@genuinelygenesis: You can call anything a scam nowadays. I get it... but maybe there's some things out there that are actually TRYING to help you. 401Ks is one of them. ESPECIALLY if your employer gives you a match. I'll answer all questions about 401Ks in this post!! To get you thinking... 401Ks are retirement plans offered by your employer. For example, Google gave me a 401K through Morgan Stanley and matched at 50%. This means... for every $1 I put in... Google gave me $0.50 cents. This type of match is UNHEARD of. And now my 401K is worth $310,000 after working at Google for 6ish years and maxing it out only a few of those years. If I were you, I'd make sure I knew: - What % match does my employer provide? - Is my 401K on a vesting schedule? Start there :) and let me know what comes up!