Hello everyone, I recently paid off my student loans and now I'm going to get serious about maxing out my retirement accounts. However, I'm having difficulty understanding the different withdrawal rules and the different accounts I have at my disposal.
To start, my wife's company doesn't offer a 401k until she's been working there 3 years and she just started, so she is going to open a Roth IRA.
However, I have a traditional 401k and a Roth 401k available, and I can always open a traditional or Roth IRA. I know I should contribute at least enough to my 401k or my Roth 401k to get my company match. The funds available through my company sponsored plans have very low fees, about 0.01% more than what Vanguard offers.
We are 26 Our tax status is married filling jointly and our gross income is about $130k. We don't qualify for any deductions but the standard deduction. My traditional 401k has a balance of $46k and my Roth 401k has a balance of $13k. Neither one of us is offered an HSA.
Finally, I think my wife would like to have a baby in the next 2 to 3 years and we don't own a home. Owning a home is not a 2 to 3 year goal but it could be a 6+ year goal.
How would you use some combination of these accounts to save money so that:
1. It's accessible in early retirement (by supporting a Roth pipeline or some other withdrawal method I'm not familiar with) without hefty penalties?
2. It supports an $80k down payment for home in 5+ years without having $80k sitting in a savings account earning no returns?
3. They minimize my marginal tax rate.
For item 2, I understand it's risky to save for a down payment using investments, but I really hate the idea of losing out on compounded interest. Assuming a Roth IRA does not have a 5 year negative return, between me and my wife we could at least save $55k of money that still has an opportunity to grow in the next 5 years.
Thanks for everyone's input.
