Spousal IRA: What It Is, How to Open One
A spousal IRA lets couples save for retirement even if only one spouse has earned income.
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What is a spousal IRA?
A spousal IRA is a tax-advantaged account that allows a married individual with little or no earned income to save for retirement in an IRA.
It is essentially an ordinary IRA, such as a traditional or Roth IRA, but referred to as “spousal” because contributions come from the working spouse’s income, even though the account is in the nonworking spouse’s name.
Spousal IRAs are an exception to the rule that people must have earned income to contribute to their own IRA.
» Choosing between a traditional vs. a Roth IRA.
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How spousal IRAs work
To contribute to a spousal IRA, the couple must file as “married filing jointly.” The working spouse must also earn at least as much money as is contributed to all of the couple's IRAs.
For example, say one spouse works and makes $100,000 a year, while their spouse does not work. Because their annual income exceeds the maximum annual contribution limit for IRAs, they can contribute $7,000 to their own IRAs and $7,000 to their partner's IRAs (if both are under age 50).
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The maximum annual contribution to all of an individual's IRA accounts is $7,000 in 2024 and 2025 ($8,000 if age 50 and older). This means that, depending on the working spouse's annual income and their ages, married couples can contribute up to $14,000 or $16,000 towards their IRA accounts.
Spousal IRA rules
In addition to the requirement that at least one spouse has enough earned income to cover the contributions for both, there are some other rules to consider:
The spousal IRA is not co-owned. It’s in the name of, and owned by, the nonworking spouse.
There is no age restriction on contributing to either traditional or Roth IRAs.
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How to open a spousal IRA
Because a spousal IRA is just a normal IRA account, it can be opened at any IRA broker or robo-advisor. You’ll have to provide the same personal information, such as birth date and Social Security number, to open the account.
Opening an account is easy: You’ll need to provide some personal information, including birthdate and Social Security number.
After it's open, you can start funding the account and choosing your investments. From there, the savings could pay off. For example, if you put $500 every month into an IRA and earn a 6% investment return, you could end up with more than $330,000 after 25 years.
» See our complete roundup of the best IRA providers.
