<prompt> Human: Hi guys, have a question on planning for retirement. I am 22 and just got my first real job where I will be making 52k gross. I have 7k in a Roth IRA already from working part time over the years. My company offers matching of 437; for a traditional or Roth 401k and not sure what to do. I was thinking maybe splitting and doing 537; of my paycheck to each 1037; total? Also should I keep up with the IRA or only contribute to what my company offers both Vanguard btw? I hope to be making more when I retire but I know tax rates and rules are uncertain. Just wondering what you guys think I should do!  <response>: Traditional. You get the deduction now while you are at 52k income, then later when you are in retirement, you recognize the income when you are withdrawing and have no income in retirement. Only way Id flip this is if you told me you expected to make that much income while retired, which seems unlikely.Even better, if you wanted, you could do a roth conversion ladder later down the line when retired. This is where you slowly move amounts from the traditional into a roth, which means a recognizing less tax on the back end and b you can pull out Roth contributions before you reach retirement age, and all of these will be contributions, so long as you wait 5 years. For example, at age 40 you could start converting 5k per year, then by age 45 youd be able to start withdrawing 5k penalty free and tax free, at that point from the new Roth each year. This only really matters if you have early retirement on your mind as a possibility. 