I put exactly what my employer matches into a 401k (which for me is 6% of my pre-tax income, including bonus). In that account I'm 50% in a S&P500 index and 50% in a small cap index. I only have a few other options (cash, the company stock, 3 crappy mutal funds, a bond fund) that I don't like so I skip them.
Anything beyond that I go for a regular IRA, although previously I had gone with a Roth IRA when I had a lower salary. The Roth has the advantage of being more flexible (use it on a house, education, medical expenses), but now that I'm in a higher tax bracket I just use the IRA and hope when I'm retired my tax bracket is lower.
I would NOT convert between an IRA and a Roth. In doing so you are betting that you will be paying higher tax rates in retirement than you are today employed.
This may on the surface look like a good bet considering the deficit, but it probably isn't. Nobody seems to have the stomach to lower taxes on the lower/middle class, and that's where you will be in retirement. Right now a couple options being floated are to eliminate all deductions and lower rates or to add more brackets at the top end and soak the rich, either way you are just as likely to be paying lower taxes in retirement as you are to paying hgiher. But one thing is sure, if you convert, you pay a lot of taxes now.
Anything beyond that I go for a regular IRA, although previously I had gone with a Roth IRA when I had a lower salary. The Roth has the advantage of being more flexible (use it on a house, education, medical expenses), but now that I'm in a higher tax bracket I just use the IRA and hope when I'm retired my tax bracket is lower.
I would NOT convert between an IRA and a Roth. In doing so you are betting that you will be paying higher tax rates in retirement than you are today employed.
This may on the surface look like a good bet considering the deficit, but it probably isn't. Nobody seems to have the stomach to lower taxes on the lower/middle class, and that's where you will be in retirement. Right now a couple options being floated are to eliminate all deductions and lower rates or to add more brackets at the top end and soak the rich, either way you are just as likely to be paying lower taxes in retirement as you are to paying hgiher. But one thing is sure, if you convert, you pay a lot of taxes now.