Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open.

Is 401k as good as it sounds given the way it is taxed?
If you pay 20% tax now and none later or if you pay no tax now and 20% later, it doesn't make a difference.  Mathematically, it's the same. You have to guess about which tax rate (now vs later) will be higher for you in order for you to make the best choice.  Predicting tax rates 40 years in advance is hard.  Everybody pretends like they can do this accurately. I would suggest going half and half. If you have 20k and put half in pre-tax (10k in) and half in post-tax (only 8k in) you end up with 18k total in which is right in the middle of where you would be if you went with the whole 20k in either extreme.  It would also leave you owing 2k in tax rather than the possible 4k in tax if you had gone with all pre-tax. When you split down the middle, you are guaranteed to have 50% in the "right" side, the side with the best outcome. Being guaranteed to be 50% on the right side is pretty good compared to maybe being 100% on the wrong side.