Neither of these statements is entirely true. For IRA's only...
Most people want to deduct their Traditional IRA or contribute to Roth Directly, both of those have income limitations. Anyone with any income, can put money into an IRA (non deductible) and either leave it there (if they want it in a traditional account), or immediately convert it to a Roth IRA (if that is your goal).. So where there is a will there is a way, but it depends what your other options are, which tend to be employer dependant... (401k, 403b, 457, etc)
This is the so called “back door Roth” I was mentioning, but If you have other IRA assets it MAY be subject to the pro-rata rule. As mentioned before, this is debatable — so a tax specialist or accountant should be consulted for that specific case.
So, anyone is eligible for a Roth 401k if the employer offers it, right? (Regardless of income...)
The current maximum amount you can contribute to your Roth 401(k) is $19,000, plus an additional $6,000 for employees aged 50 or over if the company plan permits catch-up contributions.
The only “downside” to many Roth 401k plans and 401k plans in general is that you’re usually locked in to a handful of investments that the company and the manager of the 401k choose. Usually because that’s how the manager gets paid. So fees can be (relatively) high.
The usual “plan” is to put at least as much as the company match (if any) into the company plan, and start with Roth if you qualify, for tax free growth, especially if young. And then a personal IRA that’s categorized as a Roth up to that max, then if any left over max out the Roth 401k, then if you still have money to invest (you probably don’t — you’d have hit the income limits and not qualified for the Roth’s, see how that works) then anything else tax deferred like regular 401K and regular IRA.
The plus of the IRAs is the opposite of the company plan. You get to choose who you open it with and what you invest in. If you’re an index type investor, most go to Vanguard for this. Low fees on many index funds and easy to set up with low dollar limits on initial investments as low as $3000 a year in some. (The low dollar ones have slightly higher fees so you flip to the lower fee ones above $10K invested.)
All sorts of ways to skin the investing cat. Also all sorts of weird tax situations that need to be thought about. Some folks have massive deductions so maxing Roth’s and converting during those years can be good.
There’s also a break even point as you age where converting won’t make any significant change in total returns if the tax laws remain the same until your retirement. A little spreadsheet work can show the most “optimized” way to handle it all.
There’s also different rules about withdrawals from each as you get closer to retirement. Uncle Sam wants their taxes and they don’t want you sitting on a Roth forever. You’re still paying at (in theory anyway, depends on residual income streams) your lower retirement level of income’s tax bracket.
If you’re going to be still making a LOT of money in retirement, strategy of which vehicle to use for the investments, is another spreadsheet game.
A good accountant can sort it all out for a few bucks and a lot less of your time. And If you plan on having enough assets to leave a significant inheritance or gifts to charity, that should be planned out early so the correct things happen inside the estate after you, or you and a significant other, pass on.
Fun stuff, eh? Variables everywhere. The main thing to do is always be investing. If you get in the habit really early the multipliers work massively in your favor.
I wish I could go back and tell stupid me not to withdraw about $40K from a 401k looooong ago. Taxes, the penalty, and the loss of future growth is worth an incredible amount of money that would be in my nest egg today. Really really big with the market climb over that time, when wirh multiple recessions and smaller downturns. It’s a serious “ouch” number.
It met the criteria for “stupid with many zeros on the end” — the only criteria really: Never make big financial decisions out of fear.
Oh well. Invest early, invest often!
Hope that helps explain it a bit.
