Hey Daemon,

While traditional 401ks provide fantastic tax benefits as well and come with a higher contribution limit, I would still choose the Roth IRA for two reasons.

First, while a traditional 401k effectively lowers your taxable income today, you'll then be liable to pay taxes on your 401k investment income into retirement when tax rates are likely to be higher and you may need to spend more of your income on recurring healthcare.

Second, contributing to a Roth IRA now allows your money to grow tax free year after year no matter how much you make on your trades. At the same time, paying the tax on it now effectively locks you in at a lower rate.

All of this is not to say that you cannot have both a traditional 401k and a Roth IRA.

I go by a 6% threshold because investing your money in a generally conservative manner can get you an average return of between 6 and 12% annually. So if you have outstanding debt above the 6%, you're not getting enough of an ROI to justify putting off the debt paydown. Once you get to really low interest rate debts like a fixed rate mortgage or a school loan, then it makes sense to start investing and paying off that longer term debt in tandem.

Hope this helps!

Rachel