How catch-up contributions work
You qualify for the whole year in which you turn 50, even if your birthday is December 31, because the test is your age at the end of the calendar year. From then on the extra room renews every year.
In a workplace plan such as a 401(k), a catch-up is legally an additional deferral above a limit. Once your regular deferrals reach the $24,500 limit for 2026, or a lower cap in your plan’s own rules, further deferrals up to the catch-up amount count as catch-up. The law also exempts them from the $72,000 total additions limit, so they raise what one employer’s plan can hold for you. Plans aren’t required to offer catch-ups, but one that does must generally let every eligible participant make the same election.
An IRA catch-up is simpler: it raises the combined traditional and Roth IRA limit from $7,500 to $8,600 for 2026. Its $1,100 is the first increase since SECURE 2.0 began indexing it. HSAs have their own version, $1,000 a year from age 55, which ends once you enroll in Medicare.
The age 60–63 super catch-up
SECURE 2.0 added a larger catch-up for the four years in which you turn 60, 61, 62 or 63, starting in 2025. The law set it at the greater of $10,000 or 150% of the 2024 regular catch-up of $7,500, which produced $11,250 for 2025, and it is indexed for inflation after 2025, though it stayed at $11,250 for 2026. SIMPLE plans get a parallel increase, to $5,250 for 2026. IRAs have no age 60–63 increase.
The window follows your age at the end of the year, so it opens on January 1 of the year you turn 60 and closes on December 31 of the year you turn 63. In the year you turn 64 you drop back to the regular $8,000. Someone born in 1966 turns 60 in 2026 and has the higher limit from 2026 through 2029.
Timing matters for anyone planning to stop work in their early 60s. Retire at 62 and you get at most three super catch-up years, and only if your cash flow can fund them. Over four full years, the extra $3,250 a year above the regular catch-up adds $13,000 of contributions before growth. Whether it is worth stretching for depends on the tax rate you save at and how long the money will stay invested.
The Roth catch-up rule for higher earners
Starting in 2026, SECURE 2.0 requires some workers to make catch-up contributions as Roth. The rule applies if your FICA wages from the employer sponsoring the plan exceeded $150,000 in the prior year, so for 2026 catch-ups it looks at 2025 wages. The statute set the threshold at $145,000 and indexes it, which produced the $150,000 figure. Only wages from that employer count, so a new hire with no wages there the year before isn’t covered in the first year.
For those workers, catch-up dollars go into the plan’s Roth 401(k) or other designated Roth account: no deduction now, tax-free qualified withdrawals later. If the plan has no Roth option, those workers can’t make catch-up contributions to it at all. The rule covers 401(k), 403(b) and governmental 457(b) plans; SIMPLE IRAs and SEP IRAs are exempt.
Final regulations generally apply from 2027. For 2026, plans may follow a reasonable, good-faith reading of the law, so the mechanics can differ from plan to plan. Your regular $24,500 can still be pre-tax. Losing the deduction on the catch-up costs today’s marginal rate on that money, but it also adds tax diversification and nothing to future required minimum distributions, since designated Roth accounts no longer have lifetime RMDs.
Special catch-ups in 403(b), 457(b), SIMPLE and HSA accounts
Some plans add catch-ups of their own. In a 403(b), an employee with at least 15 years of service at a public school system, hospital, home health service agency, health and welfare service agency or church can defer extra. The yearly amount is the least of $3,000; $15,000 minus what you have already used under this rule; or $5,000 times your years of service minus your earlier deferrals. Deferrals above the regular limit count toward this 15-year catch-up first and the age-50 catch-up second.
A 457(b) plan offers a special catch-up in the three years before the plan’s normal retirement age: up to twice the regular deferral limit, or less if you haven’t left enough unused room from earlier years. You can’t use it and the age-50 catch-up in the same year; the plan applies whichever allows more. The age-50 catch-up isn’t available at all in a 457(b) plan of a tax-exempt, non-governmental employer.
A SIMPLE IRA allows $4,000 at 50 or older for 2026, or $3,850 in plans using the higher $18,100 base limit. HSA catch-ups are personal: when both spouses are 55 or older, each adds $1,000, but only to an HSA in their own name, since HSAs can’t be held jointly.
Illustrative numbers
A 61-year-old high earner maxes out a 401(k) in 2026
- $24,500
- Regular 2026 elective deferral limit for a 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457(b) or TSP
- Catch-up
- $8,000 at ages 50–59 and 64 or older; $11,250 in the years you turn 60 through 63
If your 2025 FICA wages from the employer exceeded $150,000, the catch-up part must be made as Roth.
Age on December 31, 202661
Regular deferral limit, which can be pre-tax$24,500
Age 60–63 catch-up$11,250
Maximum employee deferral$35,750
2025 FICA wages from this employer$180,000, above $150,000
Extra 2026 federal tax because the catch-up must be Roth, at a 24% rate$2,700
The saver can defer $35,750, but the $11,250 catch-up has to go in as Roth, which adds $2,700 of federal tax for 2026 in exchange for tax-free qualified withdrawals later. Counting employer contributions, the plan can hold up to $83,250 for this saver this year. At 64 the catch-up falls back to $8,000.
At a glance
2026 catch-up amounts by account and age
| Account | Ages 50–59 and 64+ | Ages 60–63 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457(b), TSP | $8,000 | $11,250 | Must be Roth if prior-year FICA wages from the employer topped $150,000 |
| SIMPLE IRA | $4,000 | $5,250 | $3,850 at 50+ in plans on the higher $18,100 limit |
| Traditional and Roth IRA | $1,100 | $1,100 | Separate from any workplace catch-up |
| HSA | $1,000 from age 55 | $1,000 | Each spouse uses their own HSA; stops with Medicare |
| 403(b) 15-year service catch-up | Up to $3,000 | Up to $3,000 | $15,000 lifetime; used before the age-50 catch-up |
| 457(b) special catch-up | Up to $24,500 more | Up to $24,500 more | Last 3 years before normal retirement age; not with the age-50 catch-up |
Put it in your plan
Catch-up contributions in MoneyWhatIf
MoneyWhatIf’s contribution limits include catch-up ceilings by person and account kind, with the higher amount for ages 60 to 63, so the most one person can receive in a workplace plan rises from $72,000 under 50 to $80,000 from 50, $83,250 at 60–63, and $80,000 again at 64. HSA catch-ups stay with their owner, and new HSA contributions stop at 65, the model’s Medicare age. Strategy Lab can include contribution and catch-up changes among the moves it tests. The 2026 rule that sends some higher earners’ catch-ups to Roth is not modeled.
Common questions
Catch-up contributions FAQs
Do I have to max out my 401(k) before making catch-up contributions?
In effect, yes. In a 401(k), 403(b) or governmental 457(b), only what you defer beyond the regular $24,500 limit for 2026, or a lower cap in your plan’s rules, counts as catch-up, up to $8,000, or $11,250 in the years you turn 60 through 63. You can start in January of the year you turn 50. An IRA has no such step; its limit simply rises to $8,600.
Do catch-up contributions count toward the $72,000 limit?
No. The law that creates catch-up contributions exempts them from the section 415(c) annual additions limit, which is $72,000 for 2026. That is why the most a worker aged 50–59 or 64 and older can receive in one employer’s plan is $80,000, and $83,250 in the years they turn 60 through 63, counting employee, employer and after-tax contributions.
What if my plan doesn’t offer a Roth option?
If your prior-year FICA wages from the employer exceeded $150,000, you can’t make catch-up contributions to that plan unless it adds a Roth feature, because the law allows your catch-ups only as designated Roth contributions. You can still make the $1,100 IRA catch-up, which the rule doesn’t touch, and your regular $24,500 of deferrals is unaffected.
Can I make catch-up contributions to both a 401(k) and an IRA?
Yes. The IRA catch-up is separate from workplace catch-ups. At 50 or older in 2026 you could defer $32,500 to a 401(k) and contribute $8,600 to IRAs, or defer $35,750 in the years you turn 60 through 63. MAGI still decides whether the IRA money can go into a Roth IRA or be deducted.
Can I make catch-up contributions to two 401(k) plans?
Not twice. The age-50 catch-up raises your one personal deferral limit, so for 2026 your total across all 401(k) and 403(b) plans is $32,500, or $35,750 in the years you turn 60 through 63, even at unrelated employers. That holds even if one plan doesn’t offer catch-ups, as long as no plan gets more than its own cap. A governmental 457(b) has a separate limit and catch-up.
Are catch-up contributions worth making?
They matter most when your 50s bring spare cash flow and a high tax rate to deduct against, or when you want more Roth money before retiring. An extra $8,000 a year for ten years adds $80,000 of contributions before growth. The trade-offs are less cash today and, for pre-tax catch-ups, larger balances that will be taxed and subject to RMDs later.