Aaron Heienickle

An IRA and a 401(k) get treated as interchangeable, and they are not. Both are tax-advantaged retirement accounts, both let your money grow without annual tax drag, and both penalise early withdrawals.

If you work for a government agency, a public university, or a nonprofit, your retirement plan may be a 401(a) rather than the 401(k) everyone talks about.

If you run a small business and have decided to offer a retirement plan, the practical choice usually comes down to these two.

These two accounts share the same core promise: pay tax on the money now, and qualified withdrawals in retirement come out tax-free.

Most workplace plans now offer both, and the choice sits in a form you filled out once and probably never revisited.

These two accounts are often presented as alternatives, which is misleading. They solve different problems. A Roth IRA is a retirement vehicle with a tax advantage and rules attached.

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These two accounts are identical in almost every respect. Same annual contribution limit. Same investment options. Same providers, same fees, same everything.