<prompt> Human: Or something else that Im not thinking of?My situation: Im in my mid-20s. I have been very fortunate and I currently have more cash than I know what to do with sitting in the bank. Ive only recently learned that the better thing to do is to invest it for retirement, so Im trying to figure out how best to do that. I have no debt and no dependents.Here are the numbers: Ive maxed out my IRA contributions for the time being. After putting aside some money that would be used as an emergency fund, Im still left with about 45k that I want to invest for retirement. I see two possible ways of doing this:1. Open a taxable brokerage account and put it all in there right now, or2. Make as much pre-tax contribution as I can to my employers 401k technically 457b since Im a graduate student, which by the way does not offer any employer matching or the like, so that I have virtually no take-home pay, while living off of the excess money until Im happy with how much Ive invested. With my income I would be able to contribute roughly 2.4kmonth. So if I max out my IRA contributions each year and save a bit, this will take roughly 2 years to get this money invested. By the way, there is also another plan, a 403b, and Im allowed to contribute up to 18.5kyear to each, so I wont end up maxing out these contributions even if I throw everything I make at these accounts.So here are my thoughts about these options. If Im wrong about how any of this works please correct me! I appreciate it in advance.The advantage of the taxable option is that I get the benefit of the investment returns right away, while the advantage of my employers 457b is that the earnings arent taxed until I retire and begin to withdraw the money. It seems to me like the 457b option is the better one, based on my naive understanding of how this should work; for example, suppose I get on average 6year return, and I retire in 40 years. Then:1. In the taxable account, the earnings will be taxed at, say, 20 15. So with a 6 annual interest rate, I only get to keep 4.8 5.1. Over 40 years, this amount of money will grow to 45kx1.04840 290k 45kx1.05140 330k.2. On the other hand, in the 457b, I dont earn interest for all 40 of those years, but the interest that I do earn is untaxed. Being conservative and ignoring completely the interest that I would get during those first 2 years that Im contributing, I get 6 over the following 38 years, so the investment will grow to 45kx1.0638 410k.The investment in option 2 will get taxed when I retire and use it, but still, it seems like its a much better option, right? It just seems strange that the better option would be to have so much money just sitting in the bank, not giving any appreciable return, for 2 whole years I know I could put it in a CD andor high-yield savings account, but still. So, am I not thinking about this the right way? Is there some other option should I consider after-tax contributions or something? that Im not considering that might make more sense? Thanks in advance!Edited for capital gains tax  <response>: As long as youre investing long term 1 year, any gains on your taxable account will be subject to capital gains tax, which is a maximum of 15, not the 20 you used in your calcs 