Please stay tuned for important disclosure information at the conclusion of this episode.

Welcome to Investing Insights. I'm your host, Margaret Giles, filling in for Ivana Hampton to bring you a personal finance episode.

Investment firms often see a big influx of new contributions into

individual retirement accounts in the early part of each year as investors rush to meet the

April 15 deadline. If you're one of the many investors adding new funds to your IRA,

Christine Benz has some ideas on how to make the most of those contributions and improve your

portfolio in the process. Christine is Morningstar's most of those contributions and improve your portfolio in the

process. Christine is Morningstar's Director of Personal Finance and Retirement Planning.

All right, Christine, thanks for being here. Margaret, it's great to see you. Thanks.

So before we get into the investment aspects of IRA contributions, let's spend a few moments

just on logistics. So the contribution limits are going up a

little bit in 2026. Is that right? That's right. So it's 7,500 if you're under age 50, 8600, if you're over

age 50. So those numbers do tend to rise upward a little bit over time to keep up with inflation.

Right. So now is the time to revisit just how much you're contributing. Right. Exactly. So people often hit a fork in the

road when it comes to their IRA contributions. And it's really about do they go traditional or

Roth with their contributions? So how should they decide which path to follow? Well, how much income you earn comes

into play here? And so the lowest threshold is if you are making a traditional IRA contribution,

and you want to be able to deduct it on your tax return. The income limits are the most stringent

here. They're a little bit more liberal if you're making a direct Roth IRA contribution.

But one thing to know is that anyone, as long as they have earned income, regardless of how much

income they earn, can make what's called a backdoor Roth IRA contribution.

So here you are funding a traditional IRA contribution, but at some point you are

...