Maximize 2026: New Contribution Limits
- Patrick Phippen
- Dec 23, 2025
- 8 min read
If it feels like the end of the year always sneaks up on you, you are definitely not alone! As 2025 winds down, it is time to consider updating your retirement contributions in the coming year.
Each year, the IRS announces the new contribution limits to various retirement plans (and certain deduction items) to account for inflation, along with updated tax bracket cut points for the coming year.
If you consistently contribute any amount to a retirement plan, you are already doing much better than the half of American adults who have no retirement savings at all. If you can slightly raise the amount you contribute towards your retirement, you are doing even better. Incremental improvement each year goes a long way towards building a stable financial foundation for your later years. For our overachievers, it also increases the opportunity to retire early. Even if you do not want to retire early, accumulating wealth early gives you more options in the future, whether you want to become an entrepreneur, leave a job without lining up the next job, or take some time away from work to recover or travel.
Considering your investment goals can help you create a targeted budget that considers any pay adjustments you receive or benefit elections you change going into the new year. Read on if you want to take this a step further and maximize your retirement contributions in 2025!
401(k)/403b/457 plans
The 401(k), 403(b), and 457 plans are retirement accounts offered through your employer. (Self-employed folks also have the option to “offer” themselves a solo 401(k) plan that has its own set of requirements.) In 2025, the maximum contribution limit for an individual was $23,500. For 2026, the contribution limit is:
$24,500
Additionally, individuals who are age 50 or older by the end of the year may contribute an extra $8,000 as a “catch-up” contribution. (The “catch-up” contribution limit was $7,500 in 2025.) If you are 50 or older, this brings your total contribution limit to $32,500. Employees who are 60 through 63 years old have an even higher catch-up contribution limit of $11,250 (unchanged from 2025), bringing their total contribution limit to $35,750. (Folks over 63 years old have the same $8,000 catch- up limit as those aged 50 though 59.)
These limits only include your contributions. It does not include any employer match.
Your choice to contribute to a traditional 401(k), Roth 401(k), or both does not impact the limit. Also, the $24,500 limit applies to each individual for the entire calendar year, not per account (i.e., traditional or Roth) or per job. If you contribute to a 401(k) at multiple jobs during the year, whether or not those jobs overlap, you need to make sure your total contributions stay within the annual limit.
While you can front-load contributions at the beginning of the year, most employees contribute a consistent portion of each paycheck to their 401(k) or other retirement vehicle. Additionally, some employers match contributions on a per-pay period basis, so it may be wise to contribute throughout the year for this reason alone. Additionally, contributing throughout the year allows you to dollar-cost average your contributions to mitigate the risk of a market timing error.
If you want to maximize your 401(k) contributions in 2026, here is a breakdown for how much you should contribute each paycheck, based on your pay schedule:*
Annual limit | $24,500 |
Monthly (12 paychecks) | $2,041.66^ |
Semi-monthly (24 paychecks) | $1,020.33^ |
Bi-weekly (26 paychecks) | $942.30^ |
Weekly (52 paychecks) | $471.15^ |
If you will be at least 50 years old by the end of the year and want to maximize your $8,000 catch-up contributions (or $11,250 for ages 60 through 63), here is a breakdown for how much you should contribute each paycheck in addition to the above amounts, based on your pay schedule:*
Annual catch-up limit | $8,000 ($11,250 if age 60 to 63) |
Monthly (12 paychecks) | $666.66^ ($937.50 if age 60 to 63) |
Semi-monthly (24 paychecks) | $333.33^ ($468.75 if ages 60 to 63) |
Bi-weekly (26 paychecks) | $307.69^ ($432.69^ if age 60 to 63) |
Weekly (52 paychecks) | $153.84^ ($216.34^ if age 60 to 63) |
Health Savings Account (HSA)
A health savings account (HSA) is an account where you can contribute pre-tax money and use it tax-free for qualified medical expenses. You can also allow it to grow tax-free and eventually use it as a retirement account (similar to a traditional IRA). You must be enrolled in an HSA-eligible (i.e., high-deductible) health plan to contribute to an HSA—but once established, you can continue to use the HSA for as long as you own it, even if you can no longer contribute. In 2025, the HSA contribution limit for individuals with self-only coverage in an HSA-eligible health plan was $4,300, and for household coverage the contribution limit was $8,550. For 2026, those limits have been raised to:
$4,400 for self-only
$8,750 for household
Additionally, individuals who are age 55 or older by the end of the year may contribute an extra $1,000 as a “catch-up” contribution. The HSA catch-up contribution limit is unchanged from 2025. (Note that the age eligibility for catch-up contributions is different for an HSA versus a 401(k) or IRA.) This brings the total for individuals age 55 or older to $5,400 for self-only coverage and $9,750 for household coverage.
If you want to maximize your contributions this year for yourself only, here is a breakdown for how much you should contribute each paycheck, based on your pay schedule:*
Annual limit (self-only) | $4,400 |
Monthly (12 paychecks) | $366.66^ |
Semi-monthly (24 paychecks) | $183.33^ |
Bi-weekly (26 paychecks) | $169.23^ |
Weekly (52 paychecks) | $84.61^ |
If you want to maximize your contributions in 2025 for a household/family, here is a breakdown for how much you should contribute each paycheck, based on your pay schedule:*
Annual limit (family) | $8,750 |
Monthly (12 paychecks) | $729.16^ |
Semi-monthly (24 paychecks) | $364.58^ |
Bi-weekly (26 paychecks) | $336.53^ |
Weekly (52 paychecks) | $168.26^ |
If you will be at least 55 years old by the end of the year and want to maximize your $1,000 catch-up contributions, here is a breakdown for how much you should contribute each paycheck in addition to the above amounts, based on your pay schedule:*
Annual catch-up limit | $1,000 |
Monthly (12 paychecks) | $83.33^ |
Semi-monthly (24 paychecks) | $41.66^ |
Bi-weekly (26 paychecks) | $38.46^ |
Weekly (52 paychecks) | $19.23^ |
Individual retirement account (IRA)
An IRA is an individual retirement vehicle that you can set up on your own, regardless of your employment location or status. You can contribute to an IRA if you or your spouse have earned income. In 2025, the contribution limit for an individual was $7,000. That amount increases for 2026:
$7,500
Additionally, individuals who are at least 50 years old by the end of the year may contribute an extra $1,100 as a “catch-up” contribution (increased from $1,000 in 2025). This means any individual age 50 or older may contribute $8,600 to an IRA for 2024.
You cannot contribute more than your “earned income” for the year (or you and your spouse’s combined income, if you file jointly). If your earned income—i.e., wages and/or income subject to self-employment tax—is below these amounts, your earned income is your IRA contribution limit for the year.
These limits apply whether you contribute to a traditional IRA, a Roth IRA, or both.
Roth IRAs are funded with after-tax money, so you get no deduction initially, but qualified distributions—if you are at least age 59.5 and have had the account for at least five years—are completely tax-free.
Traditional IRAs are funded with pre-tax money, so you get a deduction initially, but distributions are taxable at the then-prevailing rates. (If you take a distribution prior to age 59.5, you will also pay an early-withdrawal penalty.)
Whichever choice is right for you, $7,500 is the contribution limit that applies to all IRAs for 2026. You can contribute the entire $7,500 to a traditional IRA, the entire $7,500 to a Roth IRA, or split your contributions between the two. You cannot contribute $7,500 to each: it is a cumulative per person amount.
If you want to maximize your contributions in 2025, here is a breakdown for how much you should contribute each paycheck, based on your pay schedule:*
Annual limit | $7,500 |
Monthly (12 paychecks) | $625.00 |
Semi-monthly (24 paychecks) | $312.50 |
Bi-weekly (26 paychecks) | $288.46^ |
Weekly (52 paychecks) | $144.23^ |
If you will be at least 50 years old by the end of the year and want to maximize your $1,100 catch-up contribution limit, here is a breakdown for how much you should contribute each paycheck in addition to the above amounts, based on your pay schedule:*
Annual catch-up limit | $1,100 |
Monthly (12 paychecks) | $91.66^ |
Semi-monthly (24 paychecks) | $45.83^ |
Bi-weekly (26 paychecks) | $42.30^ |
Weekly (52 paychecks) | $21.15^ |
Roth IRA income limits
The income limits for contributing to a Roth IRA are also increasing in 2026.
Anyone can contribute to a traditional IRA regardless of income level, but the deductibility of those contributions is limited at certain income levels if you are covered by a retirement plan at work.
If you would like to contribute to a Roth IRA rather than a traditional IRA but make too much money, a backdoor Roth may be for you.
Taxpayers filing as single or head of household in 2026 will have a reduced Roth IRA contribution limit beginning at $153,000 of income; the limit becomes zero when income reaches $168,000. (For 2025, this phase-out range was $150,000 to $165,000.)
Taxpayers using the married filing jointly or qualifying widow(er) status have a reduced contribution limit beginning at $242,000 in 2026, with a limit of zero when income reaches $252,000. (For 2025, this phase-out range was $236,000 to $246,000.) Married taxpayers filing separately follow the “single” limit if they did not live with their spouse at any point during the year, but have a reduced limit immediately, and a limit of zero when income reaches only $10,000.
To maximize or not to maximize?
If you maximize all these accounts in 2025, that means you will invest $40,750 towards your future, assuming you are contributing to an HSA for your entire household and are not yet old enough to make additional catch-up contributions. In a few unique employment situations, you can contribute more, but maximizing these contributions will already put you in a good position for retirement investing.
Contribution Limit for 2065 | Additional Catch-Up | |
401(k)/453(b)/457 | $24,500 | $8,000 (age 50) $11,250 (ages 60 to 63) |
HSA | $4,400 (self-only) $8,750 (household) | $1,000 (age 55) |
IRA | $7,500 | $1,100 (age 50) |
If you cannot contribute the maximum amount to all these accounts, that is okay! Challenge yourself to raise your contributions a bit to a preexisting account, or open one of these accounts that you do not have yet. Thanks to compound interest, every dollar you contribute now will be $2 in 2033!
* = Some employers will only let you contribute a whole dollar amount or only a specific percentage. If this is the case for you, you can make your contribution slightly higher or lower and adjust it for a single paycheck at the end of the year to maximize your contributions. For example, at her now former employer, Xa was required to contribute a specific whole-number percentage towards her 401(k), so she contributed the same percentage all year and brought the percentage down 1% for her final paycheck so she is just under the maximum.
^ = Amounts are rounded down rather than to the nearest cent to prevent exceeding the contribution limits.
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