<prompt> Human: Hi--ive got some money to budget into retirement and im trying to decide if i want to raise my 401k to max, vs. another option like maxing ROTH.lets assume for the sake of this discussion that i am going to invest in both ROTH and 401k but i can only max one of them.seems to me the decision comes down to what do you think your tax bracket will be when you retire but...unless i have some other non-retirement investments churning money my way as capital gains at that time, wont i be making 0 and be in a predictibly LOW tax bracket?I am trying to understand how to make the determination as to what my tax bracket will be when that 401k money gets taxed.Assistant: wont i be making 0 and be in a predictibly LOW tax bracket?No, youll be making your 401k withdrawals.Human: Ah---so the tax bracket will be the combination of all the retirement money withdrawals im making---including, i presume, roth IRA withdrawals? Edit: and not that im counting on it existing but i would assume SS is not taxable income ...?  <response>: Roth is not taxed, and SS is only taxed if your income exceeds 25k if single, or 35k if married. To make things extra tricky, only include half of your SS as income for comparing with that threshold.So, 10k of SS 20k of 401k distribution - SS is not taxable if youre single.10k of SS 30k of 401k distribution - Part of SS is taxable.10k of SS 20k of 401k distribution 10k of Roth distribution - SS is not taxable. 