I wonder if it is saying that he should be maxing it out each year, and maybe he hasn't contributed this year, meaning he would need to contribute that much in

I wonder if it is saying that he should be maxing it out each year, and maybe he hasn't contributed this year, meaning he would need to contribute that much in the next two to three months in order to meet the goal for 2018? I dunno. Like you said, that seems like it can't be right.