I am a UC employee and am not aware of any extra UC contribution to the 403b. Perhaps this is only for faculty? I'm prioritizing the 457 myself for the withdrawal flexibility. I might have misunderstood when the 401a was explained to me, but I thought those were post tax contributions. Can someone clarify on that point? Can I really contribute $18k x 3, pre-tax, to those three plans? I'm actually not even clear if non-faculty are eligible for 401a contributions at all. I guess I should check with HR, although just being able to max a 403b and 457 (not to mention the pension), is pretty sweet as it is.
Sorry, I was smooshing some things together (the employer match and the 403(b)).
The stand-alone 401(k) "style" option is described as:
- You contribute 7% of annual eligible pay, before taxes, up to IRS maximum.
- UC contributes 8% of eligible annual pay up to IRS maximum.
In addition to that, you:
http://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/compensation-and-benefits/retirement-benefits/ucrs/index.htmlcan also contribute $18k/year pretax to each of the 403(b) and 457 plans.
So in total, on a 100k eligible base salary, you should be able to amass 15k in the base plan and 36k in the elective plans, for a total of 51k in tax-advantaged retirement savings. Of that, 8k was UC contribution, and the rest was pre-tax, leaving you with 57k of taxable income. I'm drooling a little.
(The thing I was noting was similar is that my university also provides about an 8-9% of salary contribution, but it doesn't let you throw in as much money overall.)
Read the docs on the 457 carefully, though, because it has different legal protections than the 403(b).