A cash balance pension plan paired with a 401(k) lets high-earning business owners over $20,000 a month contribute two to three times more to retirement than a standard 401(k) allows, without raising contributions for lower-paid staff.
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Our company 401(k) plans discriminate against us, the older, higher-salaried business owner earning more than $20,000 a month but with fewer years to save for retirement. We need to contribute a much higher percentage of our earnings into a tax-deductible retirement account, and we can certainly afford to do it, but we are limited to contributing much less of our earned income than our younger, lower-paid employees. But now we can double or even triple our personal 401(k) contributions and make disproportionately higher tax-deductible contributions into our own accounts without contributing an equal percentage for our younger, lower-paid employees. How? By simply adding a cash balance pension plan to our company 401(k) with profit sharing provisions. For example, the maximum contribution we can currently make into our 401(k) plan is no more than $24,000 a year.