So I’m only contributing to 401k enough to get employer match, and I’m saving an additional ~20% and putting 90% of that into my vanguard mutual funds. Reasoning is that I don’t want to lock away all that money maxing out 401k. Have 3 months expenses liquid in a savings account. Is this really dumb? Essentially trading tax for the option of actually using my money.

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Very dumb. What do you realistically need to save this much cash for for immediate or near term use? Instead, max out your 401k and capture overflow in your vanguard. 19.5k is not that much to lock up per year.

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A1 is definitely a Deloitter 🙈🙈

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I’m actually in the same mindset as the OP. Only contribute enough to get free employer money, the rest I want accessible for buying a house, starting/buying a business down the line etc.

The way I see it by the time I retire I’d have made it to the point that my 401k is a pretty inconsequential piece of my overall retirement income anyway.

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Would recommend putting the additional investments in a Roth IRA then. Same level of risk but can still get tax advantages if you don’t end up needing the money—contributions can be removed without penalty, and there are also withdrawal options for education/down payment.

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Eww, dump mutual funds. All they do is underperform against the long term market and charge you for it. Index all the way

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Eh mutual fund expenses really aren’t that outrageous for the most part and give you lots of options to hedge or take advantage of sector/class trends. Just depends how much work you want to put into investing.

You can always take a loan on your 401k if you need the money, usually at like 2% rate. The tax advantage in a 401k allows you to start with more money. For every $0.75 you put in your mutual fund you could have put $1.00 in your 401k and the benefits of compounding when you start with 25% more money are huge.

It’s thought out so it isn’t dumb. However, you’re missing the tax free benefit of the appreciation of your stock and paying more in income tax because of this. What you may want to do, if you’re worried about availability, is review options available to you to access funds in your 401k. As an example, it may be technically possible to take a loan against your 401k ( where you pay it back and the interest goes into your 401k) to buy a house or take out a similar (typically shorter term) loan to access funds. You have to stay with your employer (in most cases) or pay tax and a 10% penalty on the loan if you leave and don’t pay it back. There may also be hardship loans and options available, but I don’t know about that.

As others have mentioned, it’s the tax treatment that matters. In my case, my tax rate now is higher than I expect in retirement, so I prefer to shield as much as I can pre-tax (3x401k and HSA).

Depends on your life goals honestly. Wanna retire at like 45? Or buy a house in 10 years? Obviously there are risks involved with using a mutual fund over a shorter timeline and you don’t get the tax advantage, but I’m in a similar boat. People here seem to be only focusing on ROI instead of maximizing your utility. Borrowing from 401ks might work for some things, but I really enjoy the freedom that I have to spend it as I please.

I always recommend going heavy on 401k/ IRA for 10 years. If you are aggressive with it, that money will be plenty to retire with comfortably when you hit retirement age. After that you can take your foot off the gas and focus on building accessible reserves to use for opportunities you identify (real estate, businesses, etc).

There are very few truly “rich” people I have talked to who said they did it on a salary and investing conservatively in retirement accounts. They all saw opportunities and had the resources available to capitalize on them, so I like flexibility.

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