Thanks! I must have been searching the wrong phrases.

Double check on this, but five years ago when my husband's only income was a fellowship at a think tank, he was able to contribute to a SEP IRA.

We do the spousal IRA.

Google "spousal IRA". It's exactly what your looking for and very easy to implement. Invest the limit into equities, then balance it out with a purchase of I Bonds which are guaranteed to keep up with inflation and accumulate interest tax free til redemption . At $5500, an IRA is no great shakes compared to what you can put in a 401k, but it's nothing to sniff at.

If there is another thread on this - please point me there. I searched, but didn't find anything.

My spouse has a fellowship that is considered income, but not salary. We pay taxes, but not SSI, Medicare or Income tax. Basically its treated like lottery winnings. He does not have a TSP or 401k at work available to him and with no salary is not able to contribute to an IRA.

We max out my Roth 401k at work, but I was wondering if there any any other tax-protected retirement vehicles for non-income earning spouses. How do people with a SAH spouse save for retirement? Are they just limited to half the Federal max as a 2 income family?