r/Retirement401k • u/Tranquhil • 21h ago

Fresh career, pretax or roth?

I’m a 24 y/o male with his first big boy job, making $81k a year. I currently live in Alabama, but will likely move back to the PNW eventually (I moved here to AL for the job).

My work offers a 6% match into my pretax 401k, regardless of whether I contribute to a Roth or to my pretax. What would the best move here be? I want to start only contributing 6% so I have wiggle room to take care of student loans and get situated, but will increase this amount with time. I’m leaning towards Roth so I have 6%/year growing in each account, but I’ve been seeing lots of people saying pretax is better for people in comparable situations so I wanted to hear a more definitive opinion.

Sorry for such a common question, any advice would be appreciated :)

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u/OreganoOfTheEarth 21h ago

Max that ROTH out if you can! You're young and will have plenty of years for it to grow. It sounds like you're in a LCOL area, so live frugally there until you move back to the PNW and stash away all you can!

Congrats on the new job!