The other day I was thinking through how I want to automate my 2026 payroll and started thinking about how important the 401k really is. My company doesn’t match 401k, rather they provide an ESOP with 6% of your salary yearly (employee owned company worth around $1.3B).
Other than the being able to max out a 401k Roth I don’t see the benefit. If you were able to contribute $24500 (2026 max) or more to a taxable brokerage, why wouldn’t you? Leave that in tax efficient ETFs and only sell when you retire or if you need to rebalance. When you reach retirement and start selling your gains and income will be taxed as long term gains or qualified dividends if done correctly. This would very likely result in a lower tax bracket than someone pulling 6 figures from a 401k and receiving social security.
Please correct me if this thought process is wrong, I haven’t researched it yet as I’ve been to busy but I needed to get some helpful minds on this asap.