My wife and I have been socking money away as quickly as possible, but have already maxed out our 401k/403b, my wife's HSA (I'm not eligible), and her 457 and also both have Roths that we started years ago. We essentially live on my income (after taxes). It's above what Mr. Money Mustache spends a year, but mostly because we still have a mortgage and NYS property taxes. We try to put as much of hers in tax-deferred as possible.
Looking at our tax strategy going forward, it makes sense to try to minimize our taxes now, rather than worry about our tax rate in the future. This is particularly true if any version of the current tax cuts go into place. Rather than itemize, we'll probably be using the standard deduction.
So it gets complicated.
1. We'd like to contribute to a traditional IRA to save taxation on current income. It looks like the maximum income for eligibility is $98k a year for married filing jointly. It might be difficult to get under that since we're dual income. If we don't file jointly, I'd be able to meet the guidelines as a single filer after my contributions to the 401k/403b. She wouldn't, because she makes twice as much as me :-).
2. We can still contribute to the Roths, because we're under the $198k limit, but would rather reduce our taxes now.
So is there any way to have us both contribute, or is there any other way to put away more tax-reducing/tax deferred options I'm not thinking of?