403b vs. Roth 403b?

[SGP20162016]

I work for a public school district. I currently max out a Roth IRA and our $14,400 a year into my 403b. I'm upping it each year and will hopefully be able to max it our yearly starting two years from now.

My question is, my work just started to offer a ROTH 403b and I don't know if I should switch anything up.

I do like that the 403b lowers my taxable income and I think that is key right now because I'm an administrator and make a good salary. But do the benefits of a Roth 403b outweigh the benefits of a regular 403b? Also, once I max out one of them, could I also contribute to the other? Or is it $19,500 maximum for both combined?

Thanks!

[kork13]

If you're able to max out your IRA & 403b, I would tell you to go 100% Roth. The reason is simply that the Roth is more "dense" than a traditional version. Because you've already paid taxes on it, you can effectively pack in more money into the Roth.

However, to your second question, you can only contribute up to the max between a combination of any Roth & Traditional options -- you can't max traditional then also go & max the Roth. So as another example, if you worked 2 jobs that each offered a 403b, you wouldn't be able to max both of them -- you could only contribute up the the max as a total between both jobs' 403b's.

[SGP20162016]

Thank you very much!