CrakPipeOvrheat

I'm not sure if your company matches a percentage of your 401k contributions but if so make sure you spread out your contributions evenly throughout the year. This way you won't hit the $17,500 max too soon preventing you from contributing any more and causing you to miss out on the 401k match for the rest of the year.

If, for example, they match 5% and you hit the max $17,500 only 6 moths into the year then you only get 5% matched of what you've earned YTD, that's all. If you spread it out over the year you get matched 5% of your entire annual income.

AFW_MD11

FedEx doesn't %match - they "match" the first $500.00 only for the year - that's it.

The Walrus

They match 50% of the first $1000.

Bigger b1tch slap.

CrakPipeOvrheat

That's pathetic.

Pakagecheck

As I am sure you are aware.... a retirement package is the combination of A plan, B plan and 401k(matching or not). Most airlines are some combo of the above. So although the matching may be small, it is more than made up in other areas. For example, if your airline matches 50% of the 401k(8750 max) the 7% B fund is still a much better return at his airline beginning year 2(which by the way most companies don't let you participate the first year anyway). So call the matching pathetic, but I contend his retirement package exceeds almost all others currently.

CrakPipeOvrheat

I respectfully disagree. Your example of 401k matching doesn't make any sense. I'm not sure you understand it correctly. As for what is a better return, don't forget that you get to invest your money in your 401k and watch it grow over a long period of time. Consider how valuable those employer matches are when you multiply them by 1.08 (adding 8%) as many times as the number of years you have left until retirement. I don't know what the fedex pension is but most pensions I've heard of are a percentage of you're income for the rest of your life based on years of service and some other factors. Without knowing what the pension is at fedex I can't say for sure what is better but I will say that I've saved over 1 million dollars for retirement in the last 20 months working at a regional airline (disclaimer: based on 8% hypothetical market growth over 35-40 years). If you are aggressive with your 401k, IRA and have a pension, then more power to you. If you slack on the 401k because you are counting on a pension, that could potentially backfire. If you took full advantage of 401k employer match and had it invested well your whole career you would make more just off market gains off that money each year in retirement than you would get form your pension, if you had decent matching.

FDXLAG

His point was that FDX does not match our 401K but instead contributes 7% of our income into essentially a 401K. This is in addition to our 2% per year pension (of our high 5).

Pakagecheck

I am pretty sure I understand just fine. If you want to see what airline retirements are like, click on the airline profiles at the top of the page. Each is pretty specific. If you don't understand how a B plan works, it is a company contribution based on your annual salary. FedEx's is in the same funds as the normal 401k. Year 2 at FedEx is 148/hr. 7% is $10300. 50% of a max'd 401k is 8750. See the dif? Also as Lag said, then there is the A plan.

busdriver12

If we put all this in plain English, at FedEx, this is how it works:

They only match $500 into your 401K, as far as matching funds.
Our A fund will pay us $130K/year if we retire at age 60 with 25 years of service (fairly common here), until we die.
Our B fund pays 7% of our salary into our 401K. So if I make 300K this year, they will put 21K into my 401K.

I don't know how this compares with other non-bankrupt companies, but I do hope our new contract (if we ever get one) increases our A fund somewhat.

HKFlyr

Correct me if I'm wrong...but we only get a max of 7% up to 260k. That is the max...(which is something the MEC has identified, so it really isn't 7% when you are making more than 260). Max of $18,200.

i think that is the max...if I'm wrong, someone correct me.