Thanks everyone! A few more questions:
my plan would be $12k into traditional IRAs
I don't understand this. You can only put $6,000 into your IRAs in 2019.
Married filing jointly, so in my case it would effectively be $6,000 x2 - once under my name and once under my wife's.
Comparison should be between using the 401k and investing taxably. See the thread linked in reply #1 for more details.
I'm a little confused by this... The post referenced above as well as the boggleheads link seem to be making the comparison this way. But why should the comparison not be between using the 401k and using whatever other tax advantaged options (IRA) exist before investing taxably?
As far as my 401k options, the general theme to the advice I've seen here and at jlcollins's blog seems to be that if there's not a total market index fund available, go for a large cap/growth fund. It looks like my choices are:
Lord Abbett Calibrated Dividend Gr Fund (A) - ER: 0.97%; Maximum Sales Charge: 5.75%
American Funds Growth Fund of America (R2) - ER: 1.42%; Maximum Sales Charge: 0%
Seems like a no-brainer that between those two I'd want the American Funds one (despite the higher ER) in order to avoid that sales charge, correct?