Sure, on the Schwab PRAP website and app there is a contribution section. The options are for both pre-tax (to $23.5k in 2025) and post-tax ($23.5-70k in 2025), and a dollar amount or percentage of pay for each. Setting them both to 100% makes as much of your paycheck as possible go to the 401k. The pre-tax bucket is filled first, then the post-tax bucket is started and is filled until the total reaches $70k (more if over 50).

 

Agree with the above. I'll be stopping the supplemental this election period. Mixed feelings with the FSA due to the use it or lose aspect.

 

I’m surprised that anyone uses the supplemental considering how crappy it is. Maybe the AHRA makes it worthwhile? In general, tricare supplementals for retirees are only good if you are within about 1k of the cap. I have no idea what the reservist plans cost, though.

 

The FSA is gold. You can fund it to any amount you wish. You can use it to buy bandaids if you want. The list of qualified medical expenses is huge. It’s like saving 35% on every purchase.

 

Didn't see anyone mention putting money in an IRA account after 401k is maxed out.

 

Yes, the spill to the Active HRA is tax free and can be used for eligible medical expenses.

The maximum the company can contribute will not max out the 401k. For 2024, the maximum eligible compensation limit is $345,000. 17% of that is $58,650 below the 401k cap for both under 50 and over 50. In order to maximize it, an employee would have to put in something. How much will depend on whether the pilot wants to have spill or not into the Active HRA or RHA.

I'm over 50, so it's actually $30,500 for me this year ($31,000 in 2025). By putting the money in now while I'm in my prime earning years in the highest tax brackets I will be, I save income taxes on $30,000+ per year. I wil pay taxes on that money in retirement when I'm certainly not going to be making the money I make now and I'll be in a lower tax bracket. And this money has the opportunity to grow before retirement. If I decided to have this as take home pay, with federal and my local taxes that will turn into less than $20,000. Putting that into a basic savings or money market account will not come close to off setting the taxes on that, plus I have very few health care expenses at all.

 

It's not always that simple though. Our youngsters are more often than not better off putting their money in as Roth and taking the tax hit now. 20-30 years of growth tax free more often than not offsets the initial tax hit. Everyone should do your research or spend the $ to get advice on it. When you start getting close to retirement and see how much tax you're going to pay when you do start withdrawing (and the Medicare increase you'll pay) it can be eye opening lol. But these are 1st world problems thankfully.

 

When you look at required minimum distribution numbers for someone who could realistically have a $10 million+ portfolio after a long career at a legacy, those numbers are pretty staggering and would put you in a high tax bracket. Currently RMDs on $10 million are $377k when they start at age 73 and $625k at age 85- which is going to produce a hefty tax bill. There is a lot of guesswork as to what the future tax code is going to be as well as what inflation does to the tax brackets, but personally I don’t see taxes decreasing in the long run with the way our government spends money.

As someone who was fortunate enough to get hired with the potential of just under 30 earning years, I make Roth contributions to hopefully limit RMDs in retirement to only the company contributions, limiting my future tax liabilities. Obviously you could take this a step further and do a Roth conversion on company contributions to have virtually zero tax liabilities in retirement, however I enjoy spending money on enjoying life now instead of writing a big check to uncle sam every year for the tax bill on the conversion.

Everyone’s situation is different and again it depends on guessing what you think will happen with tax codes in the future, but just wanted to throw another scenario out there.

 

Also depends very much where you currently reside and where you intend to be in retirement.

 

That’s why you should do both. Max out the before tax contributions, then do after tax contributions immediately converted to Roth. This will give you Roth and non Roth dollars in retirement allowing you to manage your tax rate. Only downside is more RHA spill which will go away once we figure out the Market Based Cash Balance plan.