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First thing I'd say with the new job is "maxing out" your 401k is $19,000/year not whatever percentage the company will match. If you can afford to put $19,000/year away, you'll likely retire before almost everyone you know. Assuming after tax income of $60k, you should be able to retire in 25 years: https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement?income=60...

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Unfortunately I do not live in US, so it's not exactly a 401k (barely know what it is). And upon reading the contract again I see now that they contribute only 2%.

As my salary would be 135k THB (4293 USD) per month (51k/year berfore taxes) that would be only 1000 USD per year, barely anything.

I probably save more than 19k USD per year by myself though, although I'm without children/house/etc right now so that might change.

The real power in that 19k is over a long period of time. I have no idea what the rates you get in standard savings, but assuming 2-3% interest on that you're looking at ~$450,000 over about 20 years. VS ~800,000 over 20 years at 7% interest (that's a pretty conservative investment interest rate).

But as you mention, you're not in the US, so you may not be limited to that 19k (That's simply a different tax strategy, no one says you can only save that much).

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