Can't turn down a job offer you don't have. Go to the interview. Always.
STM317 said:In reply to The_Jed :
100% match for the first 6% is actually decent for a 401k these days
It is. I get the same and I brag about it. Honestly with the numbers I'd say stay where you are. Max out your 401k. Don't play safe with your investments. At 42 you can build up a nice nest egg by the time you hit 60. If you can do extra after maxing out your 401k look at a Roth. The difference being the Roth is post tax so that you don't have to pay tax on it's income once you retire. I'd put a little more risk into the Roth investments because of that.
I have a somewhat decent 401k that I've brought with me over the last few job changes that I will be rolling into my current 401k and I believe I can roll the money that I've paid into the state pension fund into a Roth or traditional 401k but, I'm not sure. I'll probably wind up making many phone calls and sending several emails to make it happen. It took just over a month to roll my 401k into the state-run "deferred comp" retirement account, I'm sure it will take just as long to get it back out. Good old state bureaucracy!
In reply to The_Jed :
High pay and a 401 K is great and maybe even better than a retirement program that may or may not be there in the future.
While State and Federal benefits are reasonably secure even big corporations like GM can declare bankruptcy and get out of paying retirement and health benefits.
Foreign owned companies tend to be more responsible than American owned companies
Health care is a difficult issue. Some supposedly great health care programs are written so that you are nickle and dimes to death. Or limited in amount of care available. In other words, well, you've used up your limit on the cancer or heart etc. problem. the rest is up to you.
Because it's written by lawyers it's nearly impossible to read without the aide of your own lawyer.
Again health care by government agencies tend to be the exception.
STM317 said:In reply to The_Jed :
100% match for the first 6% is actually decent for a 401k these days
Yeah!
So for the cost of 10% of your salary (which you should be saving anyway) you can be putting away 16% of your salary. And if you're making a good hourly rate, try putting away 20% or even 25% if you can afford it.
Just having 'a pension' isn't a magic bullet. As you've already calculated, that pension will be about what, a third to half of your living expenses after retirement? So you need to supplement it anyway via other savings. It really comes down to doing the math to see if you can save enough extra at the higher salary + 6% match rate to replace that $25k pension with 401(k) savings.
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