Hey everyone... I just wanted to share this with you guys. You may agree and you may not agree. You can take it for what it's worth. This is my view of it.

401K 0wnz! I think it's a great way to have your hard-earned money work for you. :::I'll go ahead and insert the good stuff here. ::: Every company is different. Where I work: I can have between 1-20% of my paycheck deducted for the 401k account. Now, my company matches 160% on the first 4% of employee contributions. Here's the math for better illustration: Say I have 4% deducted from my paycheck...for example's sake, a gross of 600.00 which is 24.00. 160% of 24.00 is 38.40. THAT'S 14.40 FREE MONEY! If you make more, obviously you can contribute more and have more matched. Now, do this for every paycheck and it starts to add up after awhile. Keep in mind I can contribute up to 20% tax free. If you contribute enough, you may qualify for a lower tax bracket...less taxes for you!

Get this: I can contribute up to 10% of my paycheck and not really even notice that it's gone because that's how much is taken out for taxes anyway! --give or take 20.00

The catch to 401k is: there are penalties for withdrawing early. Retirement is when you can actually withdraw w/o any penalty. One good thing is...you can take out loans against your 401k and actually pay yourself back. This is not recommended, however, if you're not responsible with paying debts.

As stated in the description, your company may or may not offer this as one of their benefit perks. I used to think this whole 401k deal was for old people.

No one ever told me that I could take money from the amount I earned every paycheck (the gross amount which is before taxes (pretax)) and put it in an account--having it invested in funds/stocks.

I also have an ING account which is pretty much a savings account with an interest rate of, currently, 3.75% APY (annual percentage yield). It's better than your local bank, but still not enough for me--better than nothing.

Now, I used to work for eckerd as a pharmacy technician. It was your average run-of-the-mill job. Many of you could have applied for the job and have easily gotten hired. My point is, if I had known about the 401k that was offered, part of my paycheck would have been goin' towards that instead of taxes.

I've just made my elections to have the money distributed to different funds. This is going to be good.


Like I said, if I had known about this earlier, I would have started this when I was 20. You can do the math...save, invest, make more money with your money. Be smart with your money.

Please discuss...anybody else doing this? I know some of you are. Being smart with my hard-earned money is just what I like to do. You guys know how it is.

Then, again: to have fun...you know what they say. You have to pay to play. B)

-Eddie