Your 401(k) Employer Match Is Free Money. Take It.
The 2026 401(k) contribution limit just rose to $24,500, up from $23,500 last year. Most workers won't hit that ceiling. But here's the number that actually matters: your employer match percentage. About one in five employees with access to a 401(k) match doesn't contribute enough to capture the full amount, according to Vanguard's annual How America Saves report. At a typical 50% match on the first 6% of salary, that's leaving $1,950 on the table every year for someone earning $65,000. Over a 30-year career with 7% average returns, that uncollected match compounds to roughly $195,000 in lost retirement wealth. The employer match is the single highest guaranteed return available in personal finance. No stock pick, no savings account paying 4% APY, no Treasury yielding 4.25% comes close to an instant 50-100% return on contributed dollars. If you're saving anywhere else before maxing your match, you're optimizing in the wrong order.