When can you start contributing to the 401k

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Your kids are fortunate to have such a helpful dad.

I guess if your going to do a 401k loan, helping your kids with college is a worthwhile reason.

The ex and I split their first year between us and then we split everything by 3 for the remaining 3 years. Grad school was on their own dime. This worked out well for our daughter but our son decided to party during his first year so Mommy and Daddy cut off the check book at that point. He paid for everything beyond that himself and today has his MBA.

 

[IVE GOTTA PACKAGE 4U]

[quoteUpstateNYUPSer, post: 1367853, member: 12570"]College expenses do not qualify for early withdrawal.[/quote]
Unless It is from an Roth IRA

 

[PhatAzz]

Get in it, stay in it, Put as much as you can in it. You will HATE it at first. You'll probably hate it for the first 10 years. After 10 years or so, it will start growing and multiplying and hopefully you will see the benefit of uping your contribution to the max. I'm assuming you're younger than 25 or 30?
20 years from now you'll look at it and realize that there is no way on this planet that you would have ever saved that amount of money on your own - without someone keeping it away from you.
Then when you turn 50-55 and your 401K has a million and a half in it, you can consider leaving UPS any time you want without having to worry about working toward a $40K yearly pension. By that time, 20 - 25 years from now, everyone will have health care so that should not be a concern.
My wife "used" to hate that I had the max taken out of my pay every year. That is until she started looking at the 401K statement - now she looks at the statement and she gets happy)

 

[AndUPSER]

I started mine about 3-4 months after I started UPS. Now whenever I get a pay raise I contribute another percent or two. Currently I'm at 8% and will bump it up to 9% when I hit my anniversary date.

I started my 401k when I was still in high school at 17, so I should hopefully be in pretty good financial shape 30 years from now.

 

[purplesky]

Get in it, stay in it, Put as much as you can in it. You will HATE it at first. You'll probably hate it for the first 10 years. After 10 years or so, it will start growing and multiplying and hopefully you will see the benefit of uping your contribution to the max. I'm assuming you're younger than 25 or 30?
20 years from now you'll look at it and realize that there is no way on this planet that you would have ever saved that amount of money on your own - without someone keeping it away from you.
Then when you turn 50-55 and your 401K has a million and a half in it, you can consider leaving UPS any time you want without having to worry about working toward a $40K yearly pension. By that time, 20 - 25 years from now, everyone will have health care so that should not be a concern.
My wife "used" to hate that I had the max taken out of my pay every year. That is until she started looking at the 401K statement - now she looks at the statement and she gets happy)

Great advice!

 

[Coldworld]

Little off topic but does anyone know if the union plan and the ups mgt plan have the exact same funds in each...my Edward Jones guy said that for being such a large company ups 401k options are pretty weak...not many choices.

 

[IVE GOTTA PACKAGE 4U]

Little off topic but does anyone know if the union plan and the ups mgt plan have the exact same funds in each...my Edward Jones guy said that for being such a large company ups 401k options are pretty weak...not many choices.

Not many options, but a good and inexpensive,starting point.

But you are correct, pretty lame for a company of our size!