Usually the advice on this is max the employer match portion first. E.g. the fairly common 100% on the first 6%. At median income that would be $1800 for a 100%

Usually the advice on this is max the employer match portion first. E.g. the fairly common 100% on the first 6%. At median income that would be $1800 for a 100% return on investment (after the vesting period). There are a bunch of things higher priority than maxing out the 401k for financial health. See https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics#wiki_the_flowchart https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics#w... for a good way of evaluating how to order these.