401(k) - Roth vs. Traditional Smackdown

Our company will be offering a Roth 401(k) option starting in February. While trying to decide what to do with my personal money - choose the traditional 401(k) or switch over to the Roth, I've been looking for 'calculators' that will allow me to play with various scenarios.

The search has been futile - the few that I have seen are really too basic to help make a decision.

So I built my own spreadsheet in Excel to help decide.

The big think lacking in most calculators is this: The Roth costs real money up front - in taxes. In my way of thinking the fairest way to calculate a true comparison would be to take the extra money that the Roth costs, and add that to the traditional 401(k) - as a 'side' investment account. The gains would be taxable, probably at divident or capital gains rates. This evens the playing field quite a bit.

You can download my spreadsheet calculator here.

Comments or criticisms welcomed!