Retirement Planning

Retirement Planning: You have just attended the HR Orientation at your new job, and you learned that your employer offers a defined contribution retirement savings plan: a 401k. Your employer will match 100% of your contributions to the plan up to a maximum of 5% of your salary. You are offered two options: • a traditional 401k, which allows you to contribute pre-tax money and defer paying taxes until you begin taking withdrawals in retirement; • a Roth 401k, which allows you to contribute money that has already been taxed and take tax-free withdrawals in retirement. You are also offered the option of choosing to increase your initial contribution amount by 1% annually, to a maximum of 15% of your salary. • Will you choose the traditional 401k or the Roth 401k? What factors did you consider in making your decision? • What percentage of your salary will you contribute? Will you choose the automatic 1% annual increases to your contribution? Provide specific rationale for your decisions.