Today is my four year anniversary at my current job. It is also an important date in my graduate school planning. I mentioned earlier that when I switch jobs, I always try to make sure I am vested in my 401k because I don't believe in leaving money on the table. I had wanted to take some time off between my job and school and if I had been completely vested earlier, I probably would have left in May or maybe even April. Some people have asked me why I chose to leave on a Wednesday. Well, I decided to leave on the 15th to make it easier for our payroll accounting department.
Speaking of 401k, I was on the phone with our plan administrator this past week and I asked about the postcard we I got in the mail about future changes in the plan. It looks like the plan administrator is building a bridge program with Merrill Lynch where we can use ML resources for retirement planning. This will also give us many more funds to choose from and, I think this is probably the most dramatic change to date, we willl be able to investment in individual stocks.
PS: For my co-workers who may be confused as to how I became completely vested after four years, employees that started in 2001 were vested 25% per year over four years where those that started in 2002 or later were vested 20% a year over five. (Suckers!)
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1 comment:
While your intentions are well-placed, leaving work at the end of a pay cycle does not make life any easier or harder for the payroll accounting department. The functions that direct deposit you money are fully automated, so that had you left on the 17th, you would receive a direct deposit for two days of work. The only human resources used up are when some HR hack types into the system that your last day is the 17th...but that time was already spent typing in the fact that you were leaving on the 15th. In essence, the only difference is that you would have received one more direct deposit...but the cost of this transaction is nil, and in the end, you saved no effort on behalf of the payroll accounting drones nor the shareholders of AOL. However, your kind considerations are duly noted.
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