Help with rollover and traditional vs roth 401k/ira

[Yariel Rivera]

I just started a new job and am in the process of setting up my retirement. My new employer offers a 401k and they match 233% up to 3% of my base pay. I'm able to contribute to that as pre-tax or roth. I will definitely contribute at least 3% to take advantage of the 233% matching, but should I use pre-tax or roth?

I also have 2 accounts that I want to rollover. Both are pre-tax accounts. One account has around 40k and the other has around 17k. Should I roll these into my employer's 401k? Should I roll them into an ira?

Based on research I've done I'm thinking of having my 401k be a roth account and rolling the other accounts into a traditional ira. I thought about rolling them into a roth and making the 401k a traditional, but I don't have the funds to pay the taxes on the rollover conversion. I could also just roll everything into the 401k and open a separate roth ira.

Some information that may be important:

I'm 31 years old

My salary is around 50k

My spouse makes around 57k

8 year old daughter

Own a house (appraised at 420k; owe around 285k)

Thanks in advance.