... And finally, and what I find a bit confusing is that usually discussions of roth/pre-tax never mention capital gains rates, but rather just compare across income tax brackets. In a roth scenario, aren't you paying income tax today, in lieu of paying capital gains taxes tomorrow? For pre-tax money, when it's finally withdrawn during retirement, it will be seen as ordinary income, not capital gains. The essence of the question of Traditional versus Roth relies on your estimate of your future income tax rate during retirement, presumably, when you've stopped working. Maybe think about it this way... Look at your IRS Form 1040, Line 1a. When that line reads $0 in the future, what do you think your marginal income tax rate will be? At the 3...