Not sure if it was stated clearly enough, but there's two kinds of Traditional IRA contribtions: deductible, and non-deductible. You stumbled into the correct contribution: at high income, you can only use after-tax dollars. Most people call this a "non-deductible IRA", and it means the money you put it is not taxed later (it becomes your cost basis, and you subtract the cost basis when figuring taxes on gains).