Earlier this year I was trying to build a house downpayment fund. Throughout the year I started questioning doing this as I decided ultimately it didn't make sense to go buy a house without a EF fund first. So by the end of this year in a few months I will have a 4-6 month EF fund. My first time having one. It's currently sitting in a Capital One 360 account. I do plan to continue to contribute to this fund going forward but at a drastically lower rate (probably only 100-300 per month after this year).
My question is regarding what order I should turn my attention/funds to next. Do I max the ROTH IRA next? Then after that, max the 401k? Of note, I get an annual bonus every December that will be just enough to max out the ROTH starting next year. So in 2018 for example, I could max out the ROTH with the funds from the December 2018 bonus. Just a thought.
Also, I was hoping to get some opinions on something 401k related. I have a close friend who is my most financially responsible friend. High income, multiple streams of income, pretty savvy investor, etc. He is strongly encouraging me not to give any more than the minimum required to my 401k for the employer match (2%). He says it's a horrible idea to max it out due to the amount of taxes I will pay on the money in retirement. I'm sure there are threads on this but I'd love some quick and dirty opinions on why maxing the 401k is best as it does seem to be pretty standard advice to do.