The Labor Department’s Retirement Checklist Gets Excited About Free Money

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Saving Matters retirement campaign offers American workers a free checklist for saving: learn how your workplace plan works, contribute enough to get any employer match, start small if you need to, automate it, and open an IRA if your job has no plan.¹ Below are its steps, paired with the IRS’s 2026 contribution limits.

Here is how the guide breaks it down.

1. Find out how your workplace plan works. If your employer offers a 401(k)-type plan with a match, the guide says that plan “should be the first place that you save.”¹ Match formulas and vesting rules (how long before the employer’s money is fully yours) differ from plan to plan, and the guide doesn’t give specifics, so your plan’s own details matter.

2. Put in enough to get the full match. The Labor Department’s page is blunt about this one: “If your employer contributes, this is free money – don’t pass it up!”¹ An exclamation point from a federal agency is worth noticing. Contributions come out of your paycheck before taxes and grow tax-deferred until you withdraw them, the guide explains.¹ Independent financial coverage agrees that employer matching works like free money that helps a nest egg grow faster.⁴ For 2026, the IRS lets employees put up to $24,500 into a 401(k), 403(b), 457 or Thrift Savings Plan, up from $23,500 in 2025.²

3. Start now, even if it’s small. The guide’s advice fits on a sticky note: “Start small, if necessary.”¹ To show why time matters, it offers an example. A 20-year-old who saves $1,000 a year for 11 years and then stops would have $168,514 at age 65. A 30-year-old who saves $1,000 a year for 35 years would have $147,913.¹ The one who stopped after 11 years still comes out ahead. Both figures assume a 7% return and are illustrations, not guarantees, and the same page advises being realistic about investment returns.¹

4. Make it automatic. The guide recommends automatic deductions from your paycheck or checking account, and saving regularly until it becomes a habit.¹

5. No plan at work? Look at an IRA. If your employer offers no plan, the guide suggests encouraging it to start one, picking a job that has a plan when offers are otherwise similar, or saving on your own through an IRA (individual retirement account).¹ An IRA is a personal account you open at a bank or mutual fund company, funded by check or automatic deduction, and you can start small and add more later. It comes in two main types, traditional and Roth, with different tax advantages, and income and contribution limits apply.¹ For 2026, the IRS limit is $7,500, up from $7,000 in 2025, plus a $1,100 catch-up for people 50 and older.²³

Starting with the 2027 tax year, a separate federal program called the Saver’s Match, created by the SECURE 2.0 law, can give income-eligible savers up to $1,000 (50% of up to $2,000 saved), CNBC reported.⁶ It is not an employer match, and the Labor Department guide doesn’t cover it.

6. Decide what to do with your savings when you change jobs. According to the guide, you can leave your retirement money in your former employer’s plan or roll it over into a new employer’s plan or an IRA.¹ Vanguard’s explainer notes that rolling a 401(k) into an IRA keeps the money tax-advantaged, so no tax is due at the time of the rollover.⁵

7. Leave it alone. The guide’s last tip is short: “Don’t dip into retirement savings.”¹ It also points out that most workplace plans won’t cover all of your retirement expenses, so it recommends saving on your own even if your plan at work is a good one.¹

You don’t have to do all seven this week. Checking whether your job offers a match, and how much it takes to get it, is a solid first step.