If I decide to not enroll in my new job's 401K, can I contribute to my personal IRA instead?

do both

one reason to keep the 401k (but you could reduce the $ or %) is if the new job gives $ from the company when you contribute, this is a real benefit, many companies match like 2% of your salary if you put in 2% of your salary

agree that the personal IRA gives you more freedom, but it doesn't have to be one or the other

Legally no employer can prevent you from contributing to your IRA. This is your money and you can do whatever you want to do with it. However, unless you have a standard IRA, your contributions are not tax-deferred. That's the advantage of the 401K. Any contributions you make through the employer 401K are taken out of your gross pay before taxes are deducted. So you pay less in federal, and state taxes. If you hve a Roth IRA, you are going to pay taxes on those contributions up front.

You have more flexibility as to how your money grows with your own IRA--which you can't control with your employers 401K plan for the most part--though most 401K plans allow you to decide which of the funds you will have most of your contributions in. You may want to reconsider depending on what sort of 401K your employer offers, and how old you are. You can grow a 401K pretty well if you invest the contributions wisely--and you employer will match part of that. That isn't going to happen with your IRA.

Get IRS publication 590 and look at the income limits. If the 401K is available to you, even if you do not use it, your W-2 will show an x "covered by retirement plan." This means there is an income cap on whether or not you can contribute to an IRA.

Second, there are different dollar amounts involved. With a 401K a young worker can put $17,000 in per year. With an IRA, the same worker is limited to $5000.

You should contribute to both(401k and Roth) because nobody wants to be a corporate slave forever. You just have to budget. You dont have to take all the company benefits

Take Care

Any bank will be more than happy to talk to you about your retirement.

Yes. You can have both, either or neither.