Not correct. After you reach your personal contribution limits you can continue to contribute after-tax until you reach 415c limits. I’ve been doing it for awhile, much to my RHAs appreciation.

 

True that. AFTER tax. What do you mean by your RHAs appreciation? Max spillage? I try to limit my spillage into that community pot.... already plenty full with $1/hr and the minimum spillage.

 

...and schwab just added the option to automatically convert those after tax contributions to Roth, making everything that you contribute after the B/C fund Roth eligible. Although you could do this before as well, it just took filing a form every time. So, unless your after tax income is less than the 415C limit minus the company contributions, you can always max out.

 

I spoke to two different financial wizards. They say what Guppie said. It seems logical no?

I haven't seen anything from R/I on it yet.

 

I’m not sure if that was directed at my post, but what Guppie said is correct if you only consider elective deferrals and the company contributions. However, when considering after tax contributions, you can fully fund your contributions for the year:

For 2020:

19500 Elective Deferral limit (plus 6500 if you’re old enough for catchup)

+ whatever company contributions. The amount doesn’t really matter, but we can use 30k from Guppie’s example.

That brings you to $56k, leaving either a $1k or $7500, if you are eligible for catchup, deficit.

As long as you have completed your elective deferrals for the year in their entirety, you can contribute whatever you need to make up in your deficit as after tax contributions. These can immediately be recharacterized as Roth contributions by filing a form with Schwab. If you contribute your elective deferrals as Roth as opposed to traditional, those were after tax anyway. Schwab will even allow you to cut a check for the exact amount at the end of year to round of this off.

So as long as you have earned enough money to contribute to the limit (you can’t contribute more money than you haven’t been paid through elective deferrals and after tax contributions), you should always be able to max out your annual contributions as long as you aren’t on probation or taking large leaves of absence.

A search on google of mega back door Roth explains this also. It’s a great deal.

 

No wasn't directed at you. But I understood what Guppie said and it was tracking with financial info I received.

I suppose you can contribute more moneys if you have access to those funds. However, not having those funds likely precludes these types of contributions as well as catch up contributions. Many pilots now having difficulty with access to funds to put into retirement plans, etc.

 

Just goes to show, every 10 years this career gives us a swift kick in the nuts. Plan your financial life accordingly and it’ll all work out.

The scars of 2009 are still raw to me. It was a terrible time and motivated me to put that extra 5% in my PRAP, make that extra mortgage payment, put that extra $5,000 into my kids 529, my keep my 15 year old car running, etc etc.

Stressful times indeed, but this saying has guided my financial life:

“If you will live like no

one else, later you can

live like no one else”

 

That's very true. Dave Ramsey's stuff is what we try to follow.

The lost decade has made it tough to capture funds. The poor contracts of the early 90's has also had a negative effect.

I have been saving aggressively. However, the costs of childrens education has out-paced what I could reasonably plan for. The irony is we waited a long time to have kids because we couldn't afford them while flying in the commuters. I was just getting to the point where I could afford their educations.

I am sure everyone has their financial challenges. But, living like no one else is something that is still a lofty goal. I drive a used car, so does my wife, and i have a modest home. still the first wife. 10 years to retirement, and only half way to that goal. Interesting, a 30 year career has only gotten me half way to my retirement goals.....

 

I respect that answer. Good luck to you, and to us all.

 

Are we able to roll the After-tax contributions into a roth vehicle of any kind?