<prompt> Human: Or, why is it so low? Why not let people just put in like 15,000 a year? I dont have a job that offers a 401k so Im stuck with having a taxable account and a Roth IRA. Why does the government hate me.  <response>: In concept, because Congress has conflicting goals: They want to incentivise people to save for retirement, so they created tax advantaged IRA accounts, but, they dont want to lose too much tax revenue, so they put contribution limits on them.Although that is conceptually correct, in fact, why IRAs have contribution limits so much lower than say 401ks is due to the fact the whole tax and benefits system was never designed, it just grew from various acts of Congress that were passed at different times in different circumstances, with different compromises, and the whole thing does not integrate very well, and is extremely complex. 