There is a rule that does not exist.
It goes like this: "You have a 401(k), so you can't have an IRA."
Nobody wrote it. No law says it. The IRS has never printed it.
And yet it is one of the most expensive sentences in American personal finance, because millions of people believe it.
They contribute to the 401(k). They stop. The IRA sits empty for twenty years.
Think about what that actually costs. Not in a spreadsheet. In real objects.
Two decades of maxed IRA contributions, compounding at something like historical market returns, is not a rounding error. It is a car. It might be a down payment on a house.
Gone. Because of a rumor.
So let's kill the rumor in one line, then spend the rest of this explaining what the real rules are.
Yes. You can have both. At the same time. In the same year.
Now the interesting part.