I really wish all of us just stopped this 401k, HSA, Health Insurance drama through one's employer and just got to contribute it directly while enjoying the same tax protected status.
For example, if:
- 401k contributions through one's employer is exempt from payroll taxes, let the employee open their own 401k directly, at a custodian brokerage of their own choosing and contribute to it while maintaining/enjoying the exempt status. Even better is if they could contribute it directly into the same brokerage where they maintain their IRA. My 401k providers have been lousy - their primary aim seemed to be to line their own pockets first. Voya wanted hundreds of dollars to roll over from their 401k to my IRA forcing me to withdraw and wouldn't even wire the funds: forcing me to accept a check instead, which is a terrible headache given existing regulation.
- HSA contributions through one's employer is exempt from payroll taxes, let the employee open their own HSA directly and contribute to it while maintaining/enjoying the exempt status. I have had a mixed bag of HSA accounts. One employer did not care where I had my HSA - they just wanted the ACH information. Another wanted me to funnel my funds to their specific lousy HSA
- The monthly $2k Health Insurance premiums that my employer "pays on my behalf" - I get to route that to a plan of my own choosing while getting the same tax exempt status. That way I get to keep and maintain my doctors and labs in network FOREVER even as my employers change (or I retire). Compare that to one employer forcing me to change from my beloved plan at kaiser permanente to a lousy Anthem plan because costs had gone up. Anthem was a bloody disaster and I would have been happy to pay a premium for my previous kaiser permanente plan but because of this nonsense we have, I didn't even have that choice. The employer would not even credit me the premiums after I wanted to purchase my own plan from the exchange which was way better than what was offered. I had to leave that job just to get away from Anthem!
All this pseudo retirement and benefits game is nonsense - employers find it a distraction and do an extremely poor job at best or actively hurt the employee by removing these when the employee actually needs them the most (like right now!).
Totally agree. Every employee should be getting the same tax benefits and be able to make the same decisions independently of employer It’s ridiculous that employers have a say in this.
Chrome now has an ad blocker built in. Apparently it only blocks the worst ads as decided by Google. Can't see any way that's fair or legal, but C'est la vie!
How’s that outsourcing desktop apps to Shanghai, Photon Orchestration instead of K8s, openStack and then AWS integration working out for ya? Should have sold to Oracle. Buh-bye
For example, if:
- 401k contributions through one's employer is exempt from payroll taxes, let the employee open their own 401k directly, at a custodian brokerage of their own choosing and contribute to it while maintaining/enjoying the exempt status. Even better is if they could contribute it directly into the same brokerage where they maintain their IRA. My 401k providers have been lousy - their primary aim seemed to be to line their own pockets first. Voya wanted hundreds of dollars to roll over from their 401k to my IRA forcing me to withdraw and wouldn't even wire the funds: forcing me to accept a check instead, which is a terrible headache given existing regulation.
- HSA contributions through one's employer is exempt from payroll taxes, let the employee open their own HSA directly and contribute to it while maintaining/enjoying the exempt status. I have had a mixed bag of HSA accounts. One employer did not care where I had my HSA - they just wanted the ACH information. Another wanted me to funnel my funds to their specific lousy HSA
- The monthly $2k Health Insurance premiums that my employer "pays on my behalf" - I get to route that to a plan of my own choosing while getting the same tax exempt status. That way I get to keep and maintain my doctors and labs in network FOREVER even as my employers change (or I retire). Compare that to one employer forcing me to change from my beloved plan at kaiser permanente to a lousy Anthem plan because costs had gone up. Anthem was a bloody disaster and I would have been happy to pay a premium for my previous kaiser permanente plan but because of this nonsense we have, I didn't even have that choice. The employer would not even credit me the premiums after I wanted to purchase my own plan from the exchange which was way better than what was offered. I had to leave that job just to get away from Anthem!
All this pseudo retirement and benefits game is nonsense - employers find it a distraction and do an extremely poor job at best or actively hurt the employee by removing these when the employee actually needs them the most (like right now!).