Whether to make further investments into a traditional tax-advantaged employer plan and IRA accounts versus investing in Roth IRA and tax-advantaged employer plan retirement accounts is not always a straightforward decision.

The choice on the alternatives happens to be one of the most complex choices of lifetime personal financial planning. A lot of things can affect whether a ordinary tax-advantaged employer plan or IRA personal account contribution versus a Roth IRA or tax-advantaged employer plan personal account contribution choice would be best.

For most people’s lifetime circumstances making investments into an ordinary IRA or tax-advantaged employer plan retirement accounts is the best choice, when those contributions would be deductible against this year’s income taxes.

The trade-offs are complex. Simple retirement planning spreadsheets are not sufficient to analyze all the critical tradeoffs. The choice is not just about tax rate changes. Instead, the decision needs a comprehensive personal finance projection and valuation of an investor’s lifetime income, taxes, and assets.

(Here is where you can find a comprehensive Roth retirement planner that fully automates this regular tax-advantaged employer plan or IRA personal account versus investing in Roth tax-advantaged employer plan or IRA personal account analysis.)

Whether or not a family will consume less and save enough to invest carefully over a lifetime dominates the Roth retirement plan versus the “currently tax deductible” ordinary retirement account additional investment choice.

If a person does not earn a sufficiently high income, cannot save aggressively, does not dramatically reduce investment expenses, and/or does not accumulate a sufficiently substantial portfolio of assets, then that investor will not have to worry about being in the upper income tax rates when retired — regardless of whether state and federal income tax brackets have moved up or down in the interim. If a family will not have sufficiently large income and assets in old age, then the present tax savings a person will get from deciding on a traditional retirement plan additional investment will tend to be much more financially favorable over a lifetime.

Note: This discussion ONLY focuses on personal financial circumstances where an investor has the choice of making a “currently tax deductible” traditional IRA or 401k contribution versus a currently “not tax deductible” Roth IRA or 401k contribution. If you cannot get a deduction this year but have available a Roth contribution, then the Roth contribution is more desirable.

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