There are employers who are offering contribution matching to their employees tax deferral or tax free accounts as part of their benefit package. You should always take advantage of this since it’s free money and you immediately get a 100% profit for the portion of your contribution that is being matched.
I’ve met people who ignore this and just didn’t want the hassle of setting it up. The effort is very little relative to the reward that you will get in participating in this program if your employer is offering it to you. The only trade off is that you will have less money in your pocket to spend on your current needs or wants. But if you can live and budget with what’s left after your contribution then this is the best investment you can make.
Your contribution and your employer’s contribution are normally invested and if you do this for every year of your employment you will realize in the end that its value is so much higher than what you actually contributed due to your employer’s contribution and the snowball effect of the investment. This is assuming that investment where the money is put is managed well and growing and not losing.
I always grab this opportunity whenever I join a company that offers this. When I move to another company, it’s always for a higher benefit package and I just maintain my lifestyle in order to put the new extra money I’m receiving to investment. This doesn’t mean that I am constraining my self and no longer enjoy life. Like I said in one of my notes, enjoyment of life does not necessarily mean spending more money.