Contribution Limits for Solo401k & IRAs ?

[Daniel Dietz]

This is more of a tax questions that real estate, but the funds would then be investing in real estate.

My plan is to set up a Solo401k before the end of the year, but have a few questions during the planning phase before we get together with some professionals in this field. 

It looks like I will have about 30K Income from my business this year on my K-1 form, 40K from "Interest Income" that was earned in a Universal Life Insurance contract that I have withdrawn (my understanding is that this is 'ordinary income and NOT capital gains). 

It looks like in the Solo401k that I will be able to contribute up to 18K + 6K for a total of 24K since I am 50 years old. Where I am not sure is in the "employer portion" which looks like it can be up to 25% of my compensation. My business is a 3 way LLC with my parents as my partners. They are NOT planning on doing a Solo401K.

My questions are these;

• If I decide to do the 'employer portion' to contribute even more, do my parents also need to do that, and do I need to do that every year then, or decide year by year?
• If my 'earned income' is only 30K, would I still be able to do the 24K + 7.5K (for the employer part) for a total of 31.5K? Or would I be limited to ONLY the amount of my "earned income" of 30K?
• Would I be able to put anything into a Traditional IRA if I already put 30K into the Solo401k plan?

My goal is to get the earnings from the Life Insurance, along with some inheritance I got into long term retirement plans.

Thanks, Dan Dietz