Ask Your Company to Match 401(k) Contributions

If your company doesn’t match 401(k) contributions, email them. Email them, write a letter, collect signatures for a petition, do whatever you want but contact them and let them know that it’s important to you and other people in your company for the match to be offered. This is especially true if you don’t have a defined benefit plan, like a pension, because then your company isn’t contributing at all towards your retirement.

Now, you might say that writing letters and collecting signatures isn’t going to work or that your company cannot afford it. To the first concern, I say that unless you tell them, they won’t know. Maybe your company hasn’t tried it because they don’t think it’s important to the employees. If you’re a startup and there are only 50 people, it’s not worth it if only 10 people contribute. However, if you get all 50 to sign up, at least the benefits department is now aware that a demand exists. That leads to concern number two, whether it’s affordable. I don’t know the answer to that and chances are you don’t know either. Let them decide, you just have to let them know you’re interested.

So, if your company doesn’t have a match, have them explain why.