Don’t make these common 401(k) mistakes. With one, many ‘aren’t even aware’ they’re missing out, expert says

A higher cost of living and growing savings shortfall has many Americans worried about their retirement security.

Those financial strains also make it harder for many workers to fund a retirement account. 

To that point, 41% don’t contribute any money at all to a 401(k) or employer-sponsored plan, according to a CNBC Your Money Survey conducted in August.

Even the majority of those that do contribute say they are not on track with their yearly 401(k) savings to retire comfortably.  

Despite the many advantages of a workplace plan, most savers are missing out, experts say. Here are three common mistakes workers often make when it comes to their 401(k) plans.

“It’s a fairly small subset of workers that are fully maximizing their employer-sponsored plans that allows them to build a bigger next egg,” said Joe Buhrmann, senior financial planning consultant at eMoney Advisor.

At the very least, workers should contribute enough to their workplace retirement plan to reap the benefits of the company match, if available.

Most 401(k) plans, 98%, make contributions to workers’ retirement savings, according to the Plan Sponsor Council of America.

Yet, roughly 22% of plan participants are not getting the full match, according to data from Fidelity, the nation’s largest 401(k) plan provider.

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“There are a lot of workers out there that aren’t even aware of what their company’s match is,” said Mike Shamrell, Fidelity’s vice president of thought leadership.

In fact, the average company match in a 401(k) plan was 4.7% of a worker’s salary in the third quarter of 2023, according to Fidelity, but can typically range between 3% and 6%.

To that end, couples with two employer savings plans could benefit from prioritizing the more generous employer’s 401(k) matching funds.

However, everyone…