Saving for retirement as a military spouse can seem challenging, especially when our careers are often nontraditional.

Disclaimer: I am not a tax pro. I am providing my experiences as a military spouse.

I have shared with you in past articles about my journey through traditional employment and entrepreneurship, My Entrepreneurial Journey. Two of my traditional jobs provided an opportunity to contribute to a retirement account. One was a 403(b) and the other a 401(k). It wasn’t until I became an Accredited Financial Counselor® that I learned Individual or Solo 401(k)s can be a benefit for entrepreneurs. Here is what I have experienced.

Two traditional jobs gave me the opportunity to have retirement plans. I participated in a 403(b) plan with employer matching at one job, which I invested in a Target Date Retirement Fund. At another job, a 401(k) kicked in when I reached a certain number of hours or days, whichever came first. I also took advantage of employer matching with the account. I eventually rolled these accounts into my Traditional IRA to simplify and avoid managing multiple accounts.

When I started my Business Consulting and Virtual Assistant business, I opened an Individual 401(k). Before you can establish an account, you need to know if you have net income for the year. To determine if you have net income, you need to keep track of expenses and revenue. There are tools available for expense tracking: QuickBooks, Wave, and Xero, to name a few. I use Google Sheets. Don’t forget to account for your income withholding taxes, not as an expense but as a tax liability. I calculate this every month. You pay them quarterly to the IRS. Please note that if you wait to pay the taxes all at once at the end of the tax year, there is a penalty. This happened to me with our 2024 taxes. The IRS has a guide on estimated taxes here. You can pay these taxes either through IRS Direct Pay or the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System® (EFTPS).

If you have net income for the year, then you can establish the Individual 401(k). You want to research providers, confirm you are eligible, and carefully read the requirements. You will fill out the application, provide the necessary business information, and wait for approval. Once you are approved, you can fund the account. For my account, I mail a check. I could do a wire transfer, but there is a significant fee I would pay, and stamps are cheaper than that fee. It is important to keep track of your Individual 401(k) payment(s) for filing your taxes. This is a fair amount of legwork, but it is worth it.

You are wondering, why bother? Blue Star Families, Military Family Lifestyle Survey reports a 23% unemployment rate in 2024. Entrepreneurship, like my Homefront Hustle, helps build careers that could move with you. And now, my Individual 401(k) can allow me to save for retirement as a business owner. It wasn’t easy, and I wish I’d known about it sooner—I could have potentially saved more with my other ventures, or even stayed on the entrepreneurial path over the past 20 years.

Originally published on LinkedIn on June 16, 2025. [Read it here]