Quote:
Typically they do 17-18% DC to a 401k. You can then voluntarily make additional tax-defered contributions, up to the IRS limit, which is age-dependent.Originally Posted by SamuelTheKItty
I'm putting together a comparison between all my financial options (pension, deferred annunity from the military and a salary, etc). Can someone give me a super coles notes of how the retirement contributions work at the Majors? I think I know that the legacies contribute 18% even before you contribute a dime personally, but that it the extent of the knowledge I am able to gleen on the subject. If anyone could give me enough information beyond that to fill out a spreadsheet doing a rough comparison, I'd appreciate it.
For a senior-ish CA, the company DC alone might exceed the IRS cap, in which case you'd just get the spillover amount in cash, taxable. You can google the limits.
In conjunction with company 401k, there are some other private options which can complement the 401k benefits.
That's the biggy, but most have other tax-advantaged vehicles such as HSA or ESPP, which are minor in the grand scheme. You can google how those work, but with HSA you can tax shelter a lot of money for current or future (typically retirement) health care spending. If you have a robust military medical plan with very low copays, the HSA might be of limited utility since you can only use that money for medical expenses.
You also typically get free standby travel in retirement.