The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Share Your Badassity => Topic started by: Scubanewbie on February 29, 2020, 08:25:29 AM
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Unfortunately megacorp doesnt differentiate bonus from regular payroll so today I called and upped my 401k deferral to 75% (our max). It will be in place 4 days before my bonus hits but also for one regular paycheck. Between the two I will defer 15k before taking it back down to my normal 20pct and should pretty much fill my space by Mar/Apr. I luckily still get the employer contribution all year (last year I filled it by Aug just doing the 20pct nonstop). Now I just hope that stocks are still on sale through end of March. Feeling badass not so much on the bonus, which I've always done smart things with but being able to let my normal paycheck fall into it as well because they are so close I couldn't do one without the other. All while DH has been off work for a month without pay.
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I’m doing the same! Bonus comes in March and company lets us put up to 75% into 401k which is what I do every year. Haven’t done the math yet but ~8% the rest of the year will max my account.
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Be sure to do the math so you'll have enough taken out to meet whatever company match you can get. My company stops matching if we hit the max. So lots of us remind each other throughout the year to recalculate percentages after bonuses to be sure we don't hit our max before our last paycheck.
So what I mean....we get a max of 2% if we put in 4% each pay check. If I were to hit the max half way through the year, I'd get have the max for the year.
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Yeah, my DH's is like that. Luckily mine is not so the company's % comes in every week regardless of whether I put in or not the rest of the year.
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Upping mine to 50% from 40% because of our bonus coming up. HSA is at a fixed number that usually accounts for about 20% of my base pay. Which is why I keep my 401k only at 40% ordinarily. I need to check for sure, but I heard that my company`s maximum for 401k is 50%. I have never tested the waters.
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Recommend to everyone to know the rules of their 401k match.
I thought I would be smart and only contribute to the 401k during bonus time, zero the rest of the time. While previous companies let me do this, unfortunately the rules of my current 401k plan meant that I had to contribute at least the minimum for each paycheck to get the full match. You can imagine how devastated I was when I lost out on the free money. Now, while I still make huge dumps during bonus time, I never go below the minimum the rest of the time.
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When working at the factory job I was an oddball.
The majority would turn off their tax withholding so the spring bonus check would be liquid to spend. Spend SPEND!
I left the taxes alone but would max the 401k withdrawal for a few weeks till bonus posted.
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I have left my 401K contribution alone at 50% of my gross and max contribute my HSA at $256 every two weeks. My pay is not much after deductions, but it is enough for my budget.
The amount of money saved on taxes is astounding though. On my last check I only paid $60 in federal taxes and $0 towards state tax. Having the HSA also lowers my FICA tax.