401K Alternative needed

[2Optimists]

So, I have a great new job (Yea!) and am back to making proper amounts of money (Double Yea!!), but the new position has no retirement benefits (Rats!). While the new job is a W2, I do have some earned 1099 income this year, but likely not much next year. I already max my Roth and am looking for non-taxable places to stash. If not, it can just go to live in the taxable account, but I want to be sure I’m not missing something. Any thoughts? Thanks!

[rmendpara]

You can put a few thousand into a HSA. Whole life insurance to a (much) lesser extent.

Outside of that, you're kind of stuck... so long as you don't have access to any public employee benefit programs like 403, 457, etc.

Any other ideas? I'm sure others may have some ideas.

[kkbmustang]

All of the options for a retirement plan are listed here:

http://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Choosing-a-Retirement-Plan:-Retirement-Plan-Options

Depending on how big your employer is, you might be able to lobby for one of the smaller retirement plan options (that allow deferrals only).

Otherwise, you can utilize other tax advantaged benefits arrangements, such as pre-tax parking, HSA, dependent care reimbursements, medical care reimbursement arrangement (under Internal Revenue Code section 125 and not the same as an HSA).

If none of those work, you can try to generate enough 1099 work in future years to fund an IRA. It's not hard to do (i.e., house sitting, dog sitting, tutoring, etc.). If you can generate self-employment income, you can sponsor your own retirement plan and sock away larger amounts. But, that's a lot of work outside of your regular day job.