Finance Gets Personal

My husband received an email from his employer today announcing “changes to your 401(k) plan.”

Basically, they are lowering the company match from 5% to 4%, and investing the money on a yearly basis instead of on a per-paycheck basis (i.e., the 2009 company match won’t get put in his account until 2010).

Layoffs are looming at his large company, and I’m wondering: By switching from a bi-weekly to a yearly company match, does this mean that they won’t have to pay out the company match for anyone they lay off during the year?

If so, that’s crap.

If not, it’s still crap, but I guess 4% is better than nothing.

Now let’s just hope he survives the latest layoffs.

Back in 1999 - long before Bank of America’s Keep the Change program - my bank teller supervisor was filling us in on her sneaky snowflaking technique that worked much the same way.

For every check she wrote or debit card transaction she made, she would write the amount in her checkbook register as an even number.  The change was “forgotten” - although she did write the actual dollar amounts to the left of her whole numbers so she could add up her savings and write it in the sidebar every once in a while.  Then, after a few months, she would transfer the “extra” money to her savings account.

She saved hundreds of dollars per year doing this, and used her savings for gambling during her annual Vegas trip (remember, snowflaking can be used toward any goal, even one that Finance Girl does not explicitly approve of).

If you already have a Bank of America checking account, you should definitely sign up for the Keep the Change program, because you get a 100% match on your savings for the first three months, and a 5% match thereafter (for a maximum match of $250 per year).  But if you don’t - hey, there’s always Debbie’s method. 

(This post was an editor’s pick in the Carnival of Snowflaking, hosted by Antishay Ventenne.)

Photo Credit: Keep the Change by Tokenhippygirl, used under Creative Commons licensing