<prompt> Human: I am a 27 year old male making 80,000 before taxes, stock, profit sharing. I live in California. My employer offers both 401k options Roth and Traditional. The company matches 50 of my deferred compensation up to the first 6 I contribute. I contribute 6 of my salary, they match with 3 plus an additional 5 added bonus. I plan to work until at least 65 in some capacity should I remain healthy enough to do so. I do not think that I am disciplined enough to calculate and reinvest my tax savings from deferring taxes on the Traditional 401k back into a 401k. I am confident that I will be in the higher tax bracket within the next three years and at that point I realize that it may be wiser to switch my contribution to a traditional 401k. If I leave my employer, any contributions to either the traditional or Roth 401k are rolled into either traditional or Roth IRAs. Which 401k should I be contributing to now? My thinking is that if I were to go to a higher tax bracket and switch my contribution to a traditional 401k, I can still maximize my contribution to the Roth IRA. This is my understanding and it is very possible that I am missing something. So I defer to the knowledge here to give me some confidence in one decision or the other.  <response>: You are taxed at a pretty high rate in California making 80,000. Id take the tax break with a traditional 401k, then go Roth IRA so you have tax diversity. 