because they desire a tax shelter over gains. I do not. Hence the optionality part of the LOA

They needed something to put the min balance plus up payment into that would be shielded from taxes for the guys about to retire.

And when your tax deferred income in retirement is as high as your wage income you will lose the 30% then.

Youns don't understand compounding, do you? Or discretionary withdrawals.

You don't understand compounding if you want your money to be in a vehicle that underperforms the market.

A small income generating low risk portion, which is part of a diversified retirement that tapers risk for security over time, yup. How much overage do think we will have when the income threshold is $330,000 and increases every year? If you are saying there's going to be overages for roughly the bottom half of the seniority list, you're wrong.

hillarious.

Do me a favor. Run the numbers on 100k invested pretax with whatever rate of return you want for 10 years. Then withdraw at a 30% tax rate. Then do the same thing with paying 30% tax up front, same growth rate for 10 years. Let me know which is better. I’ll give you a hint it’s exactly the same. You don’t gain anything by investing your taxes if the rate coming out is the same.

Of course there are other factors like capital gains and that’s where assumptions on rates of return and future tax brackets come in. But deferring just to defer is a fools errand.

Do you expect pay rates and the DC% to stay the same?

Reducing invested capital and paying taxes not yet due is the fool's errand.

Nope, but I do expect the DC to go to 20% so the company is fully funding the 401k. Any additional earnings above $330,000 next year will be a nice bonus. Do you think the current GSs will continue indefinitely?