I recently got a new job. At my old job, my employer matched the 401k up to 4% so I just paid in the 4% to got the match like your supposed to.
My new employer pays 3% automatically into the 401k plus half of what I put in up to 8%. So if I put in 8%, my employer will put in an additional 4%. I initially set it up to put in the max the employer would match, so I put in the 8%.
My problem is that I recently graduated school and have a bunch of student loans to pay off and 8% would go a long way to helping that. I should mention I'm an engineer so that 8% is a big chunk that could go toward student loans. I also am not currently saving for retirement besides this because I want to pay off the student loans first.
Do I just take the automatic 3% and call it good and spend my pay on the student loans? Do I do something in the middle like put in 2% to bring the employer match up to my previous 4%? Or is this all retarded and I should put in the big chunk of 8% of my paycheck and be unable to put it towards student loans?
Thanks.
Edit: Thanks guys, I'll stick with the 8% to get the full match.
Submitted November 03, 2017 at 08:52AM by ketchuminmypants http://ift.tt/2zazSfB
