2/18. Started new job for much higher salary than I've ever had before. Paperwork states 401k is through Principal Financial Group, starts after 1 full year of employment (boo), 3% match (meh), automatic vesting (woo!).
I just now get the full paperwork and terms. Email from HR person states employee contribution is limited to 15% max of salary. Also, the 3% match is provided at year end. Interestingly, she states these in bullets in the email text, *but I do not see them anywhere in the 401k enrollment paperwork.*
I'm pretty upset about those terms. First of all, I had to wait a year to even be eligible. Initial new hire benefits and paperwork does not state anything about the 15% max and year-end match. My salary is 70k, so 15% is 10,500 and well below the federal 19k max. Additionally, because the match is not made with every paycheck, I'm losing out on growth and dividends and interest for the whole calendar year. I've never even heard of the match being done this way, I thought it was always done with every paycheck. Instead, I feel that it's just a year-end bonus directly into the 401k. Another crappy point is that if I'm thinking of leaving in the latter half of the year (espy the last quarter), I'll be tempted to stay around for the 3% match. I just now find out about these and I feel like all of it is just shady terms saving the company $. I did call Principal just to gain some more info and they basically confirmed my understanding of the above terms. The paperwork I have lists out fund options, I'm guessing the most appropriate of which are a balanced retirement date option (2055?), a large cap S&P 500 index, and a mid cap S&P 400 index. Fees are not listed in the paperwork I have, so I guess I'll have to call Principal again...super annoyed about that also. Why aren't fees clearly stated??
So for now I'm trying to wrap my head around everything and get advice here before taking next steps. Investment order would be 3% (2100) to get the match, then traditional IRA maxed at 6k, then I'm not sure what. Do the crappy terms of my specific work 401k change the investment order for me by any chance...? I'm trying to understand all of my options available here, as well as finding the one that's most financially advantageous.
Questions...
1. Has anyone had similar crappy terms such as salary % limits and year-end match? What did you do?
2. I guess my only option in terms of getting more favorable terms is to complain to management? I don't want to be viewed as That Guy or a constant complainer. Maybe recruit a few other like-minded people to join me, the more people agreeing with me, the better? How exactly would I have this conversation with management? "Hey, our 401k sucks, I want more $." Not sure how to say that in a diplomatic way.
3. Most importantly, what should I do right now with my 401k? Other options? IRA? I have never had an IRA so would like some specific instructions on how to go about doing this.
Other info: I have zero debt. I have a fully funded and very healthy EF/FU fund. I have two old 401k accounts. My plan was to figure out my current 401k situation before rolling over old 401k accounts to a new account. I am living in sin with my gf, so expenses are low, which is why I'm trying to max out savings. I've never been in this position before so my goal is to start now with seriously building my stache. I've never had any taxable account or Vanguard account but certainly open to starting now. Before now I've been focused on eliminating debt and funding the EF/FU, but have fully finished killing and building those.
ETA: No HSA option. I'm not sure why, but I guess my health insurance isn't technically a HDHP.