Hi friend,

I want to talk to you today about one of my favorite kinds of money, and it is a very specific kind.

Free money.

Not money you have to earn more to get. Not money you have to sacrifice or budget harder to find. Money that is already sitting there, offered to you, that a shocking number of people walk right past without ever picking up.

I am talking about the employer match on your retirement plan. And more specifically, I want to talk about a mistake that married couples make constantly, quietly, and expensively, without ever realizing it is happening. By the end of this letter, you are going to know exactly how to make sure you are not one of them.

Let's get into it.

Let me start with the foundation, because some of you are newer to this and I never want to leave anyone behind.

If your workplace offers a retirement plan with a matching contribution, that match is the closest thing to free money you will ever find. Your employer is literally saying, "for every dollar you put in, we will add some of our own." Passing that up is like leaving part of your paycheck on the table on purpose.

So the golden rule is simple. At the very least, contribute enough to capture the full employer match. Whatever the maximum match is, that is your minimum target. Anything less, and you are voluntarily giving up money that has your name on it.

If you take nothing else from today, take that. But stay with me, because for married couples, this gets more interesting, and a lot more costly if you get it wrong.

Here is the tricky part. There is no single, standard way that a match works. Every employer sets up their formula differently, and the differences matter enormously.

Let me show you with a real example.

Imagine a married couple. Both spouses have a retirement plan at work. But their matches are completely different.

One spouse's employer offers a dollar-for-dollar match on the first 3 percent of salary. So every dollar that spouse puts in, up to 3 percent, gets fully doubled. That is a phenomenal deal.

The other spouse's employer offers 50 cents for every dollar, up to the first 6 percent of salary. Still good, but not nearly as rich. That spouse has to put in two dollars to get the same one dollar of free money the first spouse gets for a single dollar.

Now here is the mistake. Most couples treat these two accounts as totally separate. Two people, two jobs, two plans, handled independently. They each set some contribution rate and never compare notes.

But watch what happens when you look at it as one household instead of two individuals.

The smart move is obvious once you see it. The couple should first make sure the spouse with the dollar-for-dollar match is contributing enough to grab every bit of that generous match, because those are the most valuable dollars in the entire household. Only after that free money is fully captured should they turn their attention to funding the second spouse's less generous match.

Same total contribution. Completely different amount of free money captured. Just by directing the dollars smartly.

Now let me hit you with the number that made me want to write this whole letter.

According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, nearly one in five married couples do not coordinate this way. One in five. And by failing to, they miss out on an average of 757 dollars a year in matching contributions.

Read that slowly. Seven hundred and fifty-seven dollars a year, gone, not because they could not afford to save it, but simply because they did not direct their existing savings to the right account.

And 757 dollars a year does not stay 757 dollars. Over a working lifetime, that adds up to more than 14,000 dollars in lost matching money by the time that couple reaches age 65. Fourteen thousand dollars. And remember, that is not money they failed to earn or failed to scrape together. That is money that was offered to them, that they left sitting on the table, purely because nobody told them to coordinate.

This is the part that gets me fired up. That foregone money is not the result of saving less. It is the result of not saving smart. They could have boosted their retirement by thousands without contributing a single extra dollar of their own. That is the difference between working hard and working wise.

So here is the mindset shift I want you to make today, and it is a big one.

If you and your spouse both have retirement plans at work, stop thinking of them as two separate accounts belonging to two separate people. Start thinking of them as one household retirement strategy with two funding sources.

When you view it that way, everything changes. You stop asking "is my account okay and is their account okay" and you start asking "as a team, is every single one of our dollars going where it earns the most free money." That is the question wealthy, coordinated couples ask. And it is available to absolutely everyone, no special knowledge required.

Now I have to be honest with you, because I always am. Capturing the full match is the starting line, not the finish line.

If your budget is genuinely tight right now, and I know for many of you it is, then coordinating to grab every matching dollar is one of the single smartest moves you can make. It is the highest-return thing you can do with money you were already saving. Start there, always.

But do not let that be the end of the story. The long-term target you are really aiming for is saving around 15 percent of your pay for retirement each year, and yes, the employer match counts toward that 15 percent. So once you have locked in every available matching dollar, your next mission is to gradually nudge your contribution rate up, a little at a time, until you reach that 15 percent goal.

Maximizing the match is the first step toward retirement security. It is not the only step. Think of it as getting the free money first, then building on top of it.

One last warning, because this one trips people up.

Do not assume the setup you created years ago is still the right one today. Life changes, and so do these plans. Employers adjust their matching formulas. One of you changes jobs and walks into a completely different match. Suddenly the coordination that made perfect sense two years ago is quietly costing you money, and you have no idea because you have not looked.

The fix is beautifully simple. Make it a habit, once a year, to sit down together and review both plans side by side. Compare the matching formulas. Make sure every retirement dollar is still flowing to wherever it earns the biggest employer contribution. A quick annual checkup, maybe fifteen minutes over coffee, could be the difference between capturing that free money and leaving it behind for years without noticing.

Here is your one small step, and it might be the highest-paying fifteen minutes of your whole year.

If you and your spouse both have workplace retirement plans, schedule a short "match date" this week. Pull up both plans. Write down each employer's matching formula. Then ask one question: is our money going where it earns the most free money first?

If yes, wonderful. Give yourselves a high five and go enjoy your evening.

If no, fix it. Redirect your contributions so the most generous match gets fully funded first. You will have just given your future a raise without earning a single extra dollar.

I love this topic because it is the perfect example of what living rich and retiring rich is really about. It was never only about hustling harder or making more. So much of building wealth is simply being smart and intentional with what you already have.

You work hard for your money. The least it can do is work hard, and smart, right back for you.

Go grab your free money. It is waiting for you.

Talk soon,
Najma Zanelli
Explore Offerings
Founder, NAZ Global Consultancy
Follow me on IG: @najma_zanelli
Email: [email protected]

P.S. Know a married couple who might be leaving free money on the table? Forward this to them. You might just hand them 14,000 dollars, and there is no better way to spread a little financial love than that.