This is optimal finance daily episode 1181 the maximum 401k contribution limit what you could have if you max out every year by Sam of financial Samurai.com.

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The maximum 401k contribution limit, what you could have if you max out every year,

by Sam of Financial samurai.com.

The government has blessed us with the ability to max out our 401k to $19,000 a year in 2019,

up from 18,500 in 2018.

If you are 50 or older, you can add up to $6,000 extra per year from 5,500.

I always recommend trying to max out your 401k as fast as you can. Once you get into a max habit, you'll rack up some big bucks in no time.

So many people don't even bother to try because they don't feel like it's possible.

But once they try, they kick themselves for wondering why they didn't max out their 401k sooner.

Remember, the contribution to your 401k is pre-taxed, so an $18,500 contribution is more like $13,800 less from your paycheck a year if we use a 25% effective tax rate.

There's a simple chart in this post that shows how much you can accumulate in your 401k by age or years worked if you contribute

18,000 a year starting today. The chart is obviously more helpful for younger folks,

given older folks had lower maximum contribution limits in the past.

For example, when I first started maxing out my 401k in 2000, the contribution limit was only

10,500.

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