Important Information for The Southern Company Professionals: Could You or Your Spouse be Missing Out on 401(k) Contributions?

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From The Retirement Group, a division of Wealth Enhancement Group, Tyson Mavar, a lawyer, stresses the need for The Southern Company employees to ensure they get the most from their companies’ 401(k) matching to guarantee a comfortable retirement. He explains the significance of this knowledge and leverage in avoiding possible financial gaps.

Wesley Boudreaux from The Retirement Group, a division of Wealth Enhancement Group, recommends The Southern Company professionals to focus on the integration and enhancement of retirement savings for spouses. This coordination is important but also necessary to ensure that both of the parties are ready for future financial demands.

In this article, we will discuss:

• 1. The Importance of Optimizing Employer Matching in 401(k) Plans: Find out how not maximizing the employer matching contributions can affect your retirement savings in the future.

• 2. Research and Statistics on Retirement Savings and Employer Contributions: Learn about the findings from various studies that reveal common mistakes that couples and The Southern Company employees make when planning for retirement, including not maximizing the employer contributions.

• 3. Strategies for Coordinated Retirement Planning: Learn why and how fund distribution and communication between spouses should be done properly to achieve the best retirement contribution and enjoy a comfortable old age.

In the case of employer-sponsored 401(k) plans, for instance, in the complex environment of a The Southern Company retirement, the management of retirement funds is of the utmost importance. Many such aspects of these plans include the matching contributions that, if not seized, may cost the employee a lot in the future. This is based on a real-life situation, for example, Niv Persaud, an Atlanta-based certified financial planner. A few years ago, Persaud had actually forgotten to include the matching contributions made by her company. This was the result of a financial division of labor in her marriage and it resulted in her retirement funds being short by a significant amount. This is a particular example of a broader and more systematic problem that affects professionals at The Southern Company.

Recent research shows that Persaud’s experience is not unique. According to the study, about 21% of married couples do not fully take advantage of the matching contributions that their employers make to their 401(k) retirement plans. This leads to approximately $700 of annual deficit in funds that could have been used to boost the retirement savings.

The study whose title is “Efficiency in Household Decision Making:

Evidence from the Retirement Savings of U.S. Couples” was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research has revealed that 65% of American workers are covered by defined contribution retirement plans offered by their employers. The majority of these plans have some form of employer match. According to the available information, the employer contributions may vary but the most common form involves the matching of the employee’s contribution at 50% of every dollar up to 6% of the employee’s salary.

In a review of the findings from the IRS tax data and retirement plan descriptions, it was established that 24% of married couples fail to take advantage of part of these matching funds even as they could have been boosting their retirement savings. This results in an average annual financial loss of $682; this amount is retrievable through the proper allocation of retirement benefits between spouses. These statistics have implications that go beyond the numerical values. Taha Choukhmane, co-author of the study and assistant professor of finance at MIT Sloan School of Management highlights the importance of the savings strategy in addition to the quantity. Instead of just focusing on the ability to save more, he stresses the importance of where and how one saves. His co-authors, Cormac O’Dea, an economist at Yale University, and Lucas Goodman, an economist at the Treasury Department, agree with this view.

As for the specifics of domestic decision-making, the matter in question does not seem to involve couples who either do not save or do not save enough. The focus is rather on those who could enhance their savings significantly by simply reallocating contributions between the spouses. In other words, the solution entails making strategic changes in the way funds are distributed across the different accounts rather than through higher savings or changed spending patterns. Based on the findings of the study, there is a lack of coordination and communication between the spouses in retirement savings; this is a more general issue of financial communication in marriages. O’Dea asks a pertinent question on how many other major decisions that couples may not be involving one another in.

Other research has shown that married people, especially those who have been married for a long time and have children, are likely to engage in proper planning and coincide their retirement planning. On the other end of the spectrum, people in pre-divorce stages or shorter duration relationships tend to perform rather poorly in this regard. It is recommended by professional financial advisers that employees should put away 10% to 15% of their pretax income for their retirement. They explain the importance of taking advantage of the employer contributions that are called saddles, since this effectively increases the employee’s savings rate. For instance, if an employer offers a match of up to 6% of an employee’s salary in a 401(k), then the employee should save at least that amount of their annual salary to get the most out of it.

According to Rob Williams, managing director of financial planning at Charles Schwab, the first thing that every investor should aim to achieve is getting the full employer match. According to the research conducted by the Stanford Center on Longevity in 2021, it seems that individuals who are now in management positions within corporations tend to underestimate the increase in life expectancy that has been seen in the last few decades.

This oversight may result in shortfalls in retirement funds. Given that many retirees will live for another 80 or even 90 years, it is crucial to emphasize the need to maximize retirement contributions, especially through employer 401(k) matches. Failure to grasp the full implications of these opportunities may lead to financial shortfall especially when health care and other essential living costs start to rise significantly. However, according to the data from Vanguard, an investment management company, 31% of retirement plan participants did not take full advantage of their employer’s matching contributions in 2022. Moreover, the young employees are facing the problem of savings, which has become especially tough over the past two years because of the highest inflation in the last 40 years.

According to the 2023 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 84 percent of workers are concerned that the rising cost of living will erase their ability to save for retirement. Despite these barriers, the value of the employer match should not be underemphasized. James Gambaccini, a certified financial planner in Reston, Virginia, says a 3% match may seem small at first glance, but it essentially means the company is paying half of what the employee is contributing, 3%, without asking the employee to contribute any more.

From a practical point of view, the employer match could increase an employee’s $1,000 contribution for a $50,000 salary, $3,000. Therefore, there is a need to increase the awareness and focus on the right management of 401(k) contributions, and more so on how to grasp the employer matching. Not taking full advantage of these connections can cost a lot of money and thus stresses the need to plan and coordinate financially to secure a comfortable retirement.

Managing retirement savings through The Southern Company is a process of planning and implementing a tandem bicycle ride. Each of the two parties has to ensure that they are in sync in order to pedal forward with their respective pace and abilities. If a rider fails to realize the potential of increasing the speed by changing gears, then it is equivalent to not tapping into an employer’s 401(k) contribution. Therefore, the cyclist pedals more slowly, exercises more, and covers a shorter distance than she could have.

Especially for those in the upper reaches of business, the path to the The Southern Company retirement should not be a lonely one or an unchecked one. Both of them must understand the financial environment and must take advantage of every rise and fall and gear shift in order to move forward as fast as they can. This is because when they do this, they are able to make sure that they enjoy their retirement and also get all the advantages that they have been able to get including the one that they have actually worked hard to get.

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Additional Fact:

Furthermore, it is important to mention that as of March 2023, the IRS increased the catch-up contribution limits for 401(k) plans. The new catch-up limit for those who are 50 or older is $7,500.

Sources:

1. Martins, Andrew. 'Companies That Offer the Biggest 401(k) Employer Match.'  Investopedia , 31 July 2024,  www.investopedia.com/companies-that-offer-the-biggest-401-k-employer-match-5204345 .

2. Jefferson, Ray. 'Find Out Why The Southern Company Companies Want A 401(k) Rule Delay And What It Means To You.'  The American Retiree , 2 January 2024,  www.theamericanretiree.com/why-fortune-500-companies-want-a-401k-rule-delay .

3. Reddick, Chris. 'How to Effectively Save for Retirement in The Southern Company Companies.'  Chris Reddick Financial Planning, LLC ,  www.chrisreddickfp.com/how-to-effectively-save-for-retirement-in-fortune-500-companies . Accessed 2024.

4. 'Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plan vs. Employee-Sponsored Plans.'  Annuity Expert Advice ,  www.annuityexpertadvice.com/employer-sponsored-retirement-plan-vs-employee-sponsored-plans . Accessed 2024.

5. 'How Many The Southern Company Companies Have a Pension Plan?'  Investguiding.com ,  www.investguiding.com/how-many-fortune-500-companies-have-a-pension-plan . Accessed 2024.