What is the difference between a regular 401K and a ROTH 401K?

you fund a regular 401k with pre-tax money, whereas you fund a roth 401k with after tax money. the annual max for both the reg. and roth 401 is 15.5k, however with the roth 401k, if you max it out to 15.5k, you're actually putting in more than the allowed 15.5k pretax amount that's allowed in the regular 401.

when you withdraw from the regular 401 in the future, your withdrawls are taxed. when you withdrawl from the roth 401, all withdrawls are tax free.

basically, difference between the two is if you want to take the tax hit now or later.




I'm trying to figure out which is more worth it, a roth IRA or a roth 401k....assuming i'm not trying to contribute more than 5k and no employer match. Or are they essentially the same thing provided these two conditions?