Employer Funded Retirement

The company I work at gives all it's employees raises at the New Year. This is an excellent time to either start or increase your contribution to pre-tax retirement accounts such as a 401k or 403b.

You should also make sure that you are contributing enough to get the full employer match. This is free money to you. The only reason to possibly not contribute to an employer matched plan would be if the money only goes into company stock.

If you are already contributing enough to get the company match, you should consider increasing your contribution percentage when you get a raise. You are unlikely to miss the increased pay if you don't actually see the money on your paycheck.