Educational information, not individual financial advice.
Key Takeaways
A quick reference + what they mean. All values are 2026; adjusted annually for inflation unless noted.
Employee elective deferral: $23,500 (Roth or pre-tax, shared limit) Catch-up at 50+: $7,500 additional → $31,000 total Super catch-up at 60-63 only: $11,250 additional → $34,750 total At 64+: back to standard 50+ catch-up ($31,000 total)
The 60–63 super catch-up is new with SECURE 2.0. It only applies in those four calendar years. At 64, the limit drops back. Plan-by-plan: your 401(k) plan must explicitly support the super catch-up; many smaller plans haven't updated.
Annual contribution: $7,000 (combined across Traditional + Roth) Catch-up at 50+: $1,000 additional → $8,000 total Roth income phase-out:
IRA contributions are SEPARATE from 401(k) — they don't share a limit. Someone maxing both gets $23,500 + $7,000 = $30,500 of pre-AGI / post-tax retirement room (plus whatever the 401(k) employer match adds).
This is the combined cap on employee deferral + employer contribution + after-tax 401(k) — all three buckets summed for a single 401(k) plan.
This limit is what the mega-backdoor Roth strategy fills with after-tax 401(k) dollars.
Self-only HDHP: $4,400 Family HDHP: $8,750 55+ catch-up: $1,000 (per HSA — each spouse needs their own HSA for their own catch-up)
HSAs are NOT aggregated with retirement limits. A high earner could max all three: $23,500 401(k) + $7,000 IRA + $4,400 HSA = $34,900 of stash room before the mega-backdoor.
Health FSA / LPFSA: $3,300 (2026, indexed) Carryover max (Health/LPFSA only): $640 to next year
Health FSA disqualifies HSA contributions. LPFSA (dental + vision only) does not.
Statutory cap: $5,000 per household (NOT inflation-indexed; been $5k since 1986)
Married-filing-separately: $2,500 each. Phase-out for spouses filing jointly above ~$130k AGI in some plans (employer-set; check SPD).
For self-employed: contribute up to 25% of net SE earnings (technically 20% of net SE earnings minus half SE tax — the math works out to ~20% effective). Capped at the same § 415(c) limit ($72,000 in 2026).
Solo 401(k) lets you ALSO contribute as employee (the standard $23,500 employee limit) on top of the employer (25%-of-SE) portion — same $72k aggregate cap, but with two paths to fill it. Simpler than SEP-IRA for high earners.
Employee deferral: $16,500 (lower than 401(k) by design) Catch-up at 50+: $3,500 additional Employer match: Required — either 3% of comp OR 2% non-elective
SIMPLE plans are common at small employers. They cap lower but require less paperwork than a 401(k). Not stackable with a 401(k) at the same employer.
No federal cap — set by state plan, typically $300k–$550k lifetime per beneficiary Annual gift exclusion: $19,000 per donor per beneficiary, or $95,000 5-year-front-load (2026) 5-year front-load: treats a single $95k contribution as 5 × $19k for gift-tax purposes. No more contributions to that beneficiary from that donor for the next 5 years.
The Horizons engine tracks year-by-year contribution limits in projections. The retirement page surfaces "Contribution headroom" if you've under-contributed in a given year. Coming features: HCE (Highly Compensated Employee) testing impact on 401(k) catch-ups, and the SECURE 2.0 Roth-only catch-up requirement for high earners (kicks in 2026 for $145k+ wages).
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