<prompt> Human: Hey everyone. I started a Roth IRA when I was 19 years old. Now at 26, I have about 20,000 in the account. I also have a 401K with my current employer which is now reaching about 10,000. Essentially, I have two separate retirement funds totaling somewhere around 30,000. Now I realize there are advantages and disadvantages to both a Roth and a Traditional 401K, but it feels weird that they are separate. Considering I work in a public agency that will ALSO provide me with a pension when I retire, I feel like having both a Roth and a 401K seems kind of silly.Please provide me with some advice...should I combine the two accounts into a 401 Roth or continue to leave them separate? What options do I have, and what would you do if you were me?Appreciate the help.  <response>: First off, you switch contexts between using a Roth IRA and a Roth 401k. Im assuming you meant you have both a Traditional and Roth 401k. As far as pensions go, look at Detroit. A lot of hard working fireman, policeman, and teachers had to vote to reduce their own pensions despite a lifetime of service. You have to keep in mind when they were coming up, Detroit seemed like a place of limitless possibilities. By relying on a pension, youre relying on your employer who - despite being either good or bad people - do not have your interests at heart. Socking away some extra money as a contingency is certainly not a waste. Even if Im wrong and you get every penny that your pension is currently promising, what is wrong with having some extra cash? If your pension falls through before you retire you will have a back up plan. If your pension coughs up the goods, then use your 401k to buy a boat or send some grand kids to college : As far as combining them go, Id leave them alone. There is a lot of argument over which is better, but my personal opinion is that doing 5050 half in Roth and half in Traditional allows you to hedge your bets when you retire in terms of tax optimization. If you liveretire in a state with no income tax then it would make sense to withdraw from the traditional 401k more than the Roth once youve retired. If you liveretire in a state with income tax then pulling more money out of the Roth will be better.Again, this is assuming you arent talking about IRAs. 