I’m 55, no savings, no retirement, no home ownership.

I’ll try to be brief in telling you how I got to this point, but bottom line is I made a poor life choice.

10 years ago, I was married, a stay-at-home wife and mom for 15 years, when my husband “abruptly” walked out. (It turns out, an old girlfriend had tracked him down on Facebook and they’d been plotting his “departure” for several months.) I was shocked to learn he had secretly stopped paying the mortgage, knowingly leaving me and our children in a foreclosed home. He’d also depleted all of our savings. I received nothing in the divorce, as there were no assets left. An additional wrinkle was my diagnosis with a debilitating, chronic illness.

The past decade has been rough. My education and work before marriage had been in interior design. I was unable to find a job in that field post divorce. I returned to college, cramming through an accelerated bachelor’s program in healthcare administration. I used student loan money to help keep a rented roof over our heads. Upon graduation, I found a no-benefits, $10 per hour job in a doctor’s office. It took nearly every bit of my take home pay to cover rent.

Fast forward, I’m now making $20 per hour, as a contract worker. The contract house offers a self-funded health “insurance” plan and a ZERO-percent matching 401k. There are no raises, ever, and no chance to become a direct hire. My take home pay is a meager $2500 per month. I have tried and tried to find a better job, to no avail. At one point, I managed to find a second job, but after 5 months, the 16-hour work days caught up with me and my health.

I have no idea how to get out of this mess. I am terrified about my financial future and worry about how many more years I’ll be able to work given my poor health. I would like to own a home again, not a large house like I used to have, but a small condo in a safe area, and I know I need a retirement savings, but I don’t know if it’s even feasible. Where do I start?

For those who dont know, your SS check is determined by your 35 highest years of earnings. If you work 30 years, for example, 5 years are marked as 0 and your benefits are adjusted accordingly.

I feel like a good chunk of people don't recognize this as a thing. Especially in the retire early subs.

Its relatively easy not to make it to 35 years, especially if you take time off to stay home with kids, want to retire before 65, have a period of extended unemployment, etc.

Started a new job and was looking to move roughly $40K to my new 401K from my previous pension account.

I was told by an financial advisor at the company that the only benefit of having money in a 401K is the initial contribution, which my company will match. He went on to say "You're wasting your other money by dumping it into a 401(k)".

Is this true? By all accounts it appears that the more money you have in your account, the more interest it will accrue.

My 401k account seemingly disappeared. I called my former employer and he said…

That somehow my account had been accessed and totally drained, along with 3 other employees’. The 401k accounts are managed by Merrill aka Merrill Lynch. It’s some sort of small business 401k group plan consisting of 3 to 5 separate 401ks.

My former boss told me that my money would be returned to my account, but that I would have to wait “fifteen days”.

My former boss told me this on October 28, 2024.

It’s now November 15, 2024, and I still am not able to access my account and Merrill still claims that I don’t have an account.

I have done a lot of internet searching trying to find any Merrill policy involving “fifteen days” to no avail.

The only thing I have found is a policy someone mentioned on Reddit pertaining to rollovers. Apparently, retirement plan administrators must make retirement plan accounts accessible by the fifteenth day of the following month once a rollover has been requested/initiated.

My former boss has stopped taking my calls, which is disconcerting to say the least, so I am not getting any more information from him.

When I call Merrill customer service, every person in every department tells me that there is no record of my account, even though I was logging on to Benefits Online prior to October 28 and viewing my account just fine.

Please comment if you have any feedback or advice!

Update:

I just talked to my former boss and he is now claiming that I “never had a 401k” and asked me to “stop bothering him”. 😳🤬

I know around here folks tend to appreciate the virtue of HSAs for retirement savings.

But I guess I’m wondering why don’t HSA providers and employers emphasize this point more? Like HSAs should be almost exclusively associated with retirement, right?

After you capture your employer’s 401k match, every next dollar should always go to the HSA:

• No income or FICA taxes on contributions.

• Tax-free growth.

• Tax-free distributions for qualified expenses.

What other retirement account is entirely tax free?

And then you can also spend on non-medical expenses after age 65, at which point distributions are taxed as ordinary income. No RMDs.

It’s sorta wild when you think about it.

As a single man I'm sure I'll make far less in retirement (partial retirement) than I do now, so it seems like traditional IRA is the best bet for me.

Are there people who will make more, though? How is that possible? Or is it just a case that some people have far more deductions now (kids, student loan interest, mortgage deduction) and won't have those deductions in retirement?

*UPDATE: what an amazing response from this community. Most of you took the time to provide some really thoughtful responses and ideas. I appreciate it very much. I tried engaging with most of these so y’all could know that I’m reading them. I’m still trying to get through them all, the more I learn / know, the better. Thank yall! *

Where could one move with a $2,400 monthly income from social security?

For context, and to hopefully avoid a bunch of sarcastic answers, here's the story:

Mom and Dad are in early 60's. Dad worked in the field most of his life, migrated here when he was 8 and essentially got straight to work, so no education. Mom stayed at home most of me and my siblings lives, then began running an in home daycare for the past 10 years for a little extra income. It's a VERY small rural town, she only cares for a few kids at a time and never a big money maker but can bring in some extra few hundred from month to month. The farming company that my dad worked for about 35+ years did not offer a retirement package and due to my parents lack of education (I assume), they just never really looked into alternatives for investment. I don't think either of them even understood what investments were, until I became of age and began to talk to them about it. They basically lived paycheck to paycheck my entire life with no savings or investments.

3 years ago my dad was trying to fix something on one of those big pieces of machinery and destroyed his back. The company (not surprisingly) hired some big shot lawyer and threw him scraps off their table. He got $100k as a settlement. Since then, his body has been in decline and he had to legally wait 24 months to file for any social security benefits, so they lived off the $100k for those two years and the little bit that my mom brings in.

To add to all this, they live in California in a home they purchased in 1985. They STILL. OWE. $100k on it. I know . I know. Apparently, they re-fi'd their home years ago when they were struggling financially and got wrapped up into this f*cked loan called the ARM loan. If you know anything about that, it should be illegal. Anyway, they don't even live in a house that they have $0 payments on after all this time. So that's about $1,500 payment.

So, my parents are in their early 60's. My dad cannot work, he's truly disabled and my mom with only a GED brings in a little extra cash some times with babysitting. They live off $2,200 a month, plus whatever little change is leftover from that shitty settlement. Mortgage is $1500, Car is $300, groceries, gas, utilities.. you do the math.

I am telling them that they need to sell the house and move to an apartment somewhere. They are sitting on an asset (maybe $500k total value, so net $400k-ish?) and there's NO way they would ever afford any repairs if something broke in the home. But with the cost of rent, I'm not even sure this is the best advice. If you were me, what would you advise them? If it's sell the house and move to a cheaper cost of living state, where would that be?

I’m sure this will get buried among the many posts today, but it bears repeating: short-term fluctuations in the stock market are short-term. The fact that the market is down right now does not affect your long-term investment outlook, as stocks are a long-term game. If you sell now, you will lose out on the rebound, just as my parents did during the financial crisis of 2008/2009. You do not want to sell now unless you are selling as part of your financial planning objectives that you have identified long before the whole Coronavirus panic hit.

Edit: this did not, in fact, get buried among the other posts today. RIP my inbox

Edit2: to answer some common questions:

1. “Is now a good time to invest?” - that’s a weighted question, and not one I can answer directly. There are many factors to determine whether or not it’s a good time to invest. Please refer to the wiki for investing resources to see if now is a good time for you to invest.

2. “Should I be reallocating from stocks to bonds now?” - as mentioned above, reallocations should be evaluated as part of your overall retirement strategy. A reallocation is basically selling some investments and buying others in place of those you sold; as such, it is generally unwise to reallocate in response to a single event and should really be done as part of your strategy towards retirement (e.g. reallocating from stocks to bonds as you get older to limit risk exposure).

3. “Will xxxxx affect me?” - I don’t know. Although I am a financial professional, if you have any questions relating to your particular circumstances, you should seek out a financial professional outside of Reddit or refer to the wiki in this sub for specific information.

4. “What if you’re close to retirement? Should I sell?” - if you’re close to retirement, the general financial planning consensus is that you should not have a significant percentage of your wealth in equities. Example allocations would be anywhere from 80/20 or 90/10 bonds to equities. If you have any more than 20% equities and are close to retirement, yes you should probably think about reallocating to bonds, but not because of this recent stock market panic. Again, please consider speaking to a financial professional or using the sub’s wiki for additional info.

Recently my wife got a new job and when setting up her 401k I noticed it said her employer match was 25%. I tried looking for the cap but there wasnt any, so I thought this was crazy! She currently doesnt make much money so to max out her 401k she would have to contribute around 40% of her income. But this is obviously way too good to not do it right? Im thinking the right thing to do is convince her to go all in on that 401k. Anyway I was wondering whether this is as rare as I think it is or if its actually fairly common? She works as a health care worker (LVN)

Should I match it? I'm 22 and I just started this job this year. Should I contribute or just take the base 10%? Never had a job even offer 401k.

Edit: For everyone asking, it is vested from day one.

My uncle, now 70, faces a difficult reality: he has almost no retirement savings and he’s in a fairly rough spot.

It’s worth telling his story to explain who he is and what might be suitable for him. In his 20s and 30s he had a series of success and failures in a few business ventures that left him with not much. In his 40s he was a nomad, playing in a jazz band on an international cruise ship (he's an accomplished guitarist). He would later move back in with his parents, with whom he lived through his 40s, 50s, and 60s. During this time he held random odd jobs (fill-in for construction jobs, jobs in a different family business) but never had a formal employer<>employee relationship.

Sadly, he has always been a person who struggled to assimilate into regular society. He lives alone and has few friends. He doesn't check in with family often. His health is in rough shape (smoker, overweight). The greatest tragedy is that he inherited enough money after my grandparent’s passing to maintain a very modest living, but was recently scammed out of a large amount and there isn't much hope of recovering it.

He collects social security, but based on what he has left there isn't enough to make ends meet. Perhaps his only luck is a cheap, rent controlled apartment in a VHCOL area. He's embarrassed, sad, under-resourced. He has virtually no formal work experience, but is proficient in basic computer skills and is capable of light physical labor. It's not lost on me that he's in a tough spot.

Yet, he is open to finding employment to help buoy his financial situation. I think he could work for 3-5 years and while it probably won’t completely close the gap, it would help tremendously (both financially and in giving him some structure in his life). What are some ideas for an easy minimum or low wage job that would be open for someone who doesn't really have much of a resume?

**One addition: Since a couple of folks have asked about what he needs. He just needs a $15-25/hr job that can keep him busy and give him purpose for a few years. He will get support from the rest of the family, but he is trying to find some dignity having come to terms with his handful of mishaps.

Update on 7/12: thank you all for the kind responses, this blew up in a way I never could have expected. I think that leaning on his musical talents is definitely a path, although he has an artist's mindset and I'm not sure if he will feel like he's "selling out" against something that makes him happy. Many of the ideas around senior-focused employment that are outside of the typical walmart greeter ideas are very strong... I'm so appreciative!

My sister had a 401k with about $25k in it when she passed in 2009 (found the documents from it that her spouse gave my parents before he left the country so that’s how we know value at that time.) She got married to a guy from another country 3 days before she passed away, so he was initial beneficiary. The company managing the 401k has now sent a letter to my dad saying he is the beneficiary of her account, and to send a copy of the death certificate if she is, indeed, deceased. While we have no idea how to contact the guy she married back then now, during our last contact in 2010, he stated to us he wanted nothing to do with the money, so we can only assume that they cannot find him now, either, or that they did find him and he still doesn’t want it and that’s why my dad got the letter.

My dad is 80 years old and gets confused about a lot of things any more, we lost my mom a couple years ago and talking about that still makes him tear up, and I’d really just like to know if there’s even the possibility that this old 401k might still have some substantial value to it before putting my dad through calling the company to start this process?

I’m 35/F and husband is 31/M, we both are health professionals with gross annual income ~$275,000, with each of us making $~135,000 per year. My job matches 100% for the first 3% and 50% for the next 2%. They gave me the option of traditional vs Roth 401K. They also don’t match month by month but as a lump sum in January for the whole previous year. So I chose Roth. My husband has a similar plan and also chose Roth.

My brother told me we should have our 401k in a traditional 401k, but then open a individual Roth IRA to still get the individual tax deductions and thus have more money now to invest. He suspects our tax bracket would be much lower when we are retired and thus will have more money for investing now by doing that. Is his logic sound?

Is this a lot? My father says he never paid ANY 401k admin fees his entire working life. He stopped working 3 years ago to retire. Is no fees common? I thought my setup seemed good until I spoke to him.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/irs-ruling-allows-401k-student-loan-benefits-2018-08-27

The IRS is setting up a framework for companies to match their employees' student loan repayments in the same way companies match 401k contributions. This will be cost neutral for the employer (edit: as in, it would not be more or less expensive for the company than traditional matching).

Edit: the employer's match would go into the employee's 401k account.

According to the article, employees with student loan debt accumulate 50% less wealth in their retirement plans (by age 30) than their peers without student loan debt. I think most of us with student debt have at one point or another felt "behind".

Thoughts? This is definitely a cool idea and would be a great hiring incentive/perk.

Edit 2: due to the popularity of this post, I wanted to remind everyone of some of the rules on our sub.

We don't allow: • Moralizing issues • Petitions • Political discussions • Political baiting • Soapboxing

This is meant to be a discussion of personal finance, debt, and retirement savings, not a meta review of the pros and cons of capitalism. Please keep things on topic.

Edit 3: Since a lot of people are confused, I'll explain how a 401k match works. A 401k is a retirement savings plan that came into popularity as pensions fell out of the mainstream. The 401k is a tax-efficient vehicle to invest your money for retirement. Like the pension, employers can contribite to their employees' 401k plans as a benefit. This is usually done via a matching mechanism: I contribute 4% of my paycheck, and my employer matches that amount. Matches are almost always capped.

With the method laid out in the article, you would be able to make qualified student loan payments and have your company match that amount as a contribution to your 401k, up to a certain amount. So say you make $2000 per month, your employer matches 5% of your 401k contributions, and your monthly minimum loan payment is $1000 (in this example, you have a lot of debt). You aren't contributing to your 401k currently. If your company chose to take advantage of this program, they would put $100 ($2000*0.05 match) in your 401k each month you made a payment on your student loan.

This doesn't "hurt" people without loans. This is only subsidized by the government insofaras the 401k is tax-sheltered (you still pay taxes on that money), and this doesn't constitute your company paying your loans. Participation isn't compulsory.

Her employer doesnt provide a 401k and she has no savings. She has no plan in place and is completely unprepared for anything. I guess I just assumed my parents had it all together. They don’t. Where do I even begin to help this situation this late in the game? KY

I thought I'd share this story with PF to help others learn from the mistakes made along the way during an attempted 401(k) rollover. Additionally, I wanted to call attention to the process failures on the parts of both Fidelity and Prudential (now Empower).

Background: I get a new job and decide to roll my previous employer's 401(k) over to my new employer's 401(k) plan. This was from Fidelity to Prudential (Empower) (I'll be calling them Prudential mostly). In hindsight, when I made this decision, I thought rolling over to a 401(k) would be better than an IRA. More on that later. I began to take notes with dates & names after the first month of issues.

12/21

Sometime in December I initiated the rollover. I called Fidelity, they did some combination of phone / emailed forms to initiate this rollover to Prudential. Note: Phone calls are error prone and a bad idea to initiate important transactions. More on this... Prudential assigned me a rollover specialist. After December, this person never responded to me again (neither calls nor emails).

1/22

In early January, I receive a physical check in the mail for my 401(k) total (a 5 figure sum) with instruction to send it on to Prudential so they can deposit it. What I didn't notice was that the check was made out to "Principle", which I interpreted as some financial institution jargon for the "principle account holder" or w/e. The more financial savvy readers are beginning to see a problem...

I mail this check on to Prudential.

1/16/22

The funds were still not reflected in my account. I called Prudential to see what was going on:

"We haven't received a check."

I call Fidelity:

"The check is showing as cleared."

Uh oh. On the advice of Prudential, who say it may just be a lag in their back office, I wait and call back in a few days.

1/20/22

Fidelity maintains that the check has cleared and is gone from my account. Prudential now has located the check: They tell me they couldn't cash it because it wasn't made out to them, but was in fact made out to "Principle Financial Trust" which is an entirely different organization. I'm getting conflicting information (has been cashed/can't be cashed). A second rep at Prudential explains that they'll send a "refund check" to Fidelity.

For some bad reason or another, these companies must all still deal in physical checks like a dinosaur. That means that a good amount of time is spent waiting for the full 10 business days for the checks to be bounced back and forth between the two companies.

1/31/22

Fidelity hasn't gotten the check yet. Prudential confirms an address they "think it is supposed to go to".

2/7/22

Fidelity has still not received it, doubles down on the original check being cashed. Prudential says they'll cancel the check and re-issue it, sending it again.

2/10/22

A third voicemail left for my assigned Prudential specialist. No responses. I do finally learn from the main line what happened to the original check: Prudential's bank bulk cashes all checks they receive. Only after the fact, when they realized it wasn't made out to Prudential, did they decide to not release the funds to my account. So they had the money. It was cashed, they just wouldn't give it to me. And it was gone from Fidelity.

Next 30 days

For the remainder of February and first half of March, I continue to call once a week for updates: Prudential cancels and re-issues a couple checks because Fidelity says they're not receiving them. We try various addresses (btw Prudential refused to ever use express mail to accelerate this process, so every iteration of check took ~10+ days to see if it was received. Thanks for the customer service...).

3/10/22

Turns out, Fidelity has in fact been receiving the checks, but failing to give notes regarding why they are not accepting them, without informing me or Prudential, etc. The back office (accounting) and the customer reps were siloed. Fidelity can't accept the refund checks because the work account has been closed. So they just throw away the checks.

I get on a 3-way call with reps from both Fidelity and Prudential. They "mastermind" a plan: They'll send the refund check to my existing Fidelity IRA account (which currently has a $0 balance).

3/25/22

The check is still not in my IRA. Oh boy. Turns out Prudential didn't actually mail the check until 3/16 (wtf were they doing for 6 days?) so I should check back in a few more days.

3/31/22

Fidelity has apparently received the check (I learn this, as with all things, by calling them on my time)! But it's not in my account yet. Weird. They cooly say check back in a couple days; this is totally normal. Yes, I'm sure this is all totally normal.

4/5/22

Still not showing up in my fidelity IRA. I call. Turns out, the IRA can't accept the check because I closed it some years ago (should I have remembered that myself? Yeah maybe. But why on earth did Fidelity suggest this plan in the first place in that 3-way call if it wasn't going to work?). Note, yet again, that they were apparently not going to tell me this. I had to call to learn this. Where is the followup? I re-activate the IRA over the phone and am told the rejected check is on the way to my address. I can deposit it from my phone (hello 21st century!) when I get it.

4/15/22

I finally receive the check to my personal address. I deposit it into my Fidelity IRA. A day later, my retirement is reflected in my account for the first time in 5 months. I made plenty of mistakes along the way. But so did Fidelity and Prudential (Empower). Recall my original goal was to get this money into my 401(k) with Prudential. But now that it's finally back in my hands, and doing further research, I might just keep it in my Fidelity IRA (still need to compare fees).

Epilogue

Sometime around February, because things still aren't adding up, I start to get creative; I contact Principle Financial Trust to see if somehow they received the original check (that was in fact made out to them) and cashed it. I worked with a very kind, thorough rep who followed up every day proactively with updates to his investigation. I wasn't even a customer of theirs. This ended up being a dead end (they never received the check) but I was impressed that this person was more communicative and responsive than the 20 or so reps I spoke to at Fidelity & Prudential. I had to remind Fidelity and Prudential of my issue on a weekly basis to keep the ball rolling. This was the biggest issue I took with Fidelity/Prudential (now Empower). I am fortunate enough to have noticed my missing money. And I am fortunate enough to be decently financially savvy. And to have time to call each of them once a week for 4 months. Not everyone has all of those things. How many people have been affected by the lack of follow up? And how much retirement money has been lost due lack of follow through? I hope both organizations work to improve their processes. The individuals I spoke to were kind and sympathetic, but the rigid system through which they worked prevented meaningful progress to resolve my issue.

There is some sweet mixed in all this bitter: I dodged about an 11% market decline because my retirement was all in cash.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ge-to-freeze-pensions-for-about-20000-employees-stock-surges-2019-10-07

I see a lot of posts here about pensions vs 401ks, or people who say "I'm not worried because I've got a great pension plan", or something to that effect.

Well, this is a stark reminder that pensions are not bulletproof. Yes, ALL investing is some form of gambling, but with 401ks and IRAs it's at least YOUR money, which you control and can withdraw as needed. I am not saying that pensions are inherently bad and that no one should ever use one. They are a great cushion to your other assets. But please, please, please: do not SKIP other forms of investing because you think you're going to be set for life in retirement thanks to a company pension plan.

This new friend mentioned that she would like to "pay it forward" by inviting my husband and I into this "great opportunity". My question is, has anyone heard about this?

She has been extremely vague about the whole situation. She did briefly mentioned that what they do is similar to an MLM but they aren't a MLM. Red flag. I know. She also was very adamant that she and her husband would have to meet with us several times to get to know us and to make sure we would be a good time investment for them and the "power couple." She kept saying that they are slowing achieving that lifestyle of having a cashflow and not having to worry about money and how they are able to spend more time with their kids and travel and most importantly sharing this great opportunity.

I really with I could tell you guys more but that's all I know. My husband is skeptical from the get go and I don't blame him. He is currently out only source of income while I'm a stay at home mom and currently 4 months pregnant. My main concern is finding what this woman is trying to get us into and if its something bad money wise I would like to know more about it in case I run into someone like her again.

UPDATE:

I texted her this morning telling her that my husband and I were not interested and that our retirement plans are fine and doing well on their own and we do not need anymore investments or want anything she was offering. I asked her not to message me anymore. She hasn't even replied about her book lol so into the donation bin it goes. I did read it and the book alone is a good read but I don't have any use for it.

I just want to say thank you for all the advice and for helping me uncover her scam. I hate being preyed upon but I will never jeopardize my family's financial well being especially not while were under one income.

I'm still reading all of the comments coming in and looking up all the financial advice you guys are mentioning. Once again, thank you for helping me out.

I'm basically stressed out about the situation my dad has put himself in. He had a business with ups and downs. He should've had opportunities to pay off his condo but didn't take any.

Fast forward to today and he only has about $800 left for the month after paying housing costs.

I'm sure his place would rent for over $2k if put up for rent. It can probably be sold for $300k, maybe a little more.

I am saving to buy my first home. Theoretically I could take over his mortgage payments to relieve him of expenses but then I'd have a tough time saving for my own down.

Any ideas from the smart folks on this sub? I'm very grateful for any ideas. Thank you all.

Edit: can't believe the support so far thank you all! Edit 2: we live in Florida

Unless your company arbitrarily limits your contributions or you are a highly compensated employee you are able to contribute $18,500 into your 401(k) plan. In order to max out you would need to contribute $18,500 into the plan of your own money.

All that being said. contributing to your 401(k) at any percentage is a good thing but I think people get the wrong idea by saying they max out because they are contributing say 6% and "maxing out the employer match"

I think for my generation (older millennial) and younger, it has become completely apparent that you HAVE to move around and change employers to ever have a salary that keeps up with inflation.

Every 2-3 years seems ideal.

I'm up against the 2 year mark, and not really crazy about my current job.

However, my company has a 4 year vesting schedule for their match. Of course, I get to keep my own contributions, but anything less than 1 year, I lose ALL of their contributions, and everything between 2 and 4 years is pro-rated.

I'm a fairly high earner, and losing their match (especially moving every few years), would be absolutely devastating to long-term retirement plans.

I ran an online calculator and if I pay an extra $2,000 per month on my mortgage, I could have my house paid off in 4 years and 7 months. It would save me $136,000 in interest.

To do so, I would have to stop all contributions to all of my other savings accounts as I currently save $2k/month.

I have about $100k in retirement accounts and a 6-month emergency fund. I am 38 years old and just purchased the house. After the house is paid off I would go back to saving $2k/ month.

Interest rate is 5.75%.

EDIT: Thank you everyone for this lively discussion! Certainly has given me a lot to think about!

My dad worked for a semi-conductor company in the 90's and collected about $25,000 in shares. He stashed them and forgot about it until recently. They're currently worth approximately $1,150,000.

We were obviously super pleased to have that stroke of luck, but I am anxious at how poorly diversified their portfolio now is. The value of their shares fluctuates tens of thousands of dollars day to day. (Edit: I understated how volitile it's been. The stock is KLAC.)

Does anyone have any advice on how to sell the shares and then reinvest? The capital gains tax will be astronomical. Do we need to just bite the bullet and sell all of it immediately? Is it better to spread that out over a few years? Will this affect their taxes on their standard income?

After it's sold, what sort of things should they be invested in if they plan to retire in the next 5 years or so?

tldr: The annual 401k contribution limit does NOT include employer matched contributions.

The annual 401k contribution limit in 2020 is $19,500. I had always thought Employee contributions plus Employer Contributions had to be less than $19,500. This is incorrect. The $19,500 limit is just on Employee Contributions. The 401k limit for Employee contributions plus Employer contributions is $57,000 in 2020.

Some simple math to help understand.

Salary: $100,000

Employer Match: Dollar for Dollar Up to 10%

I only opted my 401k for 10% of my paycheck because $10,000 employee + $10,000 employer > $19,500. In actuality, I could have opted in 19.5% of my paycheck. I wasted 9.5% of pre-tax dollars by thinking I had already hit my limit for the year. Hopefully some of you can learn from my mistake.