Traditional vs Roth IRA/403b as resident with large moonlighting and REPAYE?

[axiomatic]

So I am a PGY-3 (out of PGY-6) and live in NYC where my marginal tax rate is ~40% with federal/state/local/FICA (https://smartasset.com/taxes/new-york-tax-calculator) with an income of ~73k + 20k moonlighting. I also have ~350k federal loans on REPAYE. I am a huge follower of boggleheads, WCI, and /r/investing and have amassed ~100k in roth IRA and 403b since starting residency. Fortunately my rent is super low due to connections in NYC, so I am able to max my IRA every year, and my 403b last year. I am on track to also do similar amount of moonlighting. I have no dependents and no loans except student loans. I spend <800 per month on credit card (food, bills, fun, gf, etc) which gets paid off monthly. I have 4k emergency fund.

My question is, should I switch over to traditional IRA and 403b? I will most likely NOT do PSLF.

Advantages: lower REPAYE payments with greater federal subsidy, save extra on NYC/NY taxes with possibility of moving to a lower tax state in retirement (almost definitely a place with no city tax).

Disadvantages: As per usual WCI arguments, tax rate probably will go up in the future, probably will have higher income in retirement than in residency, etc.

https://forum.whitecoatinvestor.com/...ellows-do-roth

In the above discussion, it seems more of a wash of a fellow in a similar position as me, and some people recommended switching to traditional.

Thoughts? At what residency income with moonlighting would you switch to traditional?

[jfoxcpacfp]

It's a tradeoff either way but I think your future self will thank you for building up a Roth account and will not remember the NY taxes you paid. Good job on saving and welcome to the forum!

[Peds]

So I am a PGY-3 (out of PGY-6) and live in NYC where my marginal tax rate is ~40% with federal/state/local/FICA

hi, do you understand how FICA is considered in all this?

[axiomatic]

It's a tradeoff either way but I think your future self will thank you for building up a Roth account and will not remember the NY taxes you paid. Good job on saving and welcome to the forum!

Yes that is my suspicion. I don't really notice that much paying the extra tax currently since I have everything I really want right now and no major expenses. In retirement I'll probably be spending more.

hi, do you understand how FICA is considered in all this?

Ah I think so yes, I just lumped FICA in with the taxes to give an idea of my take home. My understanding is that if I don't pay FICA now (via traditional contributions), then obviously I won't pay FICA during retirement (unless I take a post-retirement job). So really I guess my marginal TAX rate is 32%, and lets say I do contribute to traditional and move to a no state/local income tax area, then I'd save the 10% state/local tax (or ~1/3 of my marginal tax rate currently) depending on how I structure my roth and traditional withdrawals.