Anyone buck the traditional advice to Max out 401k? I've been making out but see little value in it for me. Who knows what my health will be like when I'm 65

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What are you proposing to do in place of your 401k that could possibly have even remotely close to an advantage?

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Why do you see little value you eventual multiple millions of dollars?

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If you put money into a 401k, your gains grow on a pretax basis and you are only taxed on your gains when you withdraw. 401k means you are only taxed once.

If you invest outside of your 401k, you are putting in money that has already been taxed once as income, and you will be taxed again when you sell your gains. You are taxed twice.

This is why people advise you to max your 401k, because it is a tax advantaged way of investing. As "payment" for this tax advantaged status, there are limits in place on when you can withdraw to ensure that you really are saving for retirement.

So if you want to rationalize not putting money into your 401k because you think you can make better returns elsewhere, you need to be sure that not only can you beat your returns in a 401k, but that you beat it even if you are taxed twice on your investment.

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Personally, I do not follow the ‘max 401k advice.’ I don’t believe in parking money when it can be used for higher yield businesses / investments. For example, I was able to recently acquire a couple rental units that cash flow $5k per month. By the time I’m in my 50s, all of the rent will be profit (exc occasional repairs). This year, I am planning on acquiring additional units rather than maxing out a 401k.

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Another upside for maxing 401k is that it reduces your AGI which is used to calculate phase outs for other tax benefits... so by contributing to my 401k, I reduce my agi and am therefore eligible to use the depreciation loss on my rentals to offset my active w2 income.

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Don’t withdrawals without penalties start at 59 1/2? There are certain conditions that one can withdraw at 55 without penalty as well

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There are strategies to access 401k money without penalty before 59.5.

BCG1 fair response. But real estate is way too hard for the masses to do *successfully* compared to simply diverting x% of your salary to an investment account. If you can do it right more power to you. I'm into real estate as well, btw.

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Not hard... I have 16 units and spend minimal time each month managing it... usually just time in the cab to and from the airport

Company only matches 25% of the first 6% of salary. But it is pre tax so that increases the benefit.

It will take a while for it to get into the millions given the max and that it's on a Target fund. I could put it in higher earning investments

Also I can only use it starting at 65!

OP, with the pace of advancement in medical technology, if you’re in your 20s or 30s, you’re going to live to be 100. Gonna need those ends!

Planning to pay for grad school soon so want more liquidity in my money

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