When I was still in Georgia and had time, I listened to Clark Howard. He is a consumer advocate and in general tries to get people to be better with their money. He often addresses the pre- versus post-tax savings debate because people are always asking. His response is simple and maybe even too simple for this thread but it is no one knows what tax rates will be in the year whatever. Any savings you do now is going to help when retirement comes around. So stop putting a unnecessary factor in play and just start saving anyway you can.
Of course, then he will sometimes branch off into what Greg and Jeff mentioned and that is the other factors such as a 401k match coming into play etc.
You really do have to take into consideration your personal situation and available options. For me, I actually backed off my 401k percentage and put the difference into other accounts. I still get my full company match but I wanted more control over the dollars. I'm still saving the same total as before but I'm controlling it more. I'm also not worried about the tax implications for when I retire. It's a long way away and no one knows what taxes will be like then. For all we know, we'll go the way of Chile and everyone's retirement will be seized and divvied out by the government to be more fair
