Thursday, June 26, 2008 Talkback Question:

Does your employer offer a retirement plan? If so, do you participate and how much do you contribute per paycheck.

*SingleGuyMoney's Answer: Yes, my employer does offer a retirement plan and I contribute 6% bi-weekly. My employer matches up to 3%.

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21 comments

  1. Anonymous // June 26, 2008 at 8:14 AM  

    Yes, my employer offers a retirement plan. They match up to 5% so for the first 5 years or so I only contributed 5%. I sort of forgot about it and then did some research--I realized that I was not contributing anywhere near the legal annual maximum so I upped my contribution to 11%. Ideally, I'd like to be at about 15%, but 11 is all I can afford at the moment.

    I just got promoted last Friday, though(yippee!), so when my raise comes through I'll bump it up again (to 12 or 13%).

  2. Anonymous // June 26, 2008 at 8:52 AM  

    My employer offers a 401K and a Roth 401K. They match up to 6% and you have to stay at the company for 3 years to receive 100% of the matching money, else it's 33% for if you stay for 1, 66% for 2 years of service.

    I contribute 7% to 401K and 6% to Roth 401K for a total of 13% contribution hoping to up that 15% after my raise kicks in 7/1.

  3. JimmyP // June 26, 2008 at 9:04 AM  

    Yes, I work for a local government (County) and we have a state pension plan and a 457(b). The pension plan I can not contribute to, but my employer contributes 3% for me. The 457(b) plan I am allowed pre-tax contributions, which I currently contribute 16%.

  4. Philip // June 26, 2008 at 9:21 AM  

    Pretty standard here, after 1 year they will start contributing 3% for my 6%. I already have them take out that 6% just so I am used to it.

  5. Tom // June 26, 2008 at 9:38 AM  

    My employer offers a 401(k) with matching of 75% up to 8%. I put in the full 8%. I was vested after 1 month. I also am in the running for a pension, the vesting period for that is 3 years, and I have been here 2.5.

    My company is now changing their entire retirement plan. They will do away with pensions for employees joining after Jan 1st. It will go to: 1) 401(k) match of 100% up to 4% and 50% up to 4%. 2) Automatic company investment of 3%, 4% or 5% depending on age, regardless of whether or not you invest. 3) No pension.

  6. Anonymous // June 26, 2008 at 10:04 AM  

    my workplace offers a retirement plan. they contribute 5% off the bat (no need for me to do anything and no conditions). for a while, that was all i did, but i recently came to my senses and starting contributing myself (a set amount per paycheck).

  7. Anonymous // June 26, 2008 at 10:11 AM  

    My company offers a 401K plan but no match. I have contributed the full 15% allowable contribution since the day I became eligible.

  8. dreamfool // June 26, 2008 at 10:19 AM  

    They match 50 cents to a dollar that I put into my 401K, up to 4% of my income (which means the max they put in is 2% if contribute 4%). I work for a Fortune 500 company and I think the match is low.

  9. Anonymous // June 26, 2008 at 10:36 AM  

    They match 50 cents to the dollar that I put into my 401K, up to 6% of my income. Right now I am at 8% and I bump it up by at least one percent every year when I get a raise. Plus I have an individual Roth IRA, but I haven't made many contributions. Starting next year I want to max out my contributions to that each year as well.

  10. Anonymous // June 26, 2008 at 11:17 AM  

    Hi, my employer offers two things actually. A 403B and a TIAACREF plan. I have 10% going to the 403B and then 6% going to the TIAACREF. The 6% to TIAACREF is matched by my employer. I feel fortunate that since I started working here (nearly 20 years ago) that I have been taking advantage of the plans! I'm 41 now and hope to keep working for them til I retire.

    I have an individual Roth IRA, that I don't fully fund each year, doing only about Half. I hope that with an upcoming raise (10%!) that I can fully fund that PLUS beef up my emergency fund which is only at $1000 now.

    Great blog, thanks so much for doing it!

    Cheers,
    Laura In Atlanta

  11. Frugal Pursuit // June 26, 2008 at 1:25 PM  

    I have a 401(k) plan where my employer contributes 50 cents on the dollar up to 6% (effectively 3%). I currently contribute 10% pretax.

    My Roth IRA was fully funded last year and I hope to continue fully funding. When this is fully funded, I plan on increasing my 401(k) contribution.

  12. Anonymous // June 26, 2008 at 1:46 PM  

    They give 3% for breathing (depends on age of employment and is 3 years till it vests)

    Match percent for percent up to 4% and vests immediately.

    We put in 4% get a 7% match.

  13. Anonymous // June 26, 2008 at 2:08 PM  

    Yes, 100% match up to 6%. We contribute the max - 15%.

  14. Anonymous // June 26, 2008 at 4:45 PM  

    Yes, my company will contribute 5% as long as we contribute a minimum of 2%, although I contribute 15%.

  15. gaga // June 26, 2008 at 6:47 PM  

    Yes a 401(k). Company matches 100%up to 3% and 50% of 4 and 5%. I have made an effort to increase yearly and am now up to 12%. July 1 I go to 13% and will increase by 1% every 6 months until I find myself eating packaged ramen every night. Due to living under the "knight in shining armor" delusion until I was 40 I am a late bloomer and I'm pretty sure I will have to work until I am 93. Luckily I love to work. My parents (and they are GREAT) taught me to not get pregnant in my teens, floss every day, and treat people with respect. They did not teach me that if I saved $2000 a year for 5 years starting at age 14 I could stop at age 20 and have enough by retirement age to live off of comfortably. Financial education is sorely missing from our current education system. I would give anything to go back and correct the mistakes I made early on due to simply not being taught!

  16. Anonymous // June 27, 2008 at 1:02 AM  

    The company I work for offers a match of 50 cents on the dollar up to 13% or 6.5% of my salary. Unfortunately I can only afford to contribute 8% right now. I'm hoping to increase that over the next year.

  17. Anonymous // June 27, 2008 at 8:03 AM  

    My employer offers a pension and a 401k. The pension, mostly employer contributions with a measly amount from me. The 401k, I contribute the legal max ($15.5k/year) and my employer matches the first 5%.

  18. Anonymous // June 27, 2008 at 10:33 AM  

    I am currently contributing 4% tom my employer's 401(k). They matched 50% up to a 6% contribution up until about a month ago when they temporarily took that away due to budget constraints.

    I was planning to increase my contributions to 6% and then they took the match away so now I think I am going to maintain my 4% and open another, separate non-401(k) retirement account as well.

  19. Anonymous // June 27, 2008 at 11:05 AM  

    My company has a 403b with no match. I contribute 13.5% to it.

    They also have what they call a "cash balance retirement plan". Based on your age plus years of service they decide what percentage of your salary they will contribute to the plan. I am currently at 4.5%. It maxes out at 11.5%. The bad part is the money they set aside only earns 5.5%.

  20. Anonymous // June 28, 2008 at 1:12 AM  

    I am fortunate enough to have the raddest 401k plan ever:

    100% matching on 100% contribution, fully vested on day one!!! crazy, right?

    Needless to say i've been maxing out the legal limit each year - and i def. wont' be leaving anytime soon ;)

  21. Anonymous // July 10, 2008 at 10:05 AM  

    My company has an amazing 401k program. They match 3%, but also have an "age-based" contribution factor. I am 22, so I fall under the -25 category, which means they contribute an additional 2%, for a total of 5%. At 25 I get 2.3%, and it goes up every 5 years, stopping at 60 with 11.6%.

    I believe the max you can put in is just over $15k, I got in about 13k a year at my old job...hopefully the additional contribution here will get me capped.