[Alberta's Child]

Tax-deferred retirement plans haven't even been around for very long, so what's the big deal if you lose the tax deductibility of your retirement plan? If you look at it closely, the whole push for IRA and 401(k) plans was driven by Wall Street interests who saw this as a way to turn tens of millions of Americans into customers.

For what it's worth, there's a lot to be said for a plan to scale back on your contributions to these plans anyway. The tax-deductibility comes with some strings attached that make these plans less flexible for an astute investor.

[Chgogal]

For what it's worth, there's a lot to be said for a plan to scale back on your contributions to these plans anyway. The tax-deductibility comes with some strings attached that make these plans less flexible for an astute investor.

This tax-deferred retirement plan was NOT designed for the “astute investor”. It was designed as (1) an alternate retirement vehicle for employers and (2) promote savings. If an employee is lucky enough to work for an employer who matches 50%-100% of the employee's payroll deduction that would be an easy 10% of gross annual income savings. That does not include the tax savings.