Quick Read – SECURE 2.0 forces workers 50+ earning over $150,000 to route all 401(k) catch-up contributions into Roth accounts, eliminating up to $2,700 in annual pretax deductions. – HSAs replace that lost deduction with a triple tax advantage, and payroll contributions also…
dge the 7.65% FICA tax that 401(k)s never escaped. – Saving medical receipts and investing HSA funds in index funds lets high earners build a tax-free reimbursement reservoir redeemable at any future date. – Are you ahead, or behind on retirement? SmartAsset’s free tool can match you with a financial advisor in minutes to help you answer that today
Each advisor has been carefully vetted, and must act in your best interests. Don’t waste another minute; learn more here. A 58-year-old software director earning $210,000 opened her 2026 pay stub in January and saw the tax break she counted on for a decade quietly vanish.
Her $8,000 catch-up contribution, which used to shave roughly $1,900 off her federal tax bill in the 24% bracket, is now legally required to go into a Roth 401(k). A Reddit thread in r/HENRYfinance last month was full of variations on the same complaint, with high earners rerunning their tax projections and looking for the pretax deduction somewhere else. Most of them are landing on the same answer: the Health Savings Account.