Future viability of Roths
In the spirit of this question, now 4 years later, I'd like to know if there are any concerns with the future "security" of Roth accounts.
I'm currently maxing out mine and my spouse's Roth and contributing 14% to employer Roth 401(k). Given the recent (rejected) proposals by the president for RMDs and spousal disbursements, it made me wonder - what changes to the tax codes affecting Roths would make you reconsider future contributions over the next ~20 years?
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Chances are that your question will be closed as "speculative."
I think the best you can do is to plan as though the rules will remain as is, but brace yourself for any change. For example, if the Roth accounts had RMDs, would your plan change? Hopefully not, the RMD is typically less that what you'd be spending anyway, but even in later years, just continue to keep the extra funds invested. Will Roth withdrawals trigger tax on Social Security benefits? Probably. Because right now, Roth's greatest loophole is that non-triggering feature. Will congress vote to outright tax the Roth? Not if they wish to keep their jobs.
I'm a bit concerned by your over weighting toward the Roth flavor. Depending on your age and bracket, some money should probably be invested pre tax. But without more details it's tough to say.
It is impossible to know what future taxes will look like, so there is something to be said for using both (i.e. that you increase your flexibility to draw from one or the other depending on your tax situation and financial needs in retirement). When you find yourself in higher tax brackets, you should probably take the deduction now, and when you find yourself in lower brackets, skip the deduction in favor of future benefits.
There are a few tax choices that would be particularly detrimental to Roth accounts, one would be to put a size limit or an outright repeal of the tax benefits. Another would be to completely replace income taxes with consumption taxes effectively doing the same thing as an outright repeal. Any of these choices are politically risky, so barring a major fiscal melt-down, I would place my bets on minor tinkering around the status quo.
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