Will our plan work for 2016?

[MrD]

Just wanted to run this plan by you guys first to see if anyone has done anything similar.

My income for 2016: 90k
Wife's income for 2016: 57k

Total 147k. Our goal is to be able to the full deduction for Traditional IRAs which limits us to a MAGI of 98k.

Plan is to both max out 401ks, 36k. Then max out both Traditional IRAs, 11k. We unfortunately did not max out our HSA it will be at at about 1.5k. This would bring out MAGI down to 98.5k so we wouldn't get a full deduction on the Traditional IRA. There is also a chance our incomes may be higher due to bonuses etc.

Should we just forget the Traditional and go with ROTH? What do you guys think?

[Cheddar Stacker]

The T.IRA contributions don't reduce your MAGI for the purpose of calculating deductibility of the T.IRA.

Max the HSA if possible, because that will reduce it.

Tax advantage of any pre-tax deductions you can get. Do you pay health insurance premiums, or dental, or childcare costs through a cafeteria plan? Can you get a $3,000 capital loss with investment holdings?

[MrD]

The T.IRA contributions don't reduce your MAGI for the purpose of calculating deductibility of the T.IRA.

Max the HSA if possible, because that will reduce it.

Tax advantage of any pre-tax deductions you can get. Do you pay health insurance premiums, or dental, or childcare costs through a cafeteria plan? Can you get a $3,000 capital loss with investment holdings?

We don't. So we will certainly be over the limit without the 11,000 for the T IRAs. So looks like we will just go with ROTHs.

[Cheddar Stacker]

The T.IRA contributions don't reduce your MAGI for the purpose of calculating deductibility of the T.IRA.

Max the HSA if possible, because that will reduce it.

Tax Take advantage of any pre-tax deductions you can get. Do you pay health insurance premiums, or dental, or childcare costs through a cafeteria plan? Can you get a $3,000 capital loss with investment holdings?

We don't. So we will certainly be over the limit without the 11,000 for the T IRAs. So looks like we will just go with ROTHs.

Sorry, that was supposed to be take but you likely figured that out.

Plan to do Roth, or just plug the post-tax brokerage account. But if circumstances change adjust accordingly. If you make the Roth contributions during 2016 you can always re-characterize them to Traditional later if you find another path to stay under the 98K limit.