{"id":3718,"date":"2026-07-26T12:37:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T12:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?p=3718"},"modified":"2026-07-26T12:37:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T12:37:56","slug":"suze-orman-warns-of-a-401k-match-error-costing-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?p=3718","title":{"rendered":"Suze Orman warns of a 401(k) match error costing workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Contributing regularly to workplace 401(k) plans is widely viewed as a responsible step toward building long-term retirement security.<\/p>\n

Read more Romania shoots down third Russian drone, as president calls breaches \u2018intolerable\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

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Yet a costly mistake hidden within those routine paycheck deductions can erode a household’s combined retirement savings year after year without attracting much attention.<\/p>\n

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Personal finance expert Suze Orman flagged the problem in a blog post on July 23, drawing on recent findings from Boston College retirement researchers.<\/p>\n

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Her warning challenges a common assumption that two working spouses saving into their own separate plans are automatically making the most of their employer benefits. Which account gets funded first is what determines the outcome, not how much a couple saves.<\/p>\n

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The $757-a-year mistake in married couples’ 401(k) plans<\/h2>\n

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The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College published a June 2026 brief examining how married couples handle retirement plan contributions across two different workplaces. <\/p>\n

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About one in five couples where both spouses have access to a plan fail to coordinate how they divide their retirement savings, the brief found.<\/p>\n

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Those couples forgo an average of $757 each year in employer matching contributions they could have captured without saving an additional dollar of their own. <\/p>\n

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That forgone match represents approximately 13% of those couples’ total annual retirement contributions, a significant share of their combined savings, the study found.<\/p>\n

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Over a full career, the compounding effect of missed matching dollars makes the long-term damage far worse than the annual shortfall alone. <\/p>\n

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The brief’s simulation estimated that couples who never correct the imbalance can expect about $14,000 less in combined retirement wealth by age 65.<\/p>\n

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For couples at the 90th percentile, the lifetime cost of failing to coordinate exceeds $40,000 in total lost retirement savings, the researchers calculated.<\/p>\n

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How different employer match formulas create the 401(k) coordination gap<\/h2>\n

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The problem grows out of a basic structural feature of employer retirement plans: no two companies use the same formula for matching worker contributions.<\/p>\n

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One spouse might receive a dollar-for-dollar match on the first 3% of salary, while the other receives a 50-cent match up to 6%, Orman wrote. <\/p>\n

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