457 plans rose to $24,500, up from $23,500 in 2025, and the IRA limit ticked up to $7,500 from $7,000. Those are welcome but modest inflation adjustments of roughly 4 percent and 7 percent respectively.

The bigger story for 2026 is not the round-number increases — it is the structural changes underneath them. Two provisions from the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 finally take full effect this year, and both change the math for people in their peak earning and saving years. The first is a "super catch-up" that lets savers aged 60 through 63 contribute far more than the standard age-50 catch-up. The second is a new rule requiring high earners to make their catch-up contributions on a Roth (after-tax) basis rather than choosing pre-tax treatment.

If you are within a decade of retirement, live in the Fort Wayne area, and want to close a savings gap, 2026 is a genuinely important planning year. This guide walks through every limit that changed, explains who each one affects, and points to the strategies — the backdoor Roth, the mega-backdoor Roth, HSA stacking, and employer match true-ups — that let you use the full ceiling rather than just the visible one. Before you act on any of it, it is worth mapping your own numbers with our retirement gap calculator, because the right move depends on your bracket, your employer plan, and your timeline.

The 401(k), 403(b) and 457 employee limit: $24,500

For 2026, the amount you can personally defer from your paycheck into a 401(k), 403(b), most 457(b) plans, or the federal Thrift Savings Plan is $24,500. This is the "elective deferral" limit under Internal Revenue Code section 402(g), and it is the number most people mean when they say "the 401(k) limit." It applies to your own contributions only — not to whatever your employer adds through a match or profit-sharing.

One point that trips up higher earners: the $24,500 limit is a per-person ceiling, not a per-plan ceiling. If you switch jobs mid-year, or hold two jobs each offering a 401(k), your combined employee deferrals across all plans still cannot exceed $24,500 (plus any catch-up you qualify for). The plans themselves will not coordinate this for you, so it is on you to track the total and avoid an excess-deferral headache at tax time.

A 457(b) plan is a useful exception worth knowing about. Because a governmental 457(b) is technically a deferred-compensation arrangement rather than a qualified plan, its limit does not aggregate with a 401(k) or 403(b) you may also have. A teacher or public-sector worker with access to both a 403(b) and a 457(b) can, in principle, defer $24,500 into each — a combined $49,000 before any catch-up. That is one of the most overlooked opportunities in public-sector retirement planning, and it is common in northeast Indiana school districts and municipal payrolls. Fidelity confirms the same $24,500 figure and the aggregation rules in its 2026 contribution-limit guidance. If you are not maxing at least the amount needed to capture your full employer match, that is the first dollar to prioritize — it is the closest thing to free money in personal finance.

The catch-up ladder and the new super catch-up for ages 60-63

Catch-up contributions let older savers add extra beyond the standard limit, and for 2026 the structure became a three-rung ladder. If you are age 50 or older at any point in 2026, you can add a standard catch-up of $8,000, bringing your total employee contribution to $32,500. That is the rung most people know.

The new rung is the super catch-up for savers who are 60, 61, 62 or 63 during 2026. Thanks to SECURE 2.0, this age band gets a larger catch-up of $11,250 — 50 percent more than the standard amount — which raises the total employee contribution to $35,750. It is critical to understand that the super catch-up replaces the standard $8,000 catch-up; it is not stacked on top of it. So the sequence looks like this: $24,500 base, plus either $8,000 (ages 50-59 and 64+) or $11,250 (ages 60-63).

The age band is deliberately narrow. The year you turn 64, you drop back to the standard $8,000 catch-up and a $32,500 total. That design creates a four-year window of maximum tax-advantaged saving right at the moment many people have their highest incomes and their lowest remaining expenses — kids launched, mortgage shrinking. The IRS lays out the mechanics on its catch-up contributions page, and Schwab walks through the age math in its catch-up guide. One caveat: your employer's plan must actually offer the super catch-up feature. Most large recordkeepers added it, but smaller plans may lag, so confirm with your HR or plan administrator before you count on it. If your income is uneven year to year, we often help clients decide how much of this window to use pre-tax versus Roth — the answer is rarely all-or-nothing.

The rule that surprises high earners: mandatory Roth catch-up

Here is the 2026 change most likely to catch someone off guard. Starting January 1, 2026, if you are 50 or older and earned more than $150,000 in FICA wages from your employer in 2025, any catch-up contribution you make to your workplace plan must be made on a Roth (after-tax) basis. You lose the option to take the pre-tax deduction on those catch-up dollars.

To be precise about what this does and does not touch: it applies only to the catch-up portion — the $8,000 or $11,250 — not to your base $24,500 deferral, which you can still make pre-tax. And it is triggered by prior-year wages from a single employer. The threshold looks at your 2025 FICA wages to determine your 2026 treatment; going forward, that $150,000 figure is indexed to inflation. Importantly, the rule is based on W-2 FICA wages, so self-employed individuals with no FICA wages — partners drawing K-1 income or sole proprietors — are not swept in.

For an affected saver, this is not necessarily bad news. Roth catch-up dollars grow tax-free and come out tax-free in retirement, which can be genuinely valuable if you expect rates to be higher later or simply want tax diversification. But it does raise your current-year taxable income, so it deserves a deliberate look rather than a surprise on your December pay stub. The IRS is treating 2026 as a good-faith transition year, with the final regulations formally effective in 2027, so plans that make a reasonable effort to comply are protected. If your employer's plan does not yet offer a Roth option at all, you may be temporarily unable to make catch-up contributions — another reason to check now. This is exactly the kind of decision where a short conversation pays off; you can reach our office to model the pre-tax versus Roth tradeoff against your bracket.

IRA limits and the traditional deduction phaseouts

Individual Retirement Accounts follow their own set of limits, separate from your workplace plan. For 2026, you can contribute $7,500 to a traditional or Roth IRA if you are under 50, and $8,600 if you are 50 or older, thanks to a $1,100 catch-up. That IRA catch-up is finally indexed to inflation under SECURE 2.0, after sitting frozen at $1,000 for many years. Your IRA contribution limit is combined across all your IRAs — you cannot put $7,500 into a traditional and another $7,500 into a Roth.

Whether a traditional IRA contribution is tax-deductible depends on your income and whether you (or your spouse) are covered by a workplace plan. For 2026, if you are single and covered by a plan at work, your deduction phases out between $81,000 and $91,000 of modified adjusted gross income. For married couples filing jointly where the contributing spouse is covered, the range is $129,000 to $149,000. If you are not covered but your spouse is, the phaseout runs from $242,000 to $252,000. And a married person filing separately who is covered by a plan phases out between $0 and $10,000 — a range that is deliberately punitive and not indexed.

If your income is above these thresholds and you are covered by a workplace plan, you can still contribute to a traditional IRA — you just cannot deduct it, creating what is called a nondeductible or basis contribution. That distinction matters, because nondeductible contributions are the raw material for the backdoor Roth strategy covered in the next section. Anyone weighing an IRA against maxing their 401(k) first should look at the whole picture; our overview of median retirement savings by age is a useful reality check on where you stand relative to peers before deciding how aggressively to fund each account.

Roth IRA income limits and the backdoor strategy

Roth IRAs are the mirror image of traditional IRAs: you contribute after-tax dollars now, and qualified withdrawals in retirement are entirely tax-free. The catch is an income ceiling on who may contribute directly. For 2026, the ability to contribute to a Roth IRA phases out between $153,000 and $168,000 of modified adjusted gross income for single filers and heads of household, and between $242,000 and $252,000 for married couples filing jointly. Above the top of the range, direct Roth contributions are off the table.

That is where the backdoor Roth comes in. Because there is no income limit on converting a traditional IRA to a Roth, a higher earner can make a nondeductible contribution to a traditional IRA and then convert it to Roth shortly after — legally sidestepping the income cap. It is a well-established technique, but it has a sharp edge called the pro-rata rule: if you hold other pre-tax IRA money, the conversion is taxed proportionally across all your IRA balances, which can turn a "tax-free" conversion into a taxable one. People with large rollover IRAs often need to address that first, sometimes by rolling pre-tax IRA funds back into a 401(k).

For married couples, the spousal IRA is another underused lever: a non-working or lower-earning spouse can fund a full IRA based on the working spouse's income, effectively doubling the household's IRA capacity to $15,000, or $17,200 if both are 50-plus. Roth dollars are also uniquely flexible in retirement because they carry no required minimum distributions during the original owner's lifetime, which makes them powerful for legacy planning and for managing your taxable income year to year. If you are coordinating Roth conversions with the timing of Social Security, our guide on when to claim Social Security at 62, 67 or 70 pairs naturally with this decision, since the years before you claim are often the best window for low-bracket conversions.

The $72,000 ceiling: employer match, true-ups and the mega-backdoor Roth

Your $24,500 employee limit is only part of what can go into a 401(k) in your name. The overall cap under section 415(c) — which counts your deferrals plus your employer's match plus any after-tax contributions — rises to $72,000 for 2026 (or $80,000 including the age-50 catch-up, and up to $83,250 with the 60-63 super catch-up, where the plan allows). Most people never come close to this ceiling, but understanding it unlocks two advanced strategies.

First, the employer match and true-up. If your employer matches, say, 50 percent of the first 6 percent you contribute, front-loading your contributions early in the year can accidentally cost you match dollars — because once you hit the $24,500 cap in, say, September, you stop contributing and the match stops with it. Many plans include a "true-up" that retroactively pays the full match you would have earned, but not all do. If yours does not, you may want to spread contributions evenly across all 26 pay periods to capture every match dollar. It is worth a five-minute check of your plan document.

Second, the mega-backdoor Roth. If your plan allows after-tax (non-Roth) contributions and in-plan Roth conversions or in-service withdrawals, you can fill the gap between your deferrals-plus-match and the $72,000 ceiling with after-tax dollars, then convert them to Roth. For a high earner whose employer plan supports it, this can move tens of thousands of additional dollars into tax-free growth each year — far beyond the ordinary Roth IRA limit. Not every plan offers the required features, so confirm before counting on it. These are the kinds of moves that turn a good savings rate into an efficient one, and they are worth modeling against your other goals using our planning tools.

The HSA: the stealth retirement account

If you are enrolled in a qualifying high-deductible health plan (HDHP), the Health Savings Account is arguably the most tax-efficient account in the entire code — and it is easy to overlook because it lives in the "health" bucket rather than the "retirement" bucket. For 2026, per IRS Publication 969 and Revenue Procedure 2025-19, you can contribute $4,400 with self-only coverage or $8,750 with family coverage, plus a $1,000 catch-up if you are 55 or older.

The reason planners love the HSA is its triple tax advantage: contributions are deductible (or pre-tax through payroll), the money grows tax-free, and withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are tax-free. No other account offers all three. After age 65, you can withdraw HSA funds for any purpose and simply pay ordinary income tax — making it function like a traditional IRA, but with the added upside that medical withdrawals stay tax-free at any age. Given that healthcare is one of the largest expenses in retirement, an HSA you leave to grow for decades can be a powerful, dedicated medical war chest.

To contribute, your health plan must meet the HDHP definition: for 2026 the minimum deductible is $1,700 (self-only) or $3,400 (family), with an out-of-pocket maximum no higher than $8,500 or $17,000. The strategy sophisticated savers use is to fund the HSA fully, pay current medical bills out of pocket from ordinary cash, and let the HSA compound untouched — keeping receipts to reimburse themselves tax-free years later if needed. One limitation to note: enrolling in Medicare disqualifies you from making new HSA contributions, so if you are approaching 65 and still working, the timing of your Medicare enrollment deserves careful coordination.

Self-employed and small business: SEP and SIMPLE IRAs

Northeast Indiana is full of small businesses, farm operations and independent contractors, and the self-employed have retirement tools with far higher ceilings than a standard IRA. The SEP IRA lets a business owner contribute up to 25 percent of compensation, capped at $72,000 for 2026 — the same 415(c) figure that governs 401(k) plans. SEPs are simple to open, have low administrative overhead, and let you decide each year how much to put in, which suits businesses with variable income.

The SIMPLE IRA is built for small employers, generally those with 100 or fewer employees. For 2026 the employee deferral limit is $17,000, with a $4,000 catch-up at age 50 for a total of $21,000. SIMPLE plans require the employer to either match employee contributions up to 3 percent of pay or make a 2 percent nonelective contribution for everyone — a modest, predictable commitment that many small firms can sustain while still offering a real benefit.

For a high-earning solo operator with no employees, the solo 401(k) often beats both. It lets you wear two hats — employee and employer — contributing the full $24,500 employee deferral (plus catch-up) and an employer profit-sharing contribution, up to the same $72,000 combined ceiling, and it can be reached at a lower income than a SEP because of how the employee deferral works. Solo 401(k)s can also offer a Roth option and, in some cases, the mega-backdoor Roth. Choosing among these depends on your entity structure, your payroll, and whether you have employees — decisions where a short planning conversation saves real money. If a predictable income stream in retirement is part of your goal, it is also worth reviewing how these accounts interact with annuity and retirement-income strategies once you stop working.

Don't overlook the Saver's Credit

Not every retirement incentive is aimed at high earners. The Retirement Savings Contributions Credit, commonly called the Saver's Credit, is a genuine dollar-for-dollar tax credit — not just a deduction — for lower- and moderate-income savers who contribute to a 401(k), IRA or similar plan. It is one of the most underclaimed benefits in the code, and for younger workers or single-income households across northeast Indiana it can meaningfully boost the return on the first few thousand dollars they set aside.

For 2026, eligibility phases out as income rises. To qualify for any credit, your adjusted gross income generally must fall below $80,500 for married couples filing jointly, $60,375 for heads of household, or $40,250 for single filers and those married filing separately. The credit is worth 10, 20 or 50 percent of up to $2,000 in contributions ($4,000 for couples), with the largest percentages going to the lowest incomes — meaning a qualifying couple could receive up to $2,000 back simply for saving.

The credit is nonrefundable, so it can reduce your tax bill to zero but not below, and full-time students and dependents are excluded. Still, if your household income sits in the eligible range, the Saver's Credit effectively stacks a government match on top of any employer match — a combination that can make even a small contribution one of the best-returning uses of a dollar you will find. It is claimed on Form 8880, and a good tax preparer or advisor should be flagging it automatically. Under SECURE 2.0, this credit is slated to be replaced by a federal "Saver's Match" paid directly into your retirement account beginning in 2027, so 2026 is one of the last years for the credit in its current form.

Putting it together: a 2026 game plan

Numbers on a page do not save anyone's retirement — a sequence of decisions does. A sensible priority order for most households in 2026 looks like this. First, contribute at least enough to your workplace plan to capture the full employer match; leaving match dollars behind is the most expensive mistake in this entire article. Second, if you have an HDHP, fund the HSA to the $4,400 or $8,750 limit for its unmatched triple tax advantage. Third, fund a Roth or backdoor Roth IRA to $7,500 (or $8,600 with catch-up) for tax-free growth and flexibility.

Fourth, circle back and max the workplace plan toward the $24,500 base — and if you are in the 50+ or, better yet, the 60-63 window, use the catch-up and super catch-up aggressively, because that four-year band from 60 to 63 is a rare gift. Fifth, if you have surplus capacity and your plan supports it, explore the mega-backdoor Roth to fill the space up to the $72,000 ceiling. This ladder is a default, not a mandate — your bracket, your state tax picture, your timeline and your liquidity needs all shift the order.

The 2026 rules reward people who plan deliberately: the super catch-up, the Roth catch-up mandate for high earners, and the widened phaseouts all create both opportunities and traps depending on your specifics. If you are unsure whether you are on track — or whether to lean pre-tax or Roth this year — start by running the numbers with our retirement gap calculator, then talk it through with our office. We serve families across northeast Indiana, and we build these decisions around your real situation, in plain English, with no sales pressure. The limits reset every January; the habits you build with them compound for decades.

The HSA: the stealth retirement account hiding in your health plan

Ask most people to name a retirement account and they will say 401(k) or IRA. Almost nobody says Health Savings Account. Yet for people who qualify, the HSA is arguably the most tax-favored account in the entire code. It is the only account that gives you a triple tax advantage: your contributions go in pre-tax (or are deductible), the money grows tax-free, and withdrawals for qualified medical expenses come out tax-free. A traditional 401(k) gives you the first two. A Roth gives you the last two. The HSA gives you all three.

The catch is eligibility. You can only contribute to an HSA if you are covered by a qualifying high-deductible health plan (HDHP) and have no other disqualifying coverage. For 2026, the IRS defines an HDHP as a plan with a minimum deductible of $1,700 for self-only coverage or $3,400 for family coverage, and out-of-pocket maximums no higher than $8,500 (self-only) or $17,000 (family). If your plan clears those bars, you can fund an HSA up to the 2026 limits below.

Here is the retirement move most people miss: you do not have to spend the money as you go. If you can afford to pay this year's doctor bills out of pocket, you can leave the HSA invested and let it compound for decades. There is no "use it or lose it" rule like a flexible spending account has. After age 65, you can pull HSA money out for any reason at all and pay only ordinary income tax on it, exactly like a traditional IRA. Used that way, an HSA is a back-up retirement account with a medical superpower attached, since healthcare is one of the largest expenses most retirees face.

If you want to see how an HSA stacks against your 401(k) and IRA in the same year, our retirement tools can help you sketch the numbers before you decide where each dollar should land.

• The $1,000 catch-up starts at age 55, not 50, and unlike other catch-ups it is a flat $1,000 that is not indexed for inflation.
• Married spouses who are both 55+ each get their own $1,000 catch-up, but the extra amount must go into an HSA in that spouse's own name.
• Once you enroll in Medicare you can no longer contribute, though you can keep spending the balance tax-free forever.
• Keep your receipts. You can reimburse yourself years later for a qualified expense you paid out of pocket, which turns the HSA into a flexible tax-free withdrawal valve in retirement.

The Backdoor Roth and Mega-Backdoor Roth: how high earners still get Roth money

The Roth IRA has an income ceiling. For 2026, your ability to contribute directly phases out between $153,000 and $168,000 of modified adjusted gross income if you are single, and between $242,000 and $252,000 if you are married filing jointly. Earn above the top of that range and the front door to the Roth IRA is closed. The "backdoor" is a perfectly legal side entrance that Congress has repeatedly declined to shut.

The mechanics are simple in outline. You contribute to a traditional IRA, which has no income limit on contributions, and then convert that money to a Roth. Because a nondeductible traditional contribution has already been taxed, converting just that contribution generates little or no additional tax. The result is Roth money for someone who could not have contributed directly.

The trap that snags people is the pro-rata rule. The IRS does not let you cherry-pick and convert only your after-tax dollars. It looks at the total balance across all your traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs on December 31 and treats every conversion as a proportional blend of pre-tax and after-tax money. If you have a large pre-tax IRA sitting alongside your new nondeductible contribution, most of your "backdoor" conversion becomes taxable. This is why the strategy works cleanly for people with no other IRA balances, and why some savers first roll existing pre-tax IRA money into a workplace 401(k) to clear the decks.

The Mega-Backdoor Roth is a different animal that lives inside a workplace 401(k). It relies on the plan allowing after-tax contributions (a separate bucket from your regular pre-tax or Roth deferrals) plus a way to move those after-tax dollars into a Roth, either through an in-plan Roth conversion or a rollover to a Roth IRA. The room comes from the overall 2026 defined-contribution limit of $72,000. Subtract your own $24,500 deferral and whatever your employer contributes, and the gap can be filled with after-tax dollars that ultimately become Roth. When it is available, it lets a high earner funnel tens of thousands of extra dollars into Roth each year, far beyond the $7,500 IRA limit.

These strategies reward precision and punish guesswork. The steps must happen in the right order, the paperwork (Form 8606 for the backdoor) must be filed, and the pro-rata math must be checked. If your income puts the front door out of reach, it is worth a conversation before you act rather than after.

The pro-rata rule is the single most common reason a backdoor Roth generates a surprise tax bill. Before you convert, know your total year-end IRA balance, not just the dollars you just deposited.

Self-employed and small-business plans: SEP-IRA, Solo 401(k), and SIMPLE

If you run your own business or earn 1099 income on the side, the humble IRA is not your ceiling. The tax code carves out plans that let the self-employed shelter far more, because you get to contribute as both the employee and the employer. Choosing among them comes down to how much you want to save, how many employees you have, and how much paperwork you are willing to tolerate.

The SEP-IRA is the path of least resistance. There is almost no annual filing, and you decide each year how much to put in, up to 25% of compensation and a 2026 cap of $72,000 (based on a compensation limit of $360,000). The drawback is that if you have employees, you generally must contribute the same percentage of pay for each of them as you do for yourself.

The Solo 401(k) usually wins for a one-person business because of how the math works at moderate income. You can defer the full $24,500 as the employee regardless of profit, then add an employer contribution on top, reaching the same $72,000 ceiling but often at a much lower income than a SEP would require. Savers 50 and older can layer on the catch-up, and those turning 60 to 63 in 2026 can use the larger super catch-up, pushing the total higher still. A Solo 401(k) can also accept Roth deferrals and permit loans, which a SEP cannot.

The SIMPLE IRA sits between a plain IRA and a full 401(k). Employees can defer up to $17,000 in 2026, with a $4,000 catch-up at 50 and a $5,250 catch-up for those aged 60 to 63. Employers must chip in, either a dollar-for-dollar match up to 3% of pay or a flat 2% for everyone eligible. It is cheaper and simpler than a traditional 401(k), which makes it attractive for a genuinely small team, though the lower deferral limit means high savers will feel the ceiling.

Because a healthy retirement often blends these tax-advantaged dollars with a guaranteed income floor, it can be worth looking at how a plan payout might pair with an annuity or retirement-income strategy once you stop working.

Don't leave free money on the table: match, true-up, vesting, and the Saver's Credit

Contribution limits get all the attention, but two of the biggest levers in workplace saving have nothing to do with how much you personally put in. They are the employer match and, for lower- and moderate-income savers, a federal tax credit that most eligible people never claim.

The employer match is the closest thing to free money in personal finance. A common formula matches 100% of the first 3% of pay and 50% of the next 2%, but the details vary by employer and are worth reading in your plan documents. The mistake to avoid is front-loading your contributions so aggressively that you hit the $24,500 deferral limit in, say, September. If your match is calculated per paycheck and you stop contributing for the last three months, you can forfeit the match on those paychecks entirely. Some plans protect you with a "true-up," an end-of-year make-up contribution that pays the match you would have earned had you spread deferrals evenly. Many plans do not offer one, so it pays to know which camp yours is in.

Vesting schedules determine when the employer's contributions actually belong to you. Some plans vest immediately; others use a graded schedule (for example, 20% per year over five years) or a cliff (nothing until year three, then all of it). The money you contribute is always 100% yours from day one, but the match may not be. If you are weighing a job change, checking your vesting status can be worth thousands of dollars in timing.

The Saver's Credit rewards you for contributing at all. Depending on income, it returns 50%, 20%, or 10% of up to $2,000 of retirement contributions ($4,000 for a married couple), for a maximum credit of $1,000 per person. For 2026, the credit is available up to $80,500 of adjusted gross income for married couples filing jointly, $60,375 for heads of household, and $40,250 for single filers. The most generous 50% tier applies below $36,375 (joint), $27,281 (head of household), and $24,250 (single). Because it is a credit, not a deduction, it cuts your tax bill dollar for dollar. Many eligible savers simply never file the form to claim it.

SECURE 2.0 also nudged the system toward saving automatically. Most newer 401(k) and 403(b) plans are now required to enroll eligible employees automatically, typically at 3% to 10% of pay, and to escalate that rate by 1% each year up to at least 10%. Automatic enrollment works because inertia finally runs in your favor, but the default rate is often too low to capture the full match or to fund a comfortable retirement. Treat the auto-enrollment number as a floor, not a target, and raise it to at least whatever earns your entire match.

If you are trying to gauge whether you are on track, our look at the median retirement savings by age offers a benchmark, and you can always reach out to talk through your own numbers.

Vesting is the fine print on your match. The money you contribute is always yours. The money your employer contributes may not be until you have stayed long enough.

Frequently asked questions

How much can I contribute to my 401(k) in 2026?

The 2026 employee deferral limit is $24,500. If you are 50 or older you can add an $8,000 catch-up for a total of $32,500, and if you are between 60 and 63 you get a larger $11,250 super catch-up for a total of $35,750. These are your personal contributions and do not include your employer's match.

What is the super catch-up for ages 60 to 63?

Under SECURE 2.0, savers who are 60, 61, 62 or 63 during 2026 can make a catch-up of $11,250 instead of the standard $8,000 — 50 percent more. It replaces rather than adds to the standard catch-up, raising the total employee 401(k) contribution to $35,750. The year you turn 64, you revert to the standard $8,000 catch-up.

Do I have to make my catch-up contributions as Roth in 2026?

Only if you are a high earner. If you earned more than $150,000 in FICA wages from your employer in 2025, then in 2026 any 401(k) catch-up contribution must be made on a Roth (after-tax) basis. Your base $24,500 deferral can still be pre-tax. Self-employed individuals with no FICA wages are not subject to the rule.

What are the 2026 IRA and Roth IRA limits?

The 2026 IRA limit is $7,500, or $8,600 if you are 50 or older thanks to the $1,100 catch-up. This limit is shared across all your IRAs. Direct Roth IRA contributions phase out between $153,000 and $168,000 of income for single filers and between $242,000 and $252,000 for married couples filing jointly.

How much can I put in an HSA in 2026?

If you have qualifying high-deductible health plan coverage, you can contribute $4,400 with self-only coverage or $8,750 with family coverage in 2026, plus a $1,000 catch-up if you are 55 or older. HSAs offer a triple tax advantage — deductible contributions, tax-free growth, and tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses — which makes them a powerful stealth retirement account.

What is the total amount that can go into my 401(k) in 2026?

The combined limit under section 415(c) — counting your deferrals, your employer's match, and any after-tax contributions — is $72,000 for 2026, or up to $80,000 with the age-50 catch-up and $83,250 with the 60-63 super catch-up where the plan permits. This ceiling is what makes the mega-backdoor Roth strategy possible for savers whose plans support after-tax contributions and in-plan conversions.