I’ve reviewed this question many times myself in the past and have changed my view on this a while back. I used to be in the camp of 100% Roth because the goverment can only raise your taxes, but take a look at this article and some the other links in the article and you might rethink your view. I know I have. Also, a key point which is very true is job changes / layoffs, etc where you can choose at anytime when you want to do an IRA conversion to a Roth and pay low or no tax. Another good point is all the tax credits for lower income folks or middle income folks. Like the new home buyer credit, you can’t get if your income is too high.
Also, if you ever start a business, you can be looking at low taxes for a few years and do conversions every year to use up your business losses, exemptions, deductions, etc…
Unlike our parents, 30 years at the same company with a pension is very unlikely and for the overall flexibility and not being “forced” to pay taxes now, I think a regular 401k or traditional makes a lot of sense.
For people without a stable pension paying you 50 or 100k, your IRAs/401ks will probably be your only income next to social security so (check the links), you would need a pretty massive IRA before you will be in a higher tax bracket than the minimum tax rates.
