Roth vs Traditional IRA Calculator
Compare Roth and Traditional IRA outcomes by modeling current tax rate, expected retirement tax rate, annual contributions, employer-plan assumptions, and long-term growth. Use it to see which account type may leave you with more after-tax retirement value.
Burrow Tip: The core question is usually not “Which account is better?” but “Will my tax rate be higher or lower when I withdraw than it is when I contribute?”
Run a realistic base case, then compare an optimistic and conservative retirement tax scenario before deciding.
Contribution and tax assumptions
Advanced assumptions
Scenario comparison (optional)
Results
Projected account values over time
Retirement value breakdown
Year-by-year projection
| Year | Date | Roth contribution | Traditional contribution | Roth ending value | Traditional ending value | Traditional after-tax | Tax side account | Total Trad after-tax + side |
|---|
Scenario timeline (Mermaid code)
If your site supports Mermaid elsewhere, you can paste this snippet into a Mermaid block. This tool does not load Mermaid.
How to use these results
Roth vs Traditional is mainly a tax-timing decision. The most important question is usually: Will my marginal tax rate on contributions be higher or lower than my effective withdrawal tax rate later?
- Roth tends to win when you expect your retirement tax rate to be higher or similar, or when tax-free withdrawals are strategically valuable.
- Traditional tends to win when you expect a meaningfully lower retirement tax rate and actually invest the upfront tax savings.
- Use same pre-tax budget mode when you want the fairest apples-to-apples comparison of equal economic sacrifice.
- Be careful with assumptions because small tax-rate changes can flip the answer.
This tool is for planning only and does not model IRA eligibility rules, income phaseouts, RMDs, state taxes, or legislative changes.