re: If you could rewind the clock and start over...

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So recently, I dropped my 401k contributions at work down to just my match. 3%. And maxed out my roth which comes out to be 14% of take home.

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If you expect a higher tax bracket in retirement than you are in now, you're doing it correctly.

If you expect to make less in retirement than you do now, you're doing it wrong, and should max out your tax deferred side, now.

That is the A/B analysis for traditional versus ROTH. Unless you are like me and get additional, direct benefits from a lower taxable income now, than the raw reduction of taxation - I get lowered student loan payments, based on my AGI - so, I am heavier on traditional than ROTH.

Also, if you're paranoid, the government can come in and take the ROTH tax exemption away at any time. It would be much harder for them to do that to traditional IRAs, retroactively. You're taking a chance either way.