Welcome back to the series on the 10 steps of my 2023 financial plan. Thus far we have covered: Step 1: Revisiting My Goals and Mission Statement Step 2: Estimating Your Tax Bill Step 3: Optimizing My Emergency Fund This brings us to Step 4, one of my favorites:
Can you do a blog covering the mechanics of getting laid off? A lot of tech companies have a notice period when you're let go (don't have access to internal systems) but still on payroll and a severance period when you're off payroll but still getting severance. What documents will you need to get while you're still technically employed? At which point is it appropriate to file for unemployment?
Does Meta match after-tax 401k contributions? That is, if I forgo pre-tax contributions and only do after-tax, will they make matching contributions into my pre-tax account?
I ask because I was laid off earlier this year after having already maxed out my pre-tax 401k and my former employer's match. My former employer matched any contributions: pre-tax, Roth, or after-tax. I'll be starting at Meta before the end of the year and would like to take advantage of their matching as well.
Alternatively, I may be able to over-contribute, get the match, and then withdraw the over-contribution, but I'd rather avoid the hassle if possible.
Great post! How do you determine maxing out your 401k via mega backdoor vs. investing that amount into a taxable brokerage account if the goal is to retire early and access funds before age 59 1/2? For example, long term capital gains is 0% up to ~$80k for married couples filing jointly, so in a state with no income tax the liability of withdrawing against a brokerage account could be $0 (assuming ~$100k/yr withdrawal in retirement minus standard deductions). Of course this assumption changes based on many different variables but would value your thoughts!
Just curious why you choose to manage your 401k to individual funds instead of a target date fund. The Vanguard 2055 Target Date fund for example does:
Domestic Stock 51.92%
Foreign Bond 3.17%
Domestic Bond 6.11%
Foreign Stock 36.43%
This seems roughly inline with what you are targeting as well?
Can you do a blog covering the mechanics of getting laid off? A lot of tech companies have a notice period when you're let go (don't have access to internal systems) but still on payroll and a severance period when you're off payroll but still getting severance. What documents will you need to get while you're still technically employed? At which point is it appropriate to file for unemployment?
Does Meta match after-tax 401k contributions? That is, if I forgo pre-tax contributions and only do after-tax, will they make matching contributions into my pre-tax account?
I ask because I was laid off earlier this year after having already maxed out my pre-tax 401k and my former employer's match. My former employer matched any contributions: pre-tax, Roth, or after-tax. I'll be starting at Meta before the end of the year and would like to take advantage of their matching as well.
Alternatively, I may be able to over-contribute, get the match, and then withdraw the over-contribution, but I'd rather avoid the hassle if possible.
How do you make sure you dont over contribute? When do you change the 401k election settings back to 0%?
Great post! How do you determine maxing out your 401k via mega backdoor vs. investing that amount into a taxable brokerage account if the goal is to retire early and access funds before age 59 1/2? For example, long term capital gains is 0% up to ~$80k for married couples filing jointly, so in a state with no income tax the liability of withdrawing against a brokerage account could be $0 (assuming ~$100k/yr withdrawal in retirement minus standard deductions). Of course this assumption changes based on many different variables but would value your thoughts!
Just curious why you choose to manage your 401k to individual funds instead of a target date fund. The Vanguard 2055 Target Date fund for example does:
Domestic Stock 51.92%
Foreign Bond 3.17%
Domestic Bond 6.11%
Foreign Stock 36.43%
This seems roughly inline with what you are targeting as well?