<prompt> Human: This is more of a hypothetical question that came up in conversation with my wife last night than it is a practical problem Im facing-- unfortunately!401k limits are 17.5K per year. Take someone making 300-500K a year or so over a sustained period of years; what retirement options are open to them past invest and only pay the 15 long term capital gains rate? If someone can max out their 401k in January and never miss it, whats their retirement strategy from that point forward from a tax perspective? Roth options are off the table unless they backdoor it and frankly, at that income level an extra 5500 doesnt really make a dent.I feel like theres probably something out there that Im not aware of, but I cant fathom what it might be...  <response>: The main difference between high income and low income is the savings rates a high income make possible. People retiring very early also often want to have a large sum in a normal taxable account. Investing in a taxable account isnt bad and at the 500k a year level that is what I would do. Max out all tax advantaged options and then put the rest in taxable. A big concern for high net worth individuals is not tax deferred growth so much as avoiding estate taxes and there are whole law firms that specialize in strategies for doing that.Once you get to the Mitt Romney level and are a partner in a private equity venture you can do more exotic mostly legal tax avoidance things. But people making 500k a year could easily just be successful doctors and not have the ability to completely structure their compensation to be maximally tax efficient. 