The 2025 Rules for Retirement Accounts, New Tax Brackets, and More!

Transcript:

On this episode of the personal finance podcast, the 2025 rules for retirement accounts, new tax brackets, and more. What's

up everybody. And welcome to the personal finance podcast. I'm your host, Andrew, founder of master money. co and today on the personal finance podcast, we're going to be going through the 2025 rules for retirement accounts, new tax brackets. And more. If you guys have any questions, make sure you join the master money newsletter by going to master money.

co slash newsletter. And you can send your question in when any of those newsletter issues come out every single week. And don't forget to follow us on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or YouTube. And if you're getting value out of the show, consider leaving a five star rating and review on your favorite podcast player.

And you can also give us a thumbs up if you're watching on YouTube. Now, today we're going to be diving into a ton of different updates that the IRS has issued for a tax brackets and how the marginal tax rates are going to be changed. B we're also going to talk about retirement contribution limits and some of the changes that are coming up For 2025.

And then in addition, we're going to be going through a bunch of other notable changes, things like the gift tax. We're going to be talking about, you know, health, flexible spending accounts. We're going to talk about all those different things, a state tax credits, all of those different things and all the changes that have come over the course of the last year.

So typically we do this every single year when the news comes out about this stuff, because I want you to be as informed as possible about your finances and the impact of these tax implications on your finance. So it's very important to understand this stuff every single year. And it's really important.

Also, as I talk through this to make sure you have a CPA in your corner, if you don't have a CPA in your corner, it is very helpful to have someone who knows some tax strategy that can help you through this process as we go through this. So At the top of the show, we are going to go through the contribution limit increases.

Then we're going to dive into the marginal tax rates and everything else that falls into place, uh, when it comes to that. So if that's something you're into, let's get into it. All right. So the first thing we're going to be diving into is the 2025 contribution limit increases for things like retirement accounts and other savings accounts.

And so one of the most important ones that we want to make sure that we are looking at. Is obviously the 401k and the 403b and those pre tax accounts that fall into that category. So the 401k and the 403b employee contribution limits have shifted over the course of the last year, and we're going to see how much they have shifted.

Now, one thing to note is the IRS has been increasing Contribution limits over the course of the last few years. There are some contribution limits that we would love to see continue to increase that did not increase. And we'll guide a dive into that here today. So the 401k 403b employee contribution in 2024, the contribution limit was 23, 000 for the 401k.

Now, in 2025, they have increased it to 23, 500. Seeing a 500 change in the 401k is very, very impactful to your long term financial gain. And so it's very important that they did this, and we are really, really excited that they did this, because you just want to see that increase over time. Because the more dollars that you can get in, Into these retirement accounts, the faster you can grow your wealth.

And these limits actually limit how much we can get in there. And so, because of that, we want to make sure that we are taking advantage of this. Now, if you don't know what a 401k is really quick recap, money goes in before it's taxed. Your money grows and then when you pull the money out, you're taxed at that point in time.

So really powerful stuff because it has tax advantages and you can get a deduction in that specific tax year. So people who are higher income earners, this can help you out with your tax situation and is something I would definitely recommend you look into more. Now let's look at the catch up contribution.

So if you don't know what the catch up contribution is for the 401k or the 403b, this is an additional contribution that you can make towards your retirement account. If you are over the age of 50 years old, and it has not increased at all. So it is 7, 500 For the year 2025, and it was 7, 500 for 2024. Now let's look at the catch up contribution and you may not know this, but there is a catch up contribution.

If you're between the ages, 60 to 63, and that catch up contribution has increased a ton. It was 7, 500 last year. This is one of the biggest changes overall. And it is the biggest change on the 2025 contribution limit increases. It jumped to 11, 250. So really great stuff for folks who are between ages 60 to 63, we see a 3, 750 increase, uh, which is huge for most people.

Now the 401k 403b total contribution. If you're under the age of 50 went from 69, 000 to 70, 000. So that increased 1, 000 and the total contribution, if you're over the age of 50 went from 76, 500. 277, 500 and then total contribution between age 60 to 63 also increased 4, 750. It went from 76, 500 to 81, 250.

So a lot of great changes here with the 401k. I am pleased with those changes. You just want to see increases year in and year out if you can. And so that is great for the 401k. Now the four 57 B if you have a four 57 B the 2024 limit. Was twenty three thousand dollars and it now has increased to twenty three thousand five hundred dollars Along the same lines as the 401k 403b.

So that's another pre tax account Fantastic that you get that five hundred dollar increase on those pre tax accounts So for those of you who have something like a 401k at your job Or a 403b or a 457 at your job. I highly recommend you look for Further into these, if you are not already contributing to them because they do have great tax advantages and can help you build wealth over a long period of time.

Ramsey solutions. Dave Ramsey's company did a study with 10, 000 different millionaires in 80 percent of them hit their million dollar net worth through their 401k. That's how they did it. Did it was with their 401k. This is something where you're going to hear people out there on Instagram, say a 401k is a scam.

It is absolutely not as a slow and steady way to build out your wealth. I like to invest in index funds in my 401k. If you're self employed, you can get a solo 401k, a lot of different options there. So make sure you do your research. Uh, but definitely a huge component to what we talk about here at the personal finance podcast and high income earners looking at the 401k is important because it helps reduce your tax liability.

In that current year. And so because of that, that is a great option for high income earners to try to make sure you get as many dollars into those 401ks as you possibly can. Now, let's get into the traditional IRA. We're going to get into the Roth IRA also on this segment. So the traditional IRA, the way that that works is that you put money in very similar to a 401k.

You put money in and you get a tax deduction in that year. The money grows. And when you pull the money out, then you get taxing that money when you pull it out. So a traditional IRA has not changed at all. 7, 000 was the limit in 2024 and the 2025 limit is also 7, 000. So if you don't have a 401k at work and you have no other options, you can open a traditional IRA at least get 7, 000 in there.

Now, the traditional IRA catch up contribution has not changed Either it is 1, 000 last year is a 1, 000 in 2024, and it will be 1, 000, uh, in 2025. Now let's look at our good old friend, the Roth IRA. And anybody who has listened to these episodes in the past knows that usually the Roth IRA follows suit to the traditional IRA because they are both IRAs.

And so, yes, they are. That is the case. The Roth IRA contribution limit did not change. It's $7,000. Was hoping that would increase a little bit 'cause you know your boy loves the Roth IRA and loves getting more dollars into the Roth. IRA, uh, but it is still $7,000 for 2025, and the ketchup contribution also goes unchanged.

If you're over the age of 50, it is still $1,000 in 2025 as it was in 2024. So. Because of this, we do not see many changes in the Roth IRA. But if you don't know about the Roth IRA, money goes in and you've already been taxed on those dollars, meaning you already were taxed on your paycheck. So you contribute money to your Roth IRA.

But the beautiful part about the Roth IRA is it grows completely tax free. So you invest your money, it's going to grow tax free, and when you pull the money out, you pull it out tax free. That tax free growth is so massive if you have a long term time horizon that you will be amazed how many dollars you can have tax free.

In fact, if you max it out over the course of 30 years, You'll have about a million bucks in that account, and of those million dollars, about 850, 000 of that is going to end up being completely tax free money where you do not spend a dime on taxes. So, obviously they have limits to this Roth, and that's partially the reason why his Uncle Sam is not going to get as many tax dollars, but it helps you grow your wealth significantly over time.

And can have six figure impact to your wealth if you continue to max it out over the long term. Now, if you make too much money, Roth IRAs have contribution limits, but they also have income limits. So if you make too much money for the Roth IRA, you can do what is called a backdoor Roth IRA. So you open a traditional IRA like we talked about here.

And then what you're going to do is when you open that traditional IRA, you're going to contribute your 7, 000 into the traditional IRA and then roll it over. Over to the Roth IRA. This is why a lot of higher income earners do it. Uh, is you just do a backdoor Roth IRA. It's actually a very simple process.

The easiest place I know to do it is at Vanguard. So honestly, if you just want to do it with a click of a button, Vanguard makes it so incredibly easy. I've done it through a couple of other places. Uh, Merrill Lynch is one that just makes it super complicated. They send you a form. You got to fill out this form.

It takes like a bunch of extra days. Vanguard, you push one button. So I like Vanguard for the traditional and Roth only because you can roll them over very, very simply in my experience. I'm sure Fidelity is pretty simple, too, but Vanguard I know for a fact is very easy. Next we're gonna be talking about the SEP IRA.

Now the SEP IRA is a self employed IRA that is pretty complicated. But if you do not have access to a 401k, you can look at the SEP IRA. And so SEP IRA, the good thing about that is you can get larger amounts of money. Depending on how much money your business makes, you can take a percentage of that business income.

Uh, and there's a lot of cool things that you can do there. The SEP IRA contribution limit went up. It was 69, It is now 70, 000 in 2025. So that's a 1, 000 change. Now the simple IRA and the simple 401k are two other great options for a lot of people. Who have small businesses. Uh, and maybe you have a small business with 50 or less employees.

This is one that you can also look at as a simple IRA. 16, 000 is the contribution limit for 2024 and 16, 500 is the increase. So it increased 500 bucks. Now our good old. The HSA, for those of you who don't know, I love the HSA. It is actually probably one of my favorite accounts. I call it the super retirement account because it has triple tax benefits.

Money goes in tax free, it grows tax free. You can invest the money and you can pull the money out tax free. As long as you have a qualified medical expense. And there is a laundry list of what a qualified medical expense is now. And so it's continuously increasing every single year. And so the HSA contribution, if you are single is different than if you have a family plan.

So for the single plan. It has gone up 150. So 4, 150 was what? 2024 contribution limit was 4, 300 is now what the 2025 contribution limit is. And the HSA contribution for the family plan was 8, 300. And now it is 85 50. So it increased 250. $50 for the family plan. If you have a high deductible health plan, I encourage you to look into the HSA, the health savings account to see if you can get, uh, some great benefits outta that because I believe that is a great wealth building vehicle.

And as we know healthcare expenses are rising. There's also a healthcare FSA contribu. And that has shifted from 3, 200 to 3, 300. So there's a hundred dollar difference for the flexible spending account, the flexible spending accounts you have to spend every single year. So I am less bullish on those.

There are other ways to use them in more creative ways that maybe you want to utilize them, but not as interested in them as I am the HSA. So that is one where it just depends on your personal situation, but that is one I definitely would consider. Now, how can you take advantage of these new contribution limits?

We got to give you some ways to take advantage of this. If we're going to listen to this podcast and say, first, I want you to prioritize these tax advantaged accounts. Our order. Once you start to get to your levels of investing is that we want you to a get your 401k match first. That is 100 percent free.

You get absolutely free money by prioritizing that 401k match first. Then I want you to look at the Roth level or the HSA if you have a high deductible health plan. So if you have a high deductible health plan, prioritize that HSA, get dollars into that HSA, get those triple tax benefits. If you don't, then prioritize the Roth IRA.

And if you can have access to both, I would prioritize both. Because they are both fantastic retirement accounts early on. Then go back to your 401k. Now there are some situations for really, really high income earners, where if you have a very high income, you want to talk to your CPA about this situation and see, Hey, should I prioritize the 401k first?

Before the Roth. So I can get that tax deduction in this year. But for a lot of people, the Roth IRA is going to be a fantastic option. I love the Roth IRA. It's just one of my favorite things in the world. So it is a great, great account right now. And it can significantly reduce your taxable income by taking advantage of all of these different accounts and making sure you're getting after it.

Now, catch up contributions. If you are over the age of 50, make sure you are taking advantage of these ketchup contributions. You need to make sure that you are maximizing these to get more dollars into your accounts. If you are between ages 45 to 50, make sure you are starting to plan for these ketchup contributions and figuring out ways, Hey.

How can I start to get more dollars and get more income coming in so that I can take advantage of these catch up contributions. You need to make a couple thousand dollars more per year in order to get those dollars in. And so I want you to really accelerate your path at the last 10 years to retirement.

So uh, Say, for example, you're going to retire at age 60, I want you to be able to take advantage of these catch up contributions so you can just get those dollars in there and supercharge your retirement path. Really, really important stuff. Also, there's a lot of healthcare tools out there. Making sure that you're planning for healthcare is really, really important.

I want you to make sure you're doing that. Obviously get your employer match. That's the number one thing we talk about here is always no matter what, even before paying off high interest debt and credit card debt, I want you to get that employer match because it's a 100 percent rate of return. It is free money.

It is there for your future. You got to make sure you take advantage of that. And then lastly, let's optimize our contributions, making sure we make Automated contributions and not relying on our willpower. All of this has to be part of our automated system. You got to make sure you are automatically contributing money to your Roth IRA and investing it automatically.

So you don't have to lift a finger. I want you to spend less time worrying about your finances and saying, Hey, did I make sure that that got invested? And instead, what I want you to do is focus your time energy on earning more income so that you can take more dollars and continue to cycle automation.

Automated contributions. Is there to help you focus on the things that matter and what really, really matters is not you going into your checking account and transferring the money over to your Roth IRA and then investing those dollars into VOO or whatever else you invest in, in your Roth IRA. Instead you need to be spending your time and energy focusing on earning more and not having your brain.

So you want to take advantage of that. Don't get bogged up by some of these other tasks that need to be done. And so that's one really important thing. I want you to spend less time on your finances and more time on things that you love and earning more income. So those are some of the keys here, and those are ways to take advantage of these new contribution limits.

Now let's get into key changes for 2025 on that tax year. All right. So in 2025, there's going to be some key tax changes that I want you to know. And there's actually several important changes in the tax code that will affect you as a taxpayer. So understanding these updates are going to help you maximize your tax benefits.

It's going to help you avoid penalties, and it's going to help you plan for financial strategy. So really important to make sure you see some of these notable adjustments. And we'll give you some explanation on some of these as well. So first is the standard deduction. Now the standard deduction is very important to your tax situation for a lot of people who may not take a ton of deductions.

And if you don't know what that is, the standard deduction is a flat amount that reduces the amount of your income that is subject to federal tax. So every taxpayer out there in the U S can choose to either take the standard deduction or an itemized deduction, such as mortgage interest, charitable donations, those types of things.

But what you cannot do is you cannot take both. Okay, so most people, most Americans out there, they opt for the standard deduction because it's easier and often results in a larger tax break. So in a lot of situations, if you are a W 2 employee and you're looking at your itemized deductions, you're like, I don't even use a home office.

I don't give to charity yet. I got some charitable donations. Maybe you got a deduction for Daycare, maybe you have a deduction for a couple of other things and outside of that you don't really have much Going on well for those scenarios The standard deduction is going to be much higher for most people than would be an itemized deduction I personally do an itemized deduction and the reason why I do that is I have a bunch of people Businesses.

I have a lot of things going on at the same time. I have a ton of deductions in my personal finances, uh, that make a ton of sense for me to do the itemized deduction. Do I want to do that? No, because it's a lot harder to do that, but I save more on taxes because I itemize my deductions because I have so many businesses and so many things going on at the same time, my personal finances are a little more complicated than if you just went to your nine to five, came home and didn't have many other things to itemize and deduct.

And so, because of that, I use an itemized deduction, but most people should be using the standard deduction. Now, the standard deduction increases slightly for 2025 for single taxpayers and married individuals filing separately, it rises to 15, 000, which is a 400 increase. And for married couples filing jointly, it rises to 30, 000, which is an 800 increase.

And then heads of household will see their deduction increased to 22, 500, which is a 600 increase. Again, the standard deduction will reduce the amount of your income that is subject to tax and help lower your overall tax burden. So it's really important to know what this number is and make sure your CPA understands it as well.

Now, when you use like software, like TurboTax and all that stuff, the reason why it has you enter all of your deductions is trying to figure out, Hey, is it better for you to take the standard deduction or is it better for you to go ahead and just take an itemized deduction? A lot of times you're doing this and you don't even know it if you're using those softwares or your CPA is doing it for you and kind of calculating that for you.

But it's very good to know that. And so for couples married filing jointly, it is now 30, 000 and it's rising every single year. There's a great book on this, by the way. For most people who want to learn more about their tax situation, read the book called the power of zero. And in the mastermind newsletter, we talk about a book I'm reading every single week.

And the power of zero was in one of those past ones. I might reread it here shortly. Uh, when tax season comes up, cause we'll do some episodes on that and make sure you're subscribed. If you want to check out more ways to save on taxes, but, um, the power of zero is a wonderful book on how to reduce your taxable rate.

Next let's look at marginal tax rates. So you If you don't know already, the U. S. is on a marginal tax system. And what that means is that you're taxed at different rates based on specific income levels. And the easiest way to kind of show this or think about this is to use an example. So let's say, for example, you in 2025, you're a single filer and you're using a marginal tax bracket and you make 300, 000 per year.

The way that this would work is when you are looking at your marginal tax rate, 10 percent of your income up to 11, 925, which is somewhat of a spoiler alert is going to be taxed at 10%, 10 percent on income up to 11, 925. Then you're going to be taxed at 12 percent on income between 11, 926 and 48, 475.

Then you're going to be taxed at 22 percent on income between 48, 476 and 103, 000. 103, 350. Then you're going to be taxed at 24 percent on income between 103, 351 and 197, 300 is going to be taxed at 24%. And lastly, 32 percent on income between 197, 301. And 300, 000 and so because of that you take a total tax calculation of each of those different levels those five levels up to 300, 000 and your total tax for that year is going to be 73, 063 if you're a single person and you're filing that way.

So that's how marginal taxes work. And that's how a lot of people misunderstand taxes. If you're at the 32 percent tax bracket, you're not getting taxed on 32 percent of your income. That is not how it works. It's marginally taxed based on the different levels of your income. And then you have the effective tax rate.

So if you don't know what the effective tax rate is, you divide the total tax paid by your total income. So although someone who makes 300, 000 per year is in the 32 percent marginal tax bracket, their actual effective tax rate is much lower at about 24. 35%. It's important to know this. The reason why it's important to know this is you need to know what really you are paying in taxes.

So when your paycheck comes in and you're making 300 grand every single year, you know that 24. 35 percent of that is going to be going towards taxes, not the 32%. It's a marginal tax bracket system. And so you really need to know your effective tax rate, but also what marginal tax bracket you're in. So you know how to do the calculation.

Again, your CPA will do this calculation for you if you have one, but if you don't have one, it will, you know, if you use a software or something else, it will help you through this process. So the marginal tax rates for 2025, and I, you Say all of this to explain to you why it's important to know this. Now here's what they are for 2025.

For 2025, 37 percent for incomes over 626, 350 if you're single, and 751, 600 if you're married filing jointly. So here's why the wealthy and the rich don't like really high marginal tax rates. Because all of their income, if they make a ton of, let's say they make 5 million per year. Well, everything above 751, 600, if they're married, filing jointly is going to be taxed at that 37%.

And that's why it's the majority of their income. If you're really, really wealthy. Now, for someone out there who doesn't make that much, if you don't make 751, 600 as a household, then It doesn't matter as much for you in that specific situation, but because we have this progressive tax system, it's important to note how this works.

It is 35 percent for incomes over 250, 525 if you're single, or 501, 050 if you're married filing jointly. 32, 000 for incomes over 197, 300. So some of you are going to start to fall into these categories or 394, 600. Uh, if you are married filing jointly, 24 percent is the marginal tax rate for incomes over 103, 350, which is where a lot of people are going to fall and 206, 700.

If you're married filing jointly, and then below this is where pretty much most people listening are going to fall 22 percent for incomes over 48, 475 and 96, 950. If you're married filing jointly 12 percent for incomes over 11, 925. And if you're married filing jointly, it's going to be 23, 850. And then 10 percent for incomes, 11, 925 or less.

Now, those are some of the biggies that we just talked about here. We went through some of the retirement accounts. We went through the standard deduction and we went through marginal tax rates. Now, these next ones that we're going to be talking through are stuff that might apply to you. They may not.

And so I'll kind of run through some of these changes here. We've got another eight or so changes that are going to be taking place. So for 2025, there is the alternative minimum. Tax. And so for 2025, the alternative minimum tax exemption for unmarried individuals rises to 88, 100 up from 81, 300. So a big, big change here.

And the phase out for the exemption starts at 626, 000. And for married couples filing jointly, the exemption increases to 137, 000 with the phase out beginning at 1. 252 million. Now the alternative minimum tax is a parallel tax system that ensures high income earners who benefit from too many tax deductions still pay a minimum amount of tax.

And so it's essential if you are a high income earner to understand those numbers. Next, we have the earned income tax credit for 2025. The earned income tax credit for taxpayers with three or more children. This is a big for anybody who does have kids increases to 8, 046 up from 7, 830 in 2024. So this is an increase.

It is a valuable credit for low to moderate income working families and can significantly reduce the amount of tax owed and may even result in a refund. So a lot of you who have kids who get that refund, this is a big reason why is because the earned income tax credit if you have multiple kids.

There's the Qualified Transportation Fringe Benefit. For 2025, the monthly limit for the Qualified Transportation Fringe Benefit and Qualified Parking will rise to 325, up from 315. Now, these benefits allow employers to help employees cover commuting costs such as parking and transit on a tax free basis.

If you're eligible, Company does not do that. And you live in a city and if you have a lot of transportation costs, see if you can get that covered, at least those 325 per year, really helpful stuff. Flexible spending accounts. A lot of you have FSAs or flexible spending accounts. Uh, the maximum contribution for health FSAs rises to 3, 300 up from 3, 200.

So it rises to a hundred bucks and the carryover amount for unused contributions. Increases slightly to 660. So FSAs, you got to use them or you lose them, but there is a carryover amount that could carry over as 660. So if you don't know what an FSA is or a flexible spending account, it allows you to set aside pre tax dollars to pay for eligible medical expenses.

Now we have medical savings accounts. If you don't know what medical savings accounts, they are tax advantage accounts often used by individuals with high deductible health plans. And this is not to be confused with health savings accounts, which I like more, but medical savings accounts increases to 2, 850 for 2025, while the out of pocket maximum increases to 5, 700.

And then for family coverage, the deductible must be at least 5, 700. And the out of pocket maximum is going to increase to 10, 005. dollars, the foreign earned income exclusion. So the foreign earned income exclusion is an exclusion that allows us citizens and resident aliens living and working abroad to exclude a certain amount of their foreign earned income from ux taxation.

So if you are living overseas and I get a lot of questions for people over here, this is a great tax exclusion to look at. The foreign earned income exclusion rises to 130, 000. Big rise here in 2025 up from 126, 500 in 2024. So if you're an expat, make sure you look at the foreign earned income exclusion, the FBIE.

Estate tax exclusion for all my ballers out there. The estate tax exclusion is going to be changing for estates of a descendant who died during 2025. The basic exclusion amount increases to 13, 990, 000. I'm hoping every single person out there is going to care about this when they get to the end of their life because we're all going to be ballers out there when we learn how to manage our money and our finances and we are going to get Oh, and aren't we?

So everybody here listening, you're going to get to this point in time. The estate tax exclusion allows individuals to pass on a substantial amount of their estate without incurring estate taxes, which is very useful for estate planning, obviously. And for a lot of us, it is a very advanced tactic that we need to be utilizing.

Uh, as time goes on. Another one, annual gift tax exclusion. So the annual, Exclusion for gifts rises to 19, 000 in 2025. So it increases another 1, 000, which is great. And this matters a lot because the increase allows individuals to give more tax free each year without reducing their lifetime estate tax exemption.

So a lot of people start gifting away money so they don't have to pay so much in estate taxes. And it's something that you can do each and every year and get that exclusion. The adoption credit. The maximum adoption credit for special needs adoption rises to 17, 280 up from 16, 810. And so what this credit does is it helps offset high cost of adoption and encourages families to adopt children with special needs by offering a financial incentive.

So wish that number was even higher. I think that that is one that we can all get behind listening to this podcast. I am all for, you know, pretty much all their needs covered if we can get that done. So really good that it increased. I wish it increased more. So that is the last one that we have on this list.

Those are all the changes. If I did not list something on this list, it did not change. Um, and so those are all the changes that the IRS has released at this point in time. If you guys have any questions, please Please reach out to me. Uh, you can join the master money newsletter by going to master money.

com slash newsletter. And we answer your questions there. Uh, if you want to see any of these filings, I can send over the IRS links. Um, but the IRS releases these updates every single year. And if you go to irs. gov slash newsroom. That's where all these new releases will be and the notable changes for the tax year of 2025.

Again, thank you guys so much for listening and an amazing job on educating yourself on taxes and your specific tax situation. The more you know about your finances, the more you know about personal finance, the better you can help equip your friends, your family, And really, really important stuff. But most of all, you'll be able to build wealth and you are a wealth builder just by listening to this podcast.

So thank you guys so much for being here. Truly appreciate it and hope you have a great rest of your week and let's get after it this week.