This has been a particularly revealing week at work, to say the least. HR invited a rep from Wells Fargo (who manages our company's 401k, unfortunately) to conduct a series of financial workshops. Over the past several days they've had age and gender targeted classes that employees could attend to learn about how to save for retirement. Why us women need gender specific retirement advice, I have no idea... but I digress. I didn't bother attending any of the classes since I figured it would be the usual generic advice and compounding interest examples. However, I am now regretting missing out on the entertainment that must have ensued during the Q&A portion!
My co-worker finished the class, and came briskly walking back to her desk all in a tizzy. She had finally just set up her 401k last week (age 27, still living with family, been at the company for three years), and had set her contribution to 12%. Since I'm known as the financial guru in our area, she asks "They just told me that they only match 4%! Isn't it bad for me to be contributing 12% if they are only matching 4%???" I steadied my facial expression and said, "No, in fact, you really ought to be contributing 15%, the max amount." The company mandated 15% max is BS, but that's a discussion for another thread... I tried to show her the calculations for the tax advantages, but based on her facial expressions I don't think she got it.
Another co-worker (age 32) came out of the class and announced, "Well, I'm never going to be able to retire." When pressed further, she just said she was relying on her "Golden Ticket" husband who was a teacher. Fingers crossed they never divorce, right?
Several other co-workers with furrowed faces just silently played with some strange sliding tool that they had given out. Frightening.