As with just about everything else in the world, it depends. The easiest way to find the answer depends on your current tax bracket and the tax bracket you intend on being in once you start taking distributions. If you expect to be in a lower tax bracket when you start taking distributions, then many would say Traditional. It does not make good financial sense to assume that you will be in a lower tax bracket. One of your goals should be to establish multiple streams of income so that when retirement age hits, you can live an even better life than you did before retirement. But do not take it from me, let's look at some examples...

Chuck and Tony both make $60,000 a year putting them in the 28% tax bracket. Chuck decides to invest in the Traditional IRA, and Tony the Roth IRA. Both contribute $2500 a year to their IRAs. Because Chuck choose the traditional IRA he has an extra $700 a year. Chuck knows that he will have to pay taxes on his IRA when starts to take distributions while Tony will have tax free distributions. Chuck is counting on being in a lower tax bracket by the time he takes starts to take contributions and the fact that he can invest his extra $700 a year. The both invest in the same fund for 20 years. The fund has a return of 10% a year. Chuck also invests his yearly $700 savings into the fund. Let's see the results.

	Chuck	Tony
IRA worth after 20 years	$143,187.50	$143,187.50
IRA plus other savings after 20 years	$183,280.00 <- ($143,187.50 + $40,092.50) $40,092.50 (adjusted for yearly taxes)	$143,187.50
Worth after taxes	$164,952.00 (10% tax bracket) $155,788.00 (15% tax bracket) $137,460.00 (25% tax bracket)	$143,187.50
* The 40,092.50 is the $700 amount that Chuck also invested in the fund. He still has to pay yearly taxes on

After 20 years, Chuck will have more than Tony. However, Tony will not have to pay any taxes regardless of what his tax bracket will be. Chuck, however, could potentially have more money, but if he wants to stay in the 10% tax bracket, he can only tax out a max of $7150. If he takes out more than $7150 in distributions in a given year but less than $29,050 he will be in the 15% bracket. Being in the 15% tax bracket allows him to still have more money than Tony. If he Chuck can live off of $29,050 of income a year, than he has made a better choice, but who would want to live off of that? If Chuck was able to live off an amount that kept him in the 15% tax bracket, he would have come out roughly $12,600 or 8.8% better.

Well there you have it. Is it really worth it to have a Traditional IRA in this case? You be the judge There is only one reason when I suggest a Traditional IRA. That is when your adjusted gross income when filing single will be over $95,000 and if you are filing jointly over $150,000. At these points you can not fully contribute to a ROTH IRA and when you reach certain income limits ($110,000 single, $160 joint) that you can contribute to a Roth IRA at all.