If you’re married and in a single-income household, a lesser-known retirement strategy could boost your nest egg — and there’s still time to use it for 2024.

A spousal individual retirement account is a separate Roth or traditional IRA for the non-working spouse. With this strategy, two IRAs can be maxed out annually with enough income from the working spouse. The deadline for 2024 contributions is April 15.

“Spousal IRAs are a game changer for married couples looking to build retirement savings and manage their lifetime tax burden,” said certified financial planner Jim Davis, partner at Aspen Wealth Management in Fort Worth, Texas.

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For 2024, the IRA contribution limit is $7,000, plus an extra $1,000 catch-up contribution for investors age 50 and older. The caps are the same for 2025.

That means an older married couple with sufficient earned income could save up to $8,000 per IRA for 2024 before the April 15 tax deadline. They’ll have until next year’s tax due date for 2025 IRA contributions.

“For many, it’s a simple yet powerful step toward achieving long-term goals,” Davis said.

To qualify, you must file taxes jointly and your combined IRA contributions can’t exceed “taxable compensation” reported on your tax return, according to the IRS. The strategy could also work if one spouse is unemployed without enough 2024 earnings to contribute to an IRA on their own.

Roth IRAs are funded with after-tax dollars and offer future tax-free growth, but there’s an income limit. Traditional IRAs could provide an upfront tax break, depending on your income and workplace retirement plan participation.   

Most workers can expect to see Social Security payroll taxes taken from their paychecks throughout the year.

But high earners with $1 million in gross annual wage income have already stopped paying into the program as of March 6, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

In 2025, workers are subject to payroll taxes on up to $176,100 in earnings. Workers pay a 6.2% Social Security payroll tax rate, which is matched by their employers, for a total of 12.4%.

Once high earners hit that $176,100 cap, they no longer contribute to the program for the rest of the year.

“Elon Musk has already reached that cap of $176,100 within the first few minutes of 2025 just on gross annual wage income,” said Emma Curchin, research assistant at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

That does not include the investment income he earns, which is not subject to Social Security payroll taxes, she said.

Approximately 6% of workers have earnings over the taxable maximum, according to the Social Security Administration.

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Ultimately, higher earners who contribute to the program up to the highest taxable earnings each year for most of their careers stand to receive the maximum retirement benefit.

In 2025, the maximum Social Security benefit for a worker retiring at full retirement age is $4,018 per month.

Meanwhile, the average monthly benefit for retired workers is $1,976 per month in 2025.

Last year, Social Security’s trustees projected the fund that the program relies on to pay retirement benefits may last until 2033. At that time, 79% of scheduled benefits will be payable.

To prevent those benefit shortfalls, Congress may consider a variety of tax increases or benefit cuts.

One recent survey found the most popular policy option would be to eliminate the payroll tax cap for earnings of more than $400,000, according to the National Academy of Social Insurance, AARP, the National Institute on Retirement Security and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The change would not provide additional benefits for higher earners who are affected.

The survey also found Americans would be open to higher taxes to ensure benefits either stay the same or increase.

“They’re willing to pay more, not to get extra benefits for themselves, but just to close the financing gap to prevent indiscriminate across the board benefit cuts,” Tyler Bond, research director for the National Institute on Retirement Security, previously told CNBC.com.

Another change survey respondents favored is reducing benefits for individuals with higher retirement incomes excluding Social Security. That would apply to individual retirees with $60,000 or more aside from Social Security per year and married couples with $120,000 or more per year.

“By scrapping the cap, the Social Security trust fund could be much more healthy and secure,” Curchin said.

But it’s not enough. To restore the program’s solvency, research has shown a combination of changes would be required.

Traditional IRAs are the oldest and most common type of IRA, owned by 31.3% of U.S. households as of mid-2023, according to research from the Investment Company Institute.

Nearly two-thirds of families with traditional IRAs have accounts with retirement plan rollovers, and 43% made contributions on top of rolled over funds, ICI found.  

These accounts continue to grow, and many retirees don’t have a plan to withdraw the money, experts say.

“Your IRA is an IOU to the IRS,” said Slott, who is also a certified public accountant.

Starting at age 73, pre-tax retirement accounts are generally subject to required minimum distributions, or RMDs, based on your previous year-end balance and a life expectancy factor.

By comparison, Roth accounts, which are funded with after-tax dollars and grow tax-free, don’t have RMDs until after the accountholder’s death. But these accounts are less common. As of mid-2023, only 24.3% of households had Roth IRAs, according to ICI.

Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted by President Donald Trump, income tax brackets have been lower since 2018. That provision could be extended past 2025 under the current Republican-controlled Congress.

Slott argues it’s better to pay income taxes now at “bargain basement rates” than withdrawing from a pre-tax IRA when rates could be higher, depending on future legislative changes.

You can do that by contributing to Roth accounts or making so-called Roth conversions, which incur an upfront bill, but grow tax free. With Roth accounts, “there’s no obligation to share with Uncle Sam,” he said.

Plus, Roth accounts avoid tax issues for non-spouse heirs who inherit your IRA since most beneficiaries must follow the “10-year rule,” and empty accounts within 10 years of the original owner’s death.

For example, if you’re philanthropic, you can make so-called qualified charitable distributions, or QCDs, at age 70½ or older, which transfer money directly from an IRA to an eligible non-profit, Levine said.

The move lowers your adjusted gross income since you can use the withdrawal to satisfy RMDs and helps reduce your pretax balance for smaller future required withdrawals.