You don’t mention kids, your age, housing or any specifics, so I’ll just tell you what my wife and I do…
My priorities are as follows:
1. 401k’s up to the max match (4% of salary in my case)
2. Roth IRA’s up to $4k limit
3. 401k’s up to $15.5k limit
3. Taxable Vanguard funds (saving for down payment)
Getting the match is obvious. Then I favor the Roth over the rest of the 401k because I can pull money from it for a down payment in a couple years, whereas the 401k money is stuck there for a few decades. Then I split the remainder between the 401k and taxable funds, for the same reason. In your case (high tax bracket), you might tilt the balance more toward 401k.
Right now, I’m fairly certain our 401k’s will be overkill if we consistently max them out, and I’d rather have a good deal of money where I can get to it before retirement. Yes, we’ll pay taxes, but do you really want to be 50, ready to retire early, only to have millions of dollars you can’t touch for a decade?
