Whether you put money in a Roth account (Roth IRA or Roth 401k) depends on your future earnings potential. If you think you will earn more in the future than you do today, it makes sense to contribute to a Roth. The reason is that you pay less taxes now than you will in the future, and money inside Roth accounts grows tax-free.

I don't quite understand how your current city's cost-of-living factors into this equation. At the end of the day your investment choices are primarily governed by your income tax bracket now vs. in the future. This holds true regardless of whether you are planning to retire in a low cost-of-living city - which is something everyone should plan to do anyway regardless of the type of retirement account they have.

A Roth is often the only option for high-income workers (after maxing out a 401(k)). Traditional IRAs have an income limit of $72k for individuals and $119k for families in 2017; if you make more than this, none of your contributions are deductible or in any way tax advantaged.

Roth IRAs have income limits as well for contributions, but as long as backdoor contributions are allowed, you can still manage to contribute regardless of your income. Saving some on taxes coming out is better than not saving anything on taxes whatsoever.

In this situation though, a 401(k) is almost certainly a higher priority. But once that's maxed, an HSA (as a retirement vehicle) and Roth IRA are still very good.