I've been living pretty mustachian for a while now, and I've had a full year+ of work under my belt. I've gotten a pretty good track on my expenses, savings, etc. I digress. On to my question - I know this has been asked before, and maybe it's just a personal decision relative to each person, but I can't figure out how much to put in my 401K.
The story - I currently contribute the minimum required to receive full company match to my 401K. This translates to $4,004.64/year. My company matches that at $4505.22/year (They actually match more because they put a default 3% in regardless of employee contribution, then it goes up from there). Because I do the minimum, and I make far more than I need, I save quite a bit of money. I take home ~$1300 every 2 weeks plus tax refund every march and bonus every February. I live on ~$12,000/year, or ~$1,000/month. This means every month, I save ~$1,600 plus the 3rd paycheck of the month twice a year plus the tax refund plus the bonus. I contribute the max (5000) to a Roth IRA.
Summary
401K total contributions/year - $8,509.86
Roth IRA contributions/year - $5,000
Donations - $5,000
non-tax-sheltered savings/investments ~ $15,000
My question also relies on the following details - I currently rent an apartment. I hope to buy a house, probably a multi-family, within the next year or two. I would like to pay cash, or at least have as small a loan as possible. However, if it is more to my advantage to contribute a larger amount to a tax-sheltered 401K, maybe I should do that.
I guess I want to shelter as much from taxes as possible, but I don't want to make that $15,000 inaccessible for house-purchasing purposes. Also, I want to be able to withdraw it before 59.5 when I get there.
I tried not to make this too verbose, but it looks like I failed again.
Thanks for the help everyone!