Summary
You no longer qualify for your ex-company's employer-sponsored retirement plan, but you know you need to keep making contributions to a plan. Quick, what do you do? Read below to find out.
Introduction
When you think of a retirement plan, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? For me, it’s “401(K).” That’s probably because it’s one of the most popular options, with $9.3 trillion held within it (Investment Company Institute). Unfortunately, the 401(K) is not available to everyone, and even if it is, it still might not be the best option for creatives.
So, besides the 401(K), you might have thought of the Traditional IRA or Roth IRA, both fine options, but what you might’ve missed is the Solo 401(K), SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, and Defined Benefit Plans. Well, these are the plans we will look at today. So let’s jump right into the 5 best retirement plan options for Instagram creators, YouTubers, web developers, and other creatives.
Plan 1: Solo 401(k)
There’s not much of a difference between the Solo and regular 401(K), but one funny thing is that with the Solo 401(K), you act as both the employer and the employee. I think that’s funny, especially for solopreneurs, because it’s almost like they’re pretending to contribute on behalf of the business, even though it’s their money anyway. Here’s what this ends up looking like:
Regular 401(k)
- Employee contribution: up to $24,500
- Employer contributions: separate profit sharing/ matching contributions
- Total combined limit: up to $72,000 before any catch ups
Solo 401(k)
- Employee contribution: up to $24,500
- Employer contribution: up to 25% of net self‑employment income (for a sole proprietor)
- Total combined limit: up to $72,000 before any catch ups
In theory, these are both capped at $72,000 in 2026, but realistically, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get near that with the employer-sponsored 401(K) because that would mean they contribute $47,500 on our behalf.
Who’s this best for?
You’re going to see a lot of people recommend the Solo 401(K) over the SEP IRA in many cases. From my experience working with creators and influencers, it’s rare that we find ourselves recommending the Solo 401(K). There are some unique constraints that come with this plan that we find a lot of our creators wanting to avoid. For example, there is a requirement to file an annual form called the 5500 once the plan reaches a certain value. There are penalty fees attached to missed filings, creating more complexity here.
On the other hand, the Solo 401(K) can provide us flexibility in certain circumstances. For example, say you’re looking to maximize retirement contributions on a smaller income, say $250,000, then the solo 401(K) becomes a great option. You’ll see later that while the SEP and Solo plans allow the same contribution limit, the SEP IRA requires a salary of $288,000 or higher in order to reach the full contribution.
In summary, the Solo 401(K) plan is best for creatives who want to max out their retirement plans, but don’t have the income to do so with other plans, and are also okay with slightly higher costs stemming from increased complexity.
Plan 2: SEP IRA
Spoiler alert: The SEP IRA is probably my favorite plan for its ease of use and extreme flexibility. The reason why I like it so much for my clients is that I work with many content creators and find that it’s the perfect balance of simplicity and benefit. Allow me to explain.
To set up a SEP IRA, you simply walk through a very similar process to that you would with a Roth or Traditional IRA.
To contribute to a SEP IRA, it’s nearly the same as it would be for a regular IRA, but the difference is that the contributions need to come from a business account. Easy enough, most content creators or other creative freelancers already have business bank accounts set up.
One of the somewhat difficult parts of the SEP IRA, however, is calculating the contribution limit. With a Roth IRA, for example, you can easily just look up the max. With the SEP, you need to do a small calculation. If your business is structured as an S-Corporation, then you could contribute up to 25% of your salary. So if your business revenue is $300,000 and you earn a $50,000 salary, the remaining $250,000 can be taken as an owner’s draw or left in the business. The $50,000 salary is where you would calculate your max contributions. 25% of $50,000 is $12,500.
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Who’s this best for?
The SEP IRA is best for content creators or other small businesses that want to contribute more than the Traditional IRA limits, and don’t need to get to the $72,000 contribution limit in 2026.
Plan 3: SIMPLE IRA
The SIMPLE IRA is similar in terms of the tax benefit, which, by the way, there is a tax benefits comparison table at the bottom of this post, to the Solo 401(K) and SEP IRA. The main differences come when you look at the contribution limits. Now, to be totally honest, I don’t see a reason to use this account over a SEP or Solo, unless you have employees. One of the main reasons is that the maximum contribution for 2026 is $17,000 before any catch-ups. Also, despite its name, the SIMPLE IRA is still more complex than the SEP IRA. So this raises the question of why anyone would use the SEP IRA and when it is beneficial.
Who’s this best for?
The SIMPLE IRA is best when used as an employee benefit to attract good talent to your business. Heck, I was even suckered into joining a financial planning firm that used a SIMPLE IRA with a promise of 3% matching contributions. Little did I know this contribution didn’t kick in until I had 2 years of service under my belt.
Now, just because I had a bad experience with this type of plan doesn’t mean you or your employees need to. As the employee, you can follow a years of service rule which goes like this:
- Employee must have earned at least $5,000 in compensation from the employer in any two prior calendar years (not necessarily consecutive), and
- Is reasonably expected to earn at least $5,000 in the current calendar year.
Yep, my employer decided to implement this rule, so he didn’t need to contribute to my SIMPLE plan.
Now there are more rules, such as this one:
The employer can choose each year whether to make a matching contribution (up to 3% of compensation) or a non-elective contribution (2% of compensation for all eligible employees, even if they don’t contribute).
Overall, the SIMPLE IRA is a good plan to start as an employer with one or a few employees, but as you scale, you may start considering other plans like a 401(K).
Plan 4: Roth IRA
The Roth IRA is often everyone’s favorite, especially when it comes to finance influencers. Nothing against this retirement plan, it’s a great option. You get to contribute to a retirement plan and allow those funds to grow tax-free until retirement, sounds great.
The problem comes when you want to contribute more money than the Roth IRA allows, or your income exceeds the income threshold. For example, in 2026, you can contribute up to $7,500 as long as your income is below $153,000 for single filers and under $242,000 for married couples filing jointly. At the point that your income either increases above the threshold or you want to contribute more to a Roth account, you would need to consider things like the Roth SEP IRA or Roth Solo 401(K)
Who’s this best for?
We usually see the Roth IRA being most beneficial for new business owners who don’t have enough funds to take advantage of some of the higher contribution limits that the other plans have. It allows small business owners to have a retirement plan in place for themselves while they focus on growing their business.
Plan 5: Traditional IRA
In many ways, the Traditional IRA is the same as the Roth, outside of the way the tax benefit works. Unlike the Roth IRA, the Traditional IRA receives a tax deduction instead of the tax-free growth. Still a highly powerful plan, but it serves a slightly different purpose.
Who’s this best for?
This plan is also usually used when the business is first getting started, but maybe you made $200,000 from another business and want to contribute a few thousand more to a retirement plan in the later months of that same tax year. A Traditional IRA can be used in that way. You no longer have access to the employer-sponsored plan, but you can still get a tax deduction and make retirement contributions at the same time.
Additionally, from time to time, you might run into a scenario where your Roth assets are quite high, and you just prefer to get a small tax deduction now. This gets into a concept called tax diversification, which we discuss and plan for with all of our clients. If you’re interested in learning more about this, you can schedule a free financial health check below.
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Honorable Mentions: HSA & Defined Benefit Plan
Let me start off by saying, I know Health Savings Accounts aren’t retirement accounts, but watch this!
An HSA allows for all three tax benefits in one: tax deductibility, investments grow tax deferred, and funds can be taken out tax-free, if used for qualifying medical expenses. Most people get caught up in “for qualifying medical expenses,” but what they miss is that you can pay for your medical expenses out of pocket and save those receipts. You can do this for say 30 years. So when you’re in retirement, it’s possible that you could have a six-digit account that doesn’t get taxed. An entire post needs to be dedicated to showing how powerful this can be. The only reason it’s not the best retirement account for solopreneurs and creatives is that it’s technically not a retirement account.
A defined benefit plan is a type of retirement plan where the employer (you) promises the employee (also you) a specific monthly check (pension) for life when they retire. Think of it like this:
- In a 401(k) or solo 401(k), you save money into an account, and your retirement income depends on how much you saved and how the investments played out.
- In a defined benefit plan, the employer says: “When you retire, we’ll pay you $X per month for life, no matter how the stock market does.”
- The employer is responsible for putting in enough money each year (and managing the investments) so that there’s enough to pay that monthly check.
So, “defined benefit” means the benefit (the monthly pension) is defined in advance, not the contribution amount. Now there are still contribution limits here, but they’re typically much higher, $280,000 in 2026.
This isn’t a typical influencer retirement plan, but it could be super beneficial for successful creators earning upwards of $250,000 and wanting to save lots on taxes.
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