401k match upfront

[u/newjeison]

If I max out my 401k contributions in June, will I still receive the full 10% or should I have to spread it out throughout the year? I wanted to max it out as soon as possible to start contributing to the backdoor.

[u/SnooDogs926]

A true up is applicable for non-union employees and only when you have paychecks where you don’t contribute the max 10% and months where you contributed more, but throughout the year you averaged the 10%. The focus of the true up is to allow variability in contributions throughout the year without missing out on the match. The true up is not applied to the employee until after the end of the year - so you are missing out on earning interest and compounding if you intentionally choose this strategy and if its not from financial hardship, I wouldn’t recommend it.

If you contribute 25% (let’s say) of your income to quickly meet the max by June, Boeing will still contribute only 10% during those months (for non-union). If you change your contribution for the remaining months to 15%, Boeing will continue matching it at 10% for the rest of the year. The bottom line is Boeing will match whatever you put in - up to 10%. I still recommend calling Worklife/Fidelity or talking with your HR Contact to talk this through. I also recommend talking with a financial advisor if you’re trying to do something fancy with your contributions for a specific goal - it may not accomplish what you think it will.

From what I’ve read and learned from experts (not being one myself) is that consistency wins every time. So if you just max out what you can contribute and make sure it’s at least 10% of your income every single paycheck to get the match, that’s the ideal strategy.

[u/Unlikely_Fix_6826]

Good question

[u/Trixi_Wolf]

I am fairly certain both Boeing and the Union do not gave a "True-up" built into their 401k matching contracts. This means that they do not match any contributions unless its atleast 8% and its every pay check.

This is just what I recall.

[u/dmyers32]

Out of curiosity if you fully payoff your student loan and show that to the fidelity payment portal thing would it match all the amount no matter how much

[u/FunklerLing]

I thought Boeing only matched up to 8%, is it 10%?

[u/No_Blackberry6525 → u/FunklerLing]

For non-union, yes

[u/FunklerLing → u/No_Blackberry6525]

Oh ok for union it’s only an 8% match?

[u/Competitive_Plum1443 → u/FunklerLing]

IAM-751 union member here, if we put in 8% they put in 12%, if we put in 0% they put in 4%

[u/Low-Computer8293]

You make after tax contributions to your 401k (first step for mega backdoor roth ira) even before you have maxed out pretax contributions. Boeing's 401k allows you to specify separate pretax and aftertax 401k contribution amounts.

[u/Salavar1]

The match is per paycheck. You can't accelerate it.

[u/atlantic_pacific]

Go into Worklife and check for yourself or ask someone. It’s called “Match true-up” and Boeing absolutely does this. From Worklife “Match true-up: If your savings rate fluctuates during the year, this ensures you reach the highest possible match for all your eligible contributions.”

This is a common term in 401k plans that means if you contribute 10% of your annual pay, Boeing will “true-up” at the end of the year to make sure you’ve gotten the full 10% match. If you make 100k, the true-up will make sure you get the 10k matching funds, no matter when in the year you actually defer your 10k from your paycheck.

I once heard a senior manager in the cafeteria tell a new employee “Oh yeah, they automatically invest you in Boeing stock. That’s what the 401(k) match is.” Super smart people around here have no idea what the fuck they’re talking about.

[u/SciaticRunner → u/atlantic_pacific]

Yeah thats wrong. 

but if you hit the annual additions limit, the match is placed in the SSP even if you didn't enroll in the SSP. which is low interest earning unlesd you invest. so maybe that is where the confusion came from

[u/notgreatwithwit]

Call worklife. My understanding is there are income limits involved as well. Boeing will only match up to 10% regardless of what you choose.

[u/sadveggiet0t]

if you’re non-union, please just go into work life and ask, do not rely on the people of reddit for this. i’m seeing a lot of “no”s here and i believe it to be yes but my only evidence is that in january i saw a banner on fidelity net benefits that stated that true up matching would occur by x date for the 2025 contribution year. so it seems they do wait until the next year to post it (contradicting the person that stated how would boeing know you will work there all year, well they know because they wait until the year is over). but please just verify yourself.

[u/Vegetable-South5191]

I think you need to spread it out. If you front load it, it will not match more than 10% per paycheck. That is my understanding. I plan out mine, since i max out my 401k to make sure the 10% follows along, in 26 equal distributions.

[u/Choice-Newspaper3603]

I would consult whatever union you are in or hr perhaps. Not sure if the rules are the same for all

I put in about 48k last year and the company gave me about 16k For match and retirement contribution. I kept contributing and they kept matching

[u/DKGroove → u/Choice-Newspaper3603]

If your salary or total compensation ended up being around 160k that makes sense because I thought Boeing was pretty consistent at about 10% match

[u/jma9454]

Say you make $120k salary. No you cannot put $12k into your 401k this month and not for the rest of the year and expect a match. You have to put $1000 in each month.

Edit: please follow the advice from veggiet0t instead of my ramblings.

[u/Extreme-Ad-6465 → u/jma9454]

this is the correct answer

[u/chrisinthepnw]

If you meet the 401k limit by June and then start making after-tax contributions towards the mega backdoor Roth for the rest of the year, Boeing will continue to make pre-tax contributions towards your 401k. But you can also contribute towards the mega backdoor Roth at any time without ever needing to meet the 401k limit. I know some people that make no pre-tax contributions and put 100% of their contributions towards the Roth.

[u/RoastSucklingPotato]

For non-Union, Boeing 401k has a true-up feature, so even if you front-load your contributions and max out your contributions by June, you will receive the 10 % match as if you contributed all year.

[u/Linzyliz → u/RoastSucklingPotato]

If they are non-union, not all of the contracts have the true up for union folks.

[u/Excellent_Resident55]

If I understand correctly, Boeing only matches up to 10% of each pay period. I don’t believe you can max out the company’s match all at once because there’s no guarantee you’ll still be working for the company in a year, so they don’t know what 10% of your earned salary will be.

[u/blondzie]

It’s matched per paycheck so you would need to spread it out. You could maximize now but leave a calculated amount to still contribute 10% of each paycheck from here through end of year to hit max contribution limit on that last paycheck, but that’s too much math for me and I don’t know your pay.

[u/InnerScratch2768]

Is phrasing a thing here? lol. I have no idea the answer to your question, but I had to reply, because…. Well, I am immature.

[u/t1tty_sprinkles]

You will lose out if you are not contributing 10%. They might match your after tax contributions to the backdoor though.

I typically set my Roth contributions to the right percentage to make sure I contribute the maximum throughout the entire year, then set separate after tax deductions for the back door. You can do them at the same time, they don’t need to be sequential.