For self employed, it is even better. You can put up to 54,000 for 2017 [0]. If you are self employed and can afford to do this, do it. It usually splits in 2 p

For self employed, it is even better. You can put up to 54,000 for 2017 [0]. If you are self employed and can afford to do this, do it. It usually splits in 2 parts: - Employee portion: $18,000 that you can put as an employee. - Employer portion: Up to 25% of W-2 wages. The total of the 2 above cannot exceed 54K for 2017. One more thing, you can make contributions for employer portion until the calendar year end which is March. So even for 2016, you can still make the employer portion if you were enrolled in a self employed 401K. Another thing is that the employer portion can be shown as an expense of your business as well. If you use Fidelity or Vanguard, stick most of it in an index fund and you have the S&P 500 returns by doing nothing. I highly recommend any self employed to read this IRS publication. [0] https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/one-participant-401k-plans https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/one-participant-401k-pl...