conversation: User (jamuz): "If your capital gains in a traditional 401k are taxed and your capital gains in roth are not taxed, I do not see why you would not go with roth.  These gains compound over time so I would think you would be losing out of a lot of money if you went with the traditional 401k.  The only exception I can think of is if you are making a lot of money (&gt;100K) in your 20s.  Could someone please explain this to me?"
  Self: "capital gains isn't taxed in 401k or roth\n\n401k and roth comes out to be equal to taxes if TWO OF THE FOLLOWING HOLDS\n\n1. tax brackets stay as they are NOW\n2. when withdrawing from 401k, you don't break the appropriate tax brackets ( NO LUMP SUM CASH OUT FROM 401k )"
  User (jamuz): "But doesn't your entire 401k worth get taxed when you retire? That would include all of your gains.\n\nedit: by worth I mean 401k withdrawal worth"
  Self: "here's my simple single tax bracket example\n\nROTH\n\n10k cash ( taxed at 20% )\n\n8k into roth\n\ndouble growth\n\n16k FINAL\n\n________________________________________________\n\n401k\n\n10k cash ( no tax because contribution is pre )\n\n10k into 401k\n\ndouble growth\n\n20k\n\nwithdraw in 10k intervals ! ( we get 20% tax on 10k intervals )\n\n1st withdraw  10k  ( taxed 20% )  =  8k NET\n\n2nd withdraw 10k (taxed 20% )  = 8 K NET\n\nso 16K\n \n\nnow i haven't taken into account of the company contribution, and I haven't taken into account of multiple tax brackets, "
  User (jamuz): "Wow im feeling really stupid right now.  Thank you for taking the time to explain it in detail."
  lightcloud5 (lightcloud5): "Mathematically, this comes from the fact that multiplication is commutative.\n\nA * B * C = A * C * B\n\nIn this case, B and C are "taxes" and "investment gains"."
  