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A guide to solo 401(k)s for self-employed individuals Sep 16, 2025 2:28:24 PM If you're self-employed, here are five reasons why a solo 401(k) might just be one of the best ways to supercharge your retirement savings. If you work as a freelancer, solo-consultant, or individual small business owner, you’ve likely wondered: How should I save for retirement? Wonder no more, here’s your answer… Meet the solo 401(k): Solo 401(k)s are often overlooked in the world of retirement accounts, but they can be an effective way for self-employed individuals to save. Solo 401(k)s offer flexibility, high contribution limits, and tax benefits. What is a solo 401(k)? A solo 401(k) is essentially a 401(k) plan for self-employed individuals or business owners who don’t have full-time employees beyond themselves (and possibly their spouse). It works similarly to a regular 401(k)—with employee and employer contribution options—but is designed specifically for those without other full-time employees. It offers more flexibility than options like SEP IRAs (which only allow employer contributions) or SIMPLE IRAs (with lower contribution limits). Many people mistakenly think solo 401(k)s are complicated or only for high earners, but the truth is that they’re pretty straightforward, and they’re great for self-employed individuals of all income levels. Top 5 benefits of solo 401(k)s for self-employed individuals Benefit 1: Solo 401(k)s are tailored for entrepreneurs like you If you're a sole proprietor, freelancer, or gig worker, you know how challenging it can be to balance inconsistent income with long-term financial goals. A solo 401(k) lets you ramp up your contributions in profitable years and scale back if your income takes a dip. You can also contribute as both the employee and the employer, giving you more ways to save. Another big perk is the ability to make contributions for your spouse. If they’re also working with you, they can contribute to the solo 401(k) with earnings from your business, potentially doubling your retirement savings. This may also help reduce your household’s taxable income if you’re making pre-tax contributions. Benefit 2: High contribution limits One of the standout features of a solo 401(k) is the ability to make both employee and employer contributions: Employee contribution: In 2025, you can contribute up to $23,500 as an employee. And if you're over 50, there’s an additional benefit: You can make "catch-up" contributions of up to $7,500 for ages 50-59 and over age 64, and “super-catch-up” contributions of up to $11,250 for ages 60-63. Employer contribution: As the business owner, you can contribute up to 25% of your net self-employment income (20% for sole proprietors and partnerships). In total, you can contribute $70,000 (not including catch-up contributions) to your solo 401(k) in 2025. This means more room for tax-deferred growth and larger savings overall. Benefit 3: Tax advantages Solo 401(k)s offer some excellent tax benefits that can help reduce your tax burden today while saving for retirement. Pre-tax contributions: If you want to lower your taxable income now, you can contribute pre-tax dollars to your traditional solo 401(k). This helps to reduce your current tax bill, which is especially helpful in high-income years. Roth contributions: Many solo 401(k) plans also allow you to make Roth contributions. This means you pay taxes on the money now, but qualified withdrawals in retirement are tax-free. Offering both pre-tax and Roth options gives you flexibility in managing both your current and future tax situations. SECURE 2.0 tax credit: Betterment includes an Automatic Contribution Arrangement of three percent per pay period, allowing new plans to claim a $500 tax credit per year for three years. Benefit 4: No income limits for Roth contributions Unlike Roth IRAs, solo 401(k)s don’t have income limits for making Roth contributions. If your income is too high to qualify for a Roth IRA, you can still contribute to a Roth solo 401(k) and enjoy tax-free growth. Benefit 5: Prior year contributions for new plans Thanks to the SECURE Act 2.0, solo 401(k) plans now come with a neat little trick: You can set up a solo 401(k) after the new year and still contribute for the previous year. For example, if you set up a solo 401(k) in March 2025, you can still make 2024 contributions until your tax filing deadline (April 15, or October 15 with an extension). This gives you a chance to catch up on retirement savings that may have slipped through the cracks. Getting started: Choosing a solo 401(k) provider When it comes to setting up your solo 401(k), you’ll want to choose a provider that makes things simple. Look for one that offers transparent fees, easy-to-use digital tools, and a solid track record of compliance and recordkeeping. Additionally, you may want to consider solo 401(k) providers that offer a range of financial services like cash accounts or investing services, that way you can consolidate your financial life onto one platform. Meet the Betterment solo 401(k) Betterment’s solo 401(k) is a low-cost investment option designed for the self-employed. Here’s what you get with Betterment’s solo 401(k): 100% digital setup. No paperwork or mailing checks. Open and manage your account entirely online. Unique flexibility. You have the option to open a traditional or Roth solo 401(k), and your spouse can contribute, too. Expert-built portfolios. Choose from our selection of low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to help you build wealth over the long term. $1,500 tax credit. Plans include automatic contribution arrangements and potentially qualify for a tax credit of up to $500 per year for three years. Higher contribution limits. You can contribute $70,000 (plus up to $11,250 more in catch-up contributions depending on your age) with a solo 401(k).

Solo 401(k)s vs. SEP IRAs: Sizing up your saving options while self-employed Sep 5, 2025 7:00:00 AM Both retirement accounts offer high contribution limits, but which one is right for you? If you’re self-employed, you likely wear several ill-fitting hats: accountant, admin, HR rep. And that last one is low-key important, because it means no one is setting up a retirement plan for you. So what's a gig worker, small business owner, or solo practitioner to do? There’s the trusty IRA, of course. But its tax benefits phase out at certain income levels, and its $7,000 annual contribution limit fills up fast. You may want—or need—to save more to realize your retirement goal. Luckily, two lesser-known retirement accounts offer self-employed workers 10x more capacity for tax-advantaged investing: the solo 401(k) and the SEP IRA. They’re similar in that sense (high contribution limits), but they also differ in some important ways. We’ve found that for many self-employed workers, choosing between the two often hinges on their hiring or lack thereof: 👉 No employees beyond a spouse, and no plans to hire? Consider a solo if you prioritize Roth access and a slight edge in contribution limits. Consider a SEP if you prioritize less administrative work. 👉 See yourself hiring a few employees in the not-so-distant future? Consider starting with a solo 401(k), then transitioning to a group 401(k) plan if you prioritize Roth access and more flexibility in how you structure employee contributions. Consider a SEP for slightly easier admin, and the ability to pause contributions to your employees’ SEPs during down years. 👉 Planning to expand beyond 5-10 employees at some point? Consider the solo-to-group 401(k) move for more flexibility in how you structure employee contributions. You can max out your own retirement savings, for example, while letting employees decide their own contribution rates. That’s the TL;DR version. For a deeper dive, let’s compare the two accounts across a few categories: High contribution limits Easy admin Roth access Small business growth High contribution limits Both accounts let you save plenty for retirement—upwards of $70,000 a year—but solos give you a couple of ways to stretch that even further: Case #1: You’re playing catch-up If you're age 50 or older and catching up on your retirement savings, a solo 401(k) offers additional “catch-up” contributions of $7,500 each year, or $11,250 for those 60-63. Note that starting in 2026, any catch-up contributions must go into a Roth solo specifically (more on those below) if you received more than $145,000 in FICA wages (salaries, commissions, etc.) the prior year from your solo’s sponsoring company. Case #2: You’re a middle class super saver Say you earn less than $280,000, but you save well above the standard advice of 10-15% for retirement. In this scenario, you may run up against the SEP’s 25% compensation cap before you reach its overall $70,000 limit. But with solos, you can contribute as both an employer (up to 25% of compensation) and an employee (up to $23,500) until you hit the overall limit. ⚖️ Advantage: solo 401(k) Easy admin Both a solo 401(k) and SEP IRA, assuming they’re streamlined digital offerings such as ours, are simple to set up. You can open a Betterment SEP entirely online, while a Betterment solo requires a quick call with our Licensed Concierge team to get the ball rolling. Each account type is relatively low maintenance as well. Neither a SEP nor a solo require annual paperwork, with the one exception being for solo 401(k) balances that exceed $250,000. In that case, the IRS requires solo owners (aka “sponsors”) to file Form 5500-EZ. While we’re not a tax advisor, and always recommend working with one, the form is relatively straightforward to fill out. ⚖️ Advantage: SEP IRA Roth access Solos and SEPs are designed for retirement, so the IRS gives special tax treatment to both account types. But in practice, solos give you not one but two different flavors of tax treatment to choose from: You can contribute with pre-tax dollars via a traditional solo 401(k), lowering your taxes now and freeing up more money to invest. You also have the ability to contribute with after-tax dollars via a Roth solo 401(k), enjoying tax-free withdrawals in retirement. And Roth solo 401(k)s come with two added bonuses: Unlike traditional retirement accounts, they’re not subject to Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) in retirement. Unlike Roth IRAs, they come with no income limits of any kind. Roth SEP IRAs, meanwhile, have technically been allowed by the IRS since 2023, but few providers have rolled them out yet. ⚖️ Advantage: Solo 401(k) Small business growth At some point in your self-employed journey, you may bring on hired help. In this case, it’s possible to transition both account types to accommodate employees. Some SEP providers let you shift from a solo practitioner to an employer who contributes to employees’ SEP IRAs on their behalf. But there’s a catch: you must contribute the same amount to their SEPs as you do your own, which may prove challenging depending on your business. With solo 401(k)s, on the other hand, you can include a spouse from the get-go, provided they’re an employee or co-owner of the business. And if you see the potential for expanding beyond a handful of employees down the road, it may make sense to simply transition your solo 401(k) to a group 401(k) plan and enjoy more flexibility in how you structure contributions for your team. Our support team handles moves like this often and can help you when the time comes. ⚖️ Advantage: Solo 401(k) So which account is right for you? The good news is both SEP IRAs and solo 401(k)s offer excellent tax advantages that can help you reach retirement quicker. We offer both at Betterment, and make it easy to open either one. Because when you’re self-employed, you’re busy running your business. Optimizing your retirement savings? Leave that to us for one less hat in your wardrobe.

The pitfalls of comparing portfolio returns Sep 2, 2025 1:30:06 PM How to take stock of your stocks (and bonds)—here, there, everywhere. Investing can feel like a leap of faith. You pick a portfolio. You deposit money. Then, you wait. Trouble is, it takes a while for compound growth to do its thing. Using the Rule of 72 and historical stock returns, it takes roughly a decade for every dollar invested to double. That’s a lot of time for second-guessing. You may peek at your portfolio returns and wonder, “Could I be doing better?” Don’t worry; it’s normal to question whether we’re making the right choices with our money. But comparing different portfolios can be tricky. Variables abound. There’s the composition of the portfolios themselves, but also their fees and tax treatments. So whether you’re sizing us up with rival money managers, or with the stock indexes you see most often in the news, we’re here to help you level set. The ABCs of apples-to-apples comparisons Let’s start with a statistic we’re quite proud of: Since launching in 2011, our 90% stock Core Portfolio has delivered over 9.0% returns*. Those are the returns of real Betterment customers, minus fees, and taking the timing of deposits and withdrawals out of the equation. This helps focus more on the performance of the portfolio itself. *As of 12/31/2024, and inception date 9/7/2011. Composite annual time-weighted returns: 12.7% over 1 year, 7.9% over 5 years, and 7.8% over 10 years. Composite performance calculated based on the dollar-weighted average of actual client time-weighted returns for the Core portfolio at 90/10 allocation, net of fees, includes dividend reinvestment, and excludes the impact of cash flows. Past performance not guaranteed, investing involves risk. So, is 9.0% good? Well, it depends on the comparison. Stock indexes like the S&P 500 and Dow Jones dominate the news, but they’re hardly comprehensive. For one, they exclude bonds, a lower-yield staple of many portfolios. There’s a reason why regardless of the portfolio, we recommend holding at least some bonds. They help temper market volatility and preserve precious capital. Secondly, popular indexes also largely ignore international markets. The S&P, for example, typically represents less than half the value of all investable stocks in the world. Our globally-diversified portfolios, meanwhile, spread things out in service of a smoother investing journey. We're built for the long run, and history has shown that American and International assets take turns outperforming each other every 10-15 years. So the modest amount of international exposure in many of our portfolios means this: you're in a better position to profit when the pendulum swings the other way. Now, taking all of this to heart isn't easy. Not when the S&P returns 20% in a given year. At moments like these, it’s perfectly normal to feel FOMO when looking at the returns of your globally-hedged investing. To keep the faith, it helps to keep the right benchmark(s) in mind. Not all diversification is created equal We’re not alone in offering globally-diversified portfolios. But two portfolios, even with similar stock-to-bond ratios, can take very different paths to the same end goal. Tax optimization, market timing, and fund fees can all impact your investing’s bottom line as well. Some investors compare providers by investing a little with each, waiting a few months, then comparing the balances. This sort of trialing, however, may not tell you much. When it comes to our portfolios, you can find better comparisons in two particular ETFs that seek to track a wide swath of the market: ACWI for stocks and AGG for bonds. See how your Betterment portfolio stacks up against them in the Performance section for any goal or account. Simply scroll down to “Portfolio returns,” click “Add comparison,” and pick from the available allocations of stocks and bonds. We show your “Total return” by default at Betterment, otherwise known as the portfolio’s total growth for a given time period. You can also see this expressed as an “Annualized” return, or the yearly growth rate you often see advertised with other investments. Putting your performance in perspective Comparison may be the thief of joy, but it’s okay, prudent even, to evaluate your investing returns on occasion. Once or twice a year is plenty. The key is to steer clear of common pitfalls along the way. Like comparing your globally-diversified apple to someone else’s all-U.S. orange. Or cherry-picking a small sample size instead of a longer, more-reliable track record. It’s easier said than done. That’s why we bake more relevant comparisons right into the Betterment app. It’s also why we produce content like this. Because if there’s a silver lining to the slow snowballing of compound growth, it’s that you have plenty of time to brush up on the basics.

A big bill, ballooning debt, and a weakening U.S. dollar Aug 20, 2025 5:00:00 AM The “Big Beautiful Bill” could take our national debt to unseen levels. Will international markets reap the rewards? In early July, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), and while its full impact won’t be felt for some time, two key aspects of it seem at odds. The first is that it permanently extends certain provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, including lower individual tax rates and higher standard deductions. The similar corporate and individual income boosting nature of the OBBBA has likely played some part in the rally in stocks since April. Yet as much as markets eat this type of legislation up, it comes with a strong risk of heartburn. That’s because the second major takeaway from the bill is that it’s forecasted to add around $4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years. The chart below shows the national debt as a share of U.S. GDP, and the dashed orange line shows the estimated trajectory after the passage of the OBBBA. It’s projected to grow to levels unlike anything we’ve seen before, including World War II. So what does all this mean for markets? Burgeoning debt means a larger supply of Treasury bonds that the Federal government uses to borrow. This may in turn cause interest rates to rise in the long term as bond investors with creeping doubts about our country’s fiscal situation demand a lower price and a higher yield for its debt. There are also estimates that the bill may be a drag on economic growth as bigger deficits and government borrowing start to crowd out private investment. We may not fully know the outcomes of tariffs and the OBBBA for some time, but one place we’re seeing policy changes already is in demand for the U.S. dollar. Since January, we've seen a significant weakening in the dollar relative to other major currencies as the trade war and fiscal outlook have shaken confidence in U.S. markets. The dollar is down almost 10% over the last six months, the largest decline in such a span in over 30 years. A weaker dollar has the effect of making imports in the U.S. more expensive for consumers, but it also makes international investments worth more, as the values of companies overseas have gone up in dollar terms just by virtue of their local currencies strengthening relative to the dollar. This currency dynamic has contributed to the strong returns of our globally-diversified portfolios in 2025. The first half of the year offers a case study in the benefits of being globally-diversified, which smooths out volatility as various parts of the world take turns outperforming each other. It may not make the news headlines any less scary, but it can benefit your investing’s bottom line.

Your Betterment experience has just undergone a major upgrade Aug 18, 2025 9:57:03 AM A better way to manage your money is here. Your Betterment experience has just undergone a major upgrade, built around one idea: making managing your money more flexible and intuitive. We’ve redesigned how your accounts and goals work together, so you can organize your money the way that makes the most sense for you. What changed—and why? We’ve always believed in goal-based investing. It’s what sets Betterment apart. But in the past, each goal in Betterment was tied to a single account. That worked when needs were simpler. But you asked for more flexibility to reflect your financial life, and we’ve delivered. Now, by separating account data from goal advice, we’ve created space for more personalized guidance, clearer navigation, and more flexibility for you and your money. What you’ll see that’s new today: A cleaner design: A modern look that surfaces what matters most—no more digging through tabs. A dedicated page for each goal: Get personalized advice, projections, and next steps, all in one place. A streamlined overview of single accounts: See balances, holdings, and performance clearly, while being able to click through directly to access account details. A dedicated goal forecaster: Get insights in one place to see how actions may affect future earnings. And as a BONUS: Your Activity Page got an upgrade 🔄 Enjoy a clearer window into trades, transfers, and transactions. And we’re just getting started. We’re already building the next phase of features to make your Betterment experience more powerful and flexible. Multiple accounts in one goal: Get combined advice across different account types and tax treatments. Smarter, goal-specific advice: We’ll help you optimize every dollar for what you care about most.
 Shared goals: Soon, you’ll be able to co-own a goal with another Betterment user.
 More tailored investing guidance: Tell us your goal, and we’ll recommend the best path to get there. A faster, more user-friendly Betterment experience. To better fit your financial needs, we’ve separated account data from goal-based advice to give you more control and a better sense of ownership over your account. Whether you're planning for retirement, building an emergency fund, or simply growing your wealth through automated investing, Betterment is now better built for how you’ll manage your money. Smarter tools, personalized advice, and goal-based investing—all working together for you.

Inside the investing kitchen, part 3 Aug 15, 2025 12:00:00 PM Order up! See how we handle thousands of trades each day to keep customers’ portfolios humming. When a chef plates a meal, they typically send it off, never to be seen again. But serving up an investing portfolio is an ongoing affair. Deposits come in. Withdrawals go out. Asset classes grow and shrink as the market moves. Rebalancing takes place on the regular. All of this requires daily trading. And this buying and selling of securities is among the most intricate and highly-regulated pieces of our operations. So while the first two parts of this series cover the recipes and ingredients behind our investing, our final course focuses on the team—and tech—behind every transaction. What happens when you hit "deposit" Cara Daly is an adventurer at heart. An avid surfer and the daughter of a flight attendant, she racks up air miles chasing waves and visiting family in Ireland. So naturally, she's gravitated toward one of the more thrill-seeking roles on our Investing team: Capital Markets. From the minute markets open each day, Cara and team monitor the action, making sure our customers' orders go smoothly. These trades can amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in a single day, and the system that executes them all is in many ways our secret sauce. It's custom-built (a rarity in the industry) and plays the role of Mission Control. When a customer clicks "deposit," for example, that single click gets translated into a series of purchases. These in turn get bundled up with other purchases of a like-kind and turned into orders, which are then executed at calibrated intervals as a part of our managed trading strategy. This sort of intentional trading is incredibly important because of the scale of our operations. We manage more than $56 billion of assets, making us the largest independent robo-advisor out there. We may not "make" markets, but our trading volume is big enough to potentially influence them. So we need to be mindful of how and when our trades get executed. “Say the market trades $10 million of a hypothetical security on any given day,” Cara says. “If our customers happen to want $20 million of it, meeting all that demand without minding the bigger context could drive up the price.” To navigate these executional challenges, we deploy multiple strategies as needed (see below for a few examples), evaluating and calibrating each on a continuous basis. Taken altogether, they help ensure our customers' purchases and sales get treated fairly in the market. Waiting out the first half hour after markets open before starting our trading. This helps sidestep some of the volatility that's common early in the day. Trading periodically throughout the day, and randomizing when customers’ orders are processed. It's possible that prices can loosely correlate with certain times of the day, so we don't want that to consistently affect any one customer. Briefly holding back on “system-generated” trading (proactive rebalancing, for example) for any particular fund if its trading reaches a certain threshold relative to its average daily volume. This helps make sure “user-directed” trading (when customers make deposits or withdrawals, to name a few examples) can continue regardless. Partnering with industry experts like Apex to route and execute orders across multiple firms, helping us stay at the forefront of the evolving market landscape. This access to different execution venues also helps seek out the most favorable terms for customers—whether that’s price, speed, or overall execution quality. Switching gears from execution to tax optimization, we also use both primary and secondary funds for most of our asset classes. These backup “tickers” come into play during times of heightened volatility in markets. Moments that can make or break an investing strategy. Acing the stress test of market volatility More often than not, it's business as usual on our Capital Markets team, and that's by design. But during stretches of extreme volatility, when trading volume really picks up and prices can swing wildly from hour to hour, it's all hands on deck. Cara and company monitor our trading system for signs that additional oversight may be needed. They ease emerging bottlenecks in real time and keep things running smoothly, at times enlisting the support of our Trading Engineering team. Cara Daly (left) helps make sure customers’ daily trading goes smoothly. Take April of 2025 for example. Early in the month, the Trump administration caught investors off guard by announcing a series of tariffs way higher and way earlier than expected. The announcement, and the inconsistent messaging that followed, set off a wild, weeks-long stretch of trading. Prices of some securities cratered in the morning only to recover by day's end. Our systems not only weathered this storm, but capitalized on it, taking advantage of small windows of time to harvest tens of millions of dollars in temporary losses for customers before prices recovered. This strategy of tax loss harvesting helps sprinkle tax advantages on a portion of customers' taxable investing, and it wouldn’t be possible without the help of those aforementioned secondary tickers. These funds help reduce “wash sales” while maintaining customers’ desired exposures and risk levels. Something delicious is simmering The image of a golden harvest is an apt one, considering this series looks at our Investing team's work through a culinary lens. Many of our customers come to us not necessarily for a single serving of returns, but to plant the seeds for self-sustaining, long-term wealth. A harvest that supports a more-fulfilling life. Cara and the rest of our Capital Markets experts are a big part of that lifecycle, tending to thousands of daily trades that optimize our customers’ portfolios over and over again. That's the beauty of using technology as a tool to expand our own capabilities and deliver results at scale. It's a people-led process. We became a trusted leader in automated money management not because of our tech, but because of the people who build and use it each day. Specialists like Cara, Josh, and Jamie—They're our secret ingredient, working in service of customers hungry for a better way to invest. Bon appétit.