·

Nerding Out With My New Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plan

One of the best benefits of my new job is the employer-sponsored retirement plan. I've implemented a very simplified stock index fund strategy to take advantage of the time before I need the money and to counter-balance complexity in other accountsOne of the best benefits of my new job is the employer-sponsored retirement plan. The plan was confusing at first, even for me who lives and breathes this stuff. But they made it complicated to maximize the tax advantages.

It’s so good, the plan is even better than most of the 401(k)s of the big technology companies like Facebook, and Google that are known for their superior benefits.

For fourteen years at my previous employer, I suffered from a mediocre 401(k) plan consisting of only twelve poorly-selected managed mutual funds with super-high fees. After years of complaining, they finally changed providers four months before liberating me from the job.

This new plan has a selection of more than 200 funds including plenty of index funds and all kinds of goodies to choose from.

As I was giddy perusing all the funds the other day, I told Mrs. RBD that allocating retirement accounts was pretty much my favorite thing to do. She rolled her eyes.

What is a 403(b)?

My new employer is a not-for-profit so the retirement plan offered is a 403(b) instead of a 401(k).

403(b)s operate almost identically to 401(k)s. The only real difference is the entity type of the employer. 403(b)s are typically for public education workers and some not-for-profits. A while back I wrote about all the various tax-advantaged accounts and their differences if you want to learn more about this and similar accounts.

As far as I’m concerned, it might as well be a 401(k) and I might call it that in the future to not confuse everyone.

Contribution limits are exactly the same for 401(k)s and 403(b)s. However, this particular plan actually allows for contributions a few percentage points beyond the traditional 15%/up to $18,500. More on that further down.

Keeping it Simple at Fidelity

My taxable stock portfolio is out there for all to see. I own a lot of different individual stocks and investment types when you add real estate crowdfunding investments like Fundrise.

These are all in taxable accounts.

On the other side in my tax-advantaged retirement accounts, I’ve always followed a more simplified approach to investing. I want to set ’em and forget ’em. Occasionally I’ll rebalance our IRAs and Roths, but for this 403(b), I really want to invest as passively as possible.

The employer-sponsored retirement plan is administered by Fidelity. Fidelity administered my very first 401(k) plan when I started my IT career in 1998 and I’ve invested my retirement accounts with them ever since. Mrs. RBD and I each have an IRA and a Roth IRA with them. This 403(b) is our fifth account.

Fidelity is often criticized for the simple reason that they are not Vanguard. You probably hear that Vanguard is the best blah blah blah. Well, Fidelity hasn’t just sat on its hands for the past few decades, they’ve created many low-fee index products to compete with the Vanguard signature index funds.

So despite researching many of the 200+ investment options, I decided to keep my 403(b) very simple. I’m investing contributions to my employer-sponsored retirement plan as follows:

  • 75% – Fidelity Total Market Index Fund  (FSKAX)
  • 25% – Fidelity Global ex-US Index Fund (FSGGX)

And that’s it. This allocation spreads my money among thousands of large and small cap stocks across the U.S. and the world.

Lazy Portfolios

Fidelity’s site had plenty of research tools, but I also used the Bogelhead.org forum for some inspiration from their so-called Lazy Portfolios. Bogelheads is the name given to investing fans of Jack Bogel, the founder of Vanguard. They enthusiastically invest using Vanguard index funds and share strategies in the forum.

Fidelity funds are mentioned frequently since the company administers so many retirement plans and have similar funds.

Since I do not plan to access this money for at least another 17 years, I decided to go all into equities for this account. Our IRAs have some bond exposure and I’ll add more over time.

If I expand to more funds in the 403(b) anytime soon, I’ll add some small-cap or mid-cap index investments. But for now, I’m keeping it very simple.

A Nifty Hack to Increase Contributions

This company plan is so confusing it took me a while to completely understand it. I’m not going to explain the details because you’ll be yawning and scratching your head.

But as I understand it, they figured out a cool hack to help employees squeeze out a few additional percentage points of tax savings.

If an employee decides to participate in the plan, they are required to contribute the first 2% in order to get the company match. The company match is tiered will end up being about 10% of my salary which is crazy good.

That required contribution is the hack. For most plans, employees can contribute up to a limit of 15% of their salary voluntarily. Up to a maximum amount of $18,500. But since our 2% is required and not voluntary, it doesn’t count against the 15% or the $18,500 limit for 2018. Meaning I’ll legitimately contribute another 2% tax-deferred to my account each year.

They use a 401(a) to help make this all happen. So I actually have a 403(b) and a 401(a).

I never heard of this hack until it was explained to me by HR. I was blown away, and can’t find anything similar out there. There’s more to the plan with confusing tiers and percentages, but the bottom line is my contributions should end up higher than the usual allowable limit. Plus the match.

Many employees at the company have been there for years and tend to be on the older side so retirement is a paramount benefit. The company delivers, and it made me even more excited to get the job.

The One Downside to My Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plan

The only downside I’ve seen from all the benefits from my new employer is the match does not kick in until my one-year anniversary of employment.

I assume this is to cut down on costs associated with bad hires who don’t work out in the first year. I can still max out my contributions until then.

The plus side is that next February, I’ll receive a 10% raise that is completely tax-deferred and vests immediately.

Conclusion

In a meeting with one of my new managers, he asked me if I was contributing the maximum to the employer-sponsored retirement plan. I said yes, of course.

He said (in jest) he uses this question as a test for new employees. If the new employee says they are not maxing out the company retirement plan, they aren’t smart enough to work there!

I decided to keep this account simple and to let it ride over the long-term. I don’t intend to be working by the time I turn 59 1/2, but this money will grow until then and beyond. Since my investments elsewhere require more attention, I’m investing this money simply so I can forget about it.

That’s the smart money move to earn market returns. Modifications to the allocations are allowed any time if I want to add risk or stability. I don’t expect to make any changes except maybe adding another fund or two, especially if the market corrects and small-caps fall disproportionately.

Disclosure: Long FSGGX, FSKAX
Photo by Daniel Cheung on Unsplash


Favorite tools and investment services right now:

Sure Dividend — A reliable stock newsletter for DIY retirement investors. (review)

Fundrise — Simple real estate and venture capital investing for as little as $10. (review)

NewRetirement — Spreadsheets are insufficient. Get serious about planning for retirement. (review)

M1 Finance — A top online broker for long-term investors and dividend reinvestment. (review)

Comments Welcome!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

18 Comments

  1. Congrats on the new job (missed that update) and retirement plan. Glad to see it all worked out.

    1. Thanks Brian. Yeah things are good since going back to work. Enjoyed the time off, but very happy to be aggressively saving again. This plan is a perfect vehicle!

  2. Congrats on the great plan! It is amazing how often employer provided plans suck. Glad you work somewhere where that is not the case. I remember when I started my first “real” job, I asked if there was a retirement plan. Their response was “yes, it’s called ‘save your money'”. Oh how times have changed!

  3. 403(b)’s in education usually suck with high fees and bad fund selections. Glad you found one in an industry that respects their employees.

  4. Love the hack! I’ve been in Payroll/HR for years and never knew that – here’s to learning something new everyday! And thank you for the Blooom link, my husband and I set it up in January, my funds were reallocated and I can tell the difference already. I’m looking forward to comparing my 1st quarter return with Q4/17. Thank you for all the research and writing you do, it’s very helpful to me and I’m able to understand your language (most of the time). I’ve also invested in Fundrise recently and backed off my drip into LC.

    1. Hey Karen… thanks a lot for the kind word. Yeah I still can’t find other companies doing this but I’m sure it’s legit. Maybe being a 403b helps. There’s more detail I didn’t want to get into with a second account + the different tiers. But all in all, it’s really badass. Glad to hear those recommendations are working for you.

  5. Thats great your new plan has good fund choices available. I also have a Fidelity 401k through my old employer that I’ve kept due to the great fund choices. Mine also has some Vanguard index funds as well as a few other funds at the lower Institutional level expense ratio. Sounds like you have a good plan in just keeping it simple. You can always change the percentages and add another fund or 2 later. Also consider how the fund choices fit into what you already have with your old 401k, IRA’s, and any current IRA contributions you are making.

    1. I’m surprised they put some Vanguard funds into the Fidelity plan. But that sounds like they were listening to participants and trying to make the plan better. Always good to hear that.
      -RBD

  6. Congrats on your new plan. It is nice that they offer great incentives to employees to help with their retirement savings.

    Btw based on my research, you can contribute $18,500 both to a 403 (b) and 401 (k). So if your side gigs earn enough, you may max out the solo 401 (k).

      1. I was wrong – I was thinking about 457 plans not 403b plans. “The combined total salary deferral contribution that you make to both the 401(k) and the 403(b) plans should not exceed $18,000 or $24,000 if you’re 50 or over”

        But I hear that your spouse is doing a great job proofreading your articles, giving you guidance on what to write, updating your spreadsheets and interacting with advertisers and readers on a daily basis. So perhaps she should max out her solo 401K?

  7. RBD,

    Love the article. My new(er) employer has a really good set of options (about 50). Moving here a year and a half ago I was happy with the match – 6% 1 to 1, plus the ability to contribute to a Roth 401k. The Roth 401k is super neat, it allows for me to add more money to Roth accounts than I can through standard measures. Right now I am split across 3 low cost index funds which track the market – one tracking the S&P 500, one tracking Russell index growth stocks, and one on Russell index value stocks.

    – Gremlin

  8. Wow, the extra 2% is really cool. I’ve never heard of that. I wonder if it’s part of employer contribution. How do they get around the maximum contribution rule? You find out more about it.

    1. Nope, it’s employee contributed. And as far as I can tell, also tax-deferred beyond $18,500. The details are really confusing. And it’s actually a bit more than 2% because the allowable contribution increases a bit once you hit certain income thresholds. I’ll learn more by the end of the year. But they’ve projected it out for me and everything makes sense.

  9. RBD –

    Love that you are able to squeeze another 2%, sneaky but damn awesome. Congrats on finding this out/looking into it further!

    -Lanny

  10. Money Hungry says:

    If you’re nerding out playing around with your new retirement plan, I guess I am really nerding out reading about you playing around with your new retirement plan =P. Welcome back to the work field!