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Comment by jandrewrogers | Hacker News Reader

Roth IRA restricts contribution based on income. Furthermore, the contribution limits are a small fraction of what they are for employer-based retirement accounts, not enough to build a real retirement.

A not small number of high-income Americans don’t qualify for anything but a traditional IRA, which has paltry limits.

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It’s worth mentioning that the income limit for contributing to a Roth IRA does NOT apply to Roth 401k accounts, which is likely another “incentive to keep working for the man”. Sole proprietorships/startups and their employees are punished severely for taking people out of the “corporate workforce”, and this is one such way.

My favorite way is paying Uncle Sam almost 40% in taxes on income made as a sole proprietor. Bad cog! Bad!

As a sole proprietor, you can open a solo 401(k) and contribute up to $66k pre-tax in 2023. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Now healthcare as an individual is another matter…

Everyone with at least $6500 in earned income can contribute $6500 per year into an IRA, regardless of high-income limits. If you make over a certain amount, the traditional contributions are not tax-deductible. If you make even more, you can't contribute directly into a Roth IRA however EVERYONE can make after-tax contributions to their IRA and then do a "backdoor" conversion to their Roth.

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