Why it pays to procrastinate
Aug 16th, 2005 by Accidental Thinker
This is a little story I like to tell whenever the subject of procrastination comes up, which it did today at work.
At the company I used to work for, we had a 401(k) plan with a five-year vesting schedule that was all or nothing. My money was always mine, but if I left before I had put in my five years, I was not entitled to my employer’s contributions. Or so they said. When I moved on after just three years, I assumed I had given up the rights to their part of the money.
Soon after leaving, my dad began a constant campaign of nagging me to roll over my own portion of the funds into an IRA, rather than letting my former employer continue to control it. I, like the dutiful daughter I am, paid absolutely no heed to the lectures. I agreed with him wholeheartedly and then went about my merry way. This went on for a full two years at least, until I finally decided (being a considerate daughter and all) to put my dad out of his lecturing misery. So I consulted our family’s financial advisor to begin the process of setting up a rollover IRA. I soon discovered that not too long prior, my former company had been sold and the old 401(k) accounts were being managed by some new outfit or another that specializes in such things. Apparently during that accounting transfer, they wrote off the unvested employer contributions that were still sitting in old accounts and the money was suddenly mine again.
In this instance, procrastination paid off, literally, to the tune of a couple of G’s. Our retirement nest egg is just the teensiest bit fluffier as a result. Who says it doesn’t pay to procrastinate?
Chalk one up for the good guys for a change.
^5!!! Pretty sweet, huh?
Yeah, pretty cool. This was all several years ago and I still feel like I got away with something.
And then there’s compound interest over all the years to come ….. ewwww$$$$$$ !