Author Topic: What's smarter - SEP IRA or Solo 401k ?  (Read 2200 times)

learninglots

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What's smarter - SEP IRA or Solo 401k ?
« on: March 15, 2020, 08:05:08 PM »
Jeremy, first a quick thanks to you for generously sharing your experience and ideas. Your blog is quite a resource.

As the owner of an S-corp which has only 1 employee (me), I'm trying to determine if the SEP IRA or Solo 401k is better for saving on taxes and building wealth over time. For the past 2 years, I've been investing in a taxable brokerage account and am now realizing (a bit late) that I should take advantage of retirement plans.

It appears that both tax-advantaged accounts - SEP IRA and Solo 401k - are options, since I have no other employees. It's also unlikely that I will hire any W2 employees in the future (less than 25% chance) as I prefer independent contractors.

I've set my salary at $70k and then I receive pass-through earnings from the S-corp's profits which fluctuate yearly between ~$60-160k, usually leaving me in the 32% tax bracket.

The two resources I've examined are https://smartasset.com/retirement/sep-ira-vs-solo-401k-which-is-better and https://www.fidelity.com/retirement-ira/small-business/compare-plans yet it's unclear which is better - SEP IRA, Solo 401k, or something else?
« Last Edit: March 15, 2020, 08:13:24 PM by learninglots »

gocurrycracker

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Re: What's smarter - SEP IRA or Solo 401k ?
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2020, 06:03:20 AM »
The only reason I can think of to have a SEP IRA is that you have employees.

You can contribute more to the solo 401k
https://www.bankrate.com/calculators/retirement/self-employed-401-k-calculator.aspx