Robert Brokamp

And now for the number of the week, which is 23%.

That's the percentage of Americans providing financial support to aging parents, according to a survey from LendingTree, and another 23% expect to have to provide such support in the future.

58% of respondents who financially support parents have taken on debt to do so, and 74% say it prevents them from achieving their own financial goals.

I don't know about you, but my wife and I don't want to be financial burdens to our kids, which is additional motivation for making sure that we have more than enough to pay for our retirements, potential long-term care expenses, and possibly living well into our 90s.

When saving for your retirement, which type of account should you choose?

That's our next topic of discussion when Motley Fool Money continues.

When saving for retirement, the first decision is how much.

But the next decision is where.

Do you contribute to a traditional retirement account or a Roth?

By far, the majority of retirement assets are in traditional accounts.

But here to talk about the benefits of contributing to a Roth or converting a traditional account to a Roth is Fool contributor Dan Kaplinger.

Dan, welcome.

Great to be with you, bro.

All right, so let's start with the basics.

With a traditional account, you get a tax break today because contributions are pre-tax in most situations, not all, but most.

The money grows tax-deferred, but the withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income.

With Roth contributions, there are no tax breaks today.

Money goes in after tax.

And when you convert traditional assets to Roth assets, that amount gets added to your taxable income in the year of the conversion.

So by choosing the Roth, you are going to pay higher taxes this year.