Listen to Chad over me on this matter for sure, but this was my experience....
By the time I could fund a Roth in addition to maxing out my 401K, my income tax rate was fairly high so I didn't want to do it like Chad suggests. Now here I am about to retire and my life would be better if I could spend some money the first year. Excess money will come from the IRA and it will all be taxable. If I had it to do over I would have dropped a few K into a ROTH annually the past 20 yrs and invested it aggressively since it was long-term money. At this point I am fairly convinced having a ROTH is very good, even if it's only 10% of your assets. You have full control over when you access the money and you can manipulate that particular tax year. That is what I will do to make the best of it but my ROTH game is too weak.
By the time I could fund a Roth in addition to maxing out my 401K, my income tax rate was fairly high so I didn't want to do it like Chad suggests. Now here I am about to retire and my life would be better if I could spend some money the first year. Excess money will come from the IRA and it will all be taxable. If I had it to do over I would have dropped a few K into a ROTH annually the past 20 yrs and invested it aggressively since it was long-term money. At this point I am fairly convinced having a ROTH is very good, even if it's only 10% of your assets. You have full control over when you access the money and you can manipulate that particular tax year. That is what I will do to make the best of it but my ROTH game is too weak.