This is the second tip of the ten in Forbes ten rules to building wealth and it works nicely with rule 1: start early, because contributing to your 401K should be an automatic decision when you start a new job.
I don’t want to beat this discussion to death, because every personal finance blogger has discussed 401k’s, but you really should contribute to your 401k, definitely if you have a company match. In addition to the fact that saving for retirement is a prudent thing to do anyway, you are able to save more (because the taxes are deferred), which means there’s more of it to grow with.
If you’re not already enrolled in your company’s plan, stop reading now and sign up. Since you’re putting in pretax dollars, a 401(k) is an unrivaled savings vehicle, and passing up an employer match is – literally – giving up free money.
Source: Fortune