Help! I lost my 401(k)

NEW YORK (Money) -- Question: I contribute to my 401(k), but a firm that doesn't offer a 401(k) recently bought my wife's company. We both contribute the maximum to Roth IRAs, but I'm wondering what we can do to make up for the loss of her 401(k). Since she no longer has a retirement plan at work can she now also contribute to a traditional IRA as well as a Roth? - Chris, Austin, Texas

Answer: Sorry, but as nice as it might be if she could, your wife can't max out on a Roth IRA and then contribute to a traditional IRA as well. Or vice versa, for that matter. Basically, there's a maximum ceiling for how much any individual can contribute to an IRA each year - $4,000 this year, $5,000 next plus an extra $1,000 if you're 50 or older.

You can divvy up your contribution between different types of IRAs if you want, say, half in the traditional, half in the Roth or 75-25 or 100 percent in one or the other.

But you can't exceed that annual per person limit. Of course, this all assumes that you meet the eligibility requirements for a traditional or Roth IRA. You can pore over those in all their exquisite detail in IRS Publication 590: Individual Retirement Arrangements. Or you can go to a calculator like this one, plug in a few numbers and immediately see how much can contribute to each type of account.

But just because your wife can't double up on her IRA contributions doesn't mean you and she can't still sock away some more bucks for retirement. Here are a few suggestions:

Contribute more to your 401(k): If you're not putting away the maximum allowed by your plan, then ratchet up your contribution to pick up the slack for your wife. Of course, unless your extra contribution gets the same match your wife was getting at her company, you probably won't be able to regain all ground you and your wife lost even if you're able to increase your contribution by the amount that your wife had been throwing into her 401(k). But hey, if you can make up even a bit, that's better than nothing.

Consider retirement accounts for the self-employed: If you or your wife have or can generate some self-employment income - say, some freelance or consulting work - then you can also contribute to a plan designed for the self-employed, such as a Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) or solo 401(k).

Either can be an excellent way to put away more money for retirement and simultaneously grab a tax break, but the solo 401(k) is particularly attractive because you get to make two contributions: one as an employee-owner and one as an employee. For more on how these plans work, click here.

Invest in tax-efficient funds: Most mutual funds do a lot of trading, which, when successful, usually means the fund distributes taxable gains to shareholders. But a breed of funds known as tax-managed funds uses a variety of techniques to keep those taxable distributions down.

Similarly, index funds tend to distribute fewer taxable gains because they follow a buy-and-hold approach that involves less trading. You can find out more about how these funds work by clicking here. The end result is that even though you don't get a tax break with these funds in the same sense you do with a 401(k) or IRA, you ultimately give up less of your gain to taxes, which means a larger nest egg for you down the road.

Lobby for a 401(k), or switch jobs: I'm not suggesting your wife storm the HR office and refuse to leave until her new employer sets up a 401(k). But she and other employees can certainly let their new bosses know in the nicest possible way what a great benefit that 401(k) was and how much it would boost employee productivity to reinstate it. Can't hurt, and it might help.

If that doesn't bring the 401(k) back, it also can't hurt for your wife to start looking around for a new job. Obviously, it wouldn't make sense to move to an employer with a 401(k) if that meant settling for a lower package of salary and benefits overall. But, who knows, maybe she'll be able to find a company willing to give her similar or better pay and bennies plus a 401(k).

So why don't you and your wife spend some time one evening going over these possibilities to see what you can do to get your retirement savings plan back on track. The sooner you do that, the bigger your retirement nest egg will be.