Contribution limit has been 17500 or 18000 last few years, it's only expected to go up, and lots of bigcorps have good 401k matching. Also, the 17.5k (plus pos

Contribution limit has been 17500 or 18000 last few years, it's only expected to go up, and lots of bigcorps have good 401k matching. Also, the 17.5k (plus possible match) that you put in 3-7 years ago has been compounding for 3-7 years. Sure, the stock market may have taken a tumble in the interim and you might say that that means you end up with less in your 401k, which is true, but broad market movements affect startups' prospects as well, so you are still likely to come out ahead with the safe bigcorp option.