No company match? Evaluate your 401(k) vs. a Roth IRA

— -- Q: My wife's company stopped matching contributions to her 401(k). Should we continue to make contributions or should we put the money into some other retirement account?

A: Your wife isn't alone. Many firms are cutting benefits now.

The long-term effects of companies cutting their contributions to workers' 401(k) plans will be serious. After all, many firms dropped their defined benefit pension plans in favor of 401(k) contributions. Now that workers get neither pensions nor 401(k) matching contributions, you've got to wonder how people are going to be able to retire comfortably. But that's a topic for another day.

To make your decision, you'll first want to take a close look at the funds offered by the company's 401(k). If there are mutual fund options that you like and wouldn't be able to invest in on your own, you might decide to keep contributing to the 401(k). The 401(k) might have funds whose fees are lower than funds available to the public or it might have funds that are closed to the public.

If the funds in the 401(k) aren't appealing, I'd recommend making contributions instead to a Roth IRA. With a Roth, you contribute dollars that have already been taxed. But then, you can pull out your contributions and gains without owing any tax. It's a sweet deal, as you can read about here.

Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies. He answers a different reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com. Click here to see previous Ask Matt columns.