First time Roth IRA Contribution ?

[jscott2135]

 This is all still new to me so forgive me if this is a goofy question.  We have never contributed to a Roth IRA before, but would like to next year.  It looks like there are income limits and if we decided to max out a Roth IRA next year would we be basing that on our MAGI for 2017 or our projected MAGI for 2018?

Our AGI for 2016 was 246k
I project 2017 it will be more like 160k and 207k for 2018.

[bacchi]

A contribution can be made through the tax filing deadline. That is, through ~4/15/2018 a contribution can be made for tax year 2017 based on the 2017 MAGI.

It doesn't look like you qualify for a contribution for tax year 2018 based on your 2018 MAGI.

[talltexan]

As high as your income is, you may benefit from emphasizing the 401K over the Roth. Paying taxes later when you have that type of income could be better.

[Beach_Stache]

Are you contributing anything to your 401k's right now?  DW and I have a combined salary of around $220k/year or so, but we max out 401k's ($36k), flex spending and some other tax write offs (kids, house, etc.) and I believe that puts our AGI down to like $153k/year so we've both been able to max out 401k's as well as Roth IRA's, so you may want to check that out, as that may be enough (with your other write offs) to get you below the limit.  For a few years early on I had to wait until I did my taxes to see if I could contribute, so in Mar 2013 I would check and if AGI was below the threshold I would max Roth IRA for the 2012 year since it was before the tax deadline.  The last few years I've maxed just b/c I know we're pretty well under those limits. 

[MDM]

See Backdoor Roth IRA - Bogleheads for one option.

[jscott2135]

Are you contributing anything to your 401k's right now?  DW and I have a combined salary of around $220k/year or so, but we max out 401k's ($36k), flex spending and some other tax write offs (kids, house, etc.) and I believe that puts our AGI down to like $153k/year so we've both been able to max out 401k's as well as Roth IRA's, so you may want to check that out, as that may be enough (with your other write offs) to get you below the limit.  For a few years early on I had to wait until I did my taxes to see if I could contribute, so in Mar 2013 I would check and if AGI was below the threshold I would max Roth IRA for the 2012 year since it was before the tax deadline.  The last few years I've maxed just b/c I know we're pretty well under those limits.

I don't work, so no I am not contributing to a 401k :/ We will max hubby's out next year as well as flex spending.  His base salary is 160k with about 40k bonus and we would likely be ok thus far but will need to exercise about 25k in stock options as well (for a looming surgery coming up). I will definitely use every option at my disposal to make it work. I'm just now starting the journey to understand that I can actually have an impact on that.