<prompt> Human: To make the discussion easy, say my wife earns 20,000, and I earn 100,000. I currently max my 401k, she doesnt have one available. I want to start funding an IRA on top of the 401k. Id also like to keep some cash on reserve for a housing down payment, so I dont necessarily want to max both of our IRAs.The question: will we get more tax benefit maxing hers, maxing mine, or mixing contributions between the two?  <response>: Assuming youre looking to maximize current deductible contributions...Your ability to make a deductible contribution to a Traditional IRA is limited. SourceEDIT: for the above, Im assuming your AGI is the sum of your incomes minus an 18K 401k contribution, so 102K, which puts you in the phaseout range for deductibility of Traditional IRA contributionsYour wife can make a deductible contribution to a Traditional IRA of as much as 5,500, assuming she is under age 50. Source 