Deferred compensation is a written agreement between an employer and an employee where the employee voluntarily agrees to have part of their compensation withheld by the company, invested on their behalf, and given to them at some pre-specified point in the future.
Deferred compensation is often considered better than a 401(k) for highly-compensated executives looking to reduce their tax burden. Contribution limits on deferred compensation plans can also be much higher than 401(k) limits.
Roth IRA is a great option because your contributions are accessable if you need to get to them unlike the 401k.
Elective deferral limit The amount you can defer (including pre-tax and Roth contributions) to all your plans (not including 457(b) plans) is $23,000 in 2024 ($22,500 in 2023; $20,500 in 2022; $19,500 in 2020 and 2021; $19,000 in 2021).
401(k) plans and 403(b) plans offer very similar benefits. As such, one isn't really better than the other. The main difference is that each plan is offered to employees of different types of companies. Another key difference between the plans is that 403(b) plans also offer a $15,000 catch-up.
From a high level, the sponsor of a 401(k) plan is the entity that establishes retirement plans for a company and its employees. Normally, the 401(k) plan sponsor is the employer itself, a union, or a selected employee of the firm.