I had a talk with the brokerage firm retirement planning team, and they told me that if I have money in 401k, it can be pre tax, post tax, or Roth 401k, and even post tax and Roth 401k are different.
If it is in Roth 401k, then it, together with any growth, will just never be taxed again. If it is in post tax 401k, then in the future, some amount or some gain will still be taxed.
And then they told me only 20% of my 401k are in Roth, and 80% are in post tax, and I needed to do something to make them Roth instead of post tax.
It was very confusing and I wonder, how are they different:
Do I pay tax for post tax 401k later? How much do I pay?
What do I have to do to make it Roth 401k? Do I have to pay some tax right away or is it just a procedure thing by filing some papers?
If they differ, then I guess the people who "know" it and do something to make it Roth 401k will pay less tax and people who don't know it will pay more tax. Isn't that quite unfair?