The Latest in IRAs

Here's a surprising trend: Americans now have more retirement income in IRA accounts ($7.2 trillion) than in 401(k) accounts ($5.6 trillion). A few years ago the research group EBRI started collecting information about IRA contributions, and they now have enough data to show some trends over the past few years. For starters, more people are putting money in IRAs: 14.1 percent in 2015 compared to 12.1 percent in 2010.

While the overall average balance in an IRA increased 36.1 percent from 2010 to 2015, the increase for those IRA owners who continuously owned IRAs from 2010 to 2015 was 47.1 percent. The overall average balance for consistent account owners increased from $99,603 in 2010 to $146,513 in 2015.

Curiously, there were considerable differences by IRA type in the likelihood of consistent account owners contributing to an IRA. For traditional IRA owners, 87.2 percent did not contribute to their IRA in any year, while 1.8 percent contributed in all six years. In comparison, 60.1 percent of Roth IRA owners did not contribute in any year and 9.7 percent contributed in all six years.