Retirement plans and financial savings have become a necessity. Many people feel obligated to save their finances in a bank account. Limiting savings to a bank account does not provide many returns. It would be better to resort to other savings and retirement plans like a 401(k) or cash balance plan.
If you want to get started with a suitable plan for your savings, considering Boca Raton cash balance plans would help you achieve significant returns on your savings. However, many people are not aware of the difference between a 401(k) plan and a cash balance plan. Below are some brief details about the same which you are aware of.
What is a 401(k) plan?
A 401k is a retirement savings plan provided to the employees by their employer. It could also be considered an investment plan that allows an employee to invest and save a specific amount in a savings account that could be withdrawn in the future. A 401k plan also provides certain tax exemptions or breaks to the employees after contributing to the retirement savings account.
Mostly, these contributions are automatically withdrawn from an employee’s paychecks. The withdrawn amount automatically gets invested in various employees’ funds during the initial procedure. The employee would not be required to pay taxes until they withdraw the amount from their account.
What is a cash balance plan?
A cash balance plan is similar to a pension plan. The primary objective of a cash balance plan is to credit the participant’s account with a pay credit annually. The pay credit could vary from the percentages the employer would decide. After the amount is credited, the employee would get interest credit on the pay credits, considered returns on investment.
The interest rate could be fixed or variable depending on the index of the plan. Generally, employees can participate in a cash balance plan and receive a specified percentage of interest or returns on their yearly compensation provided by the employer.
Difference between a 401k plan and a cash balance plan:
A 401k plan is a plan that is strictly limited to a defined contribution plan. A cash balance plan is generally considered a defined benefit plan. An employee may contribute to a 401k plan with separate accounts for every applicant. At the same time, a cash balance plan has a single trust account and a hypothetical account for the participants. Employment can also expect higher tax deductions with a cash balance plan when compared to a 401k plan.