Flu, thanks for the back door explanation. Probably way more work and risk than I want to put in – after all, the max I could put into an IRA is just a fraction of what I’d put into a 401K in 2017…think I’ll consider your other suggestion of putting part towards mortgage and a part under the mattress. I’ll run the numbers of how much I’d have to throw at the mortgage to have it paid off when I’m 67, that might steer me towards the right split.
I also should check to see what fund choices they offer – hopefully it isn’t crappy! That might influence my decision on how long I stay.
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I wouldn’t worry about it, you’re not going to miss *that* much money from waiting extra year. Who knows, maybe you won’t lose money during that 1 year, in case the stock market tanks. So you never know, maybe there’s reason for this after all 🙂
You definitely should check the sort of funds they offer. A shitty 401k plan will stick you with managed funds that have huge hidden fees/costs, and very little selections of funds that mirror index funds. Index funds are meant to be passive/low cost funds, and a lot of 401k plans don’t have them because the plan administrator obviously wants to make money by offering those actively managed funds.
The other thing you want to check at a small company is if there are any specific rules/restrictions as to when you can do exchanges, and how often you can do exchanges, if there are any sort of extra costs from doing exchanges, and if there are any fees to roll out of the account or transfer out of that account. In my new employer, they were adding a few new funds two months ago. And while they were doing that, the plan administrator locked out anyone from exchanging their funds for about 6 weeks.
The other thing you want to check at a small company is how before one paycheck’s contribution makes it into a 401k account. This should not be longer than 1 week. If the company is doing something shady, you won’t see the funds for several weeks.
