<prompt> Human: Im 23 years old and have been making the retirement contributions to get the full match from my employers. I live in a pretty expensive area so this puts me behind in other PF goals such as growing a savings account and starting to invest. At this point I feel like Im possibly saving too much for retirement but I know that if I contributed any less Id be losing out on free money. Is there any circumstance where it would be smart to not get the match?EDIT- Thanks for the feedback guys. One thing I definitely didnt think through was that getting the match and then having to pay penalties to withdraw is still better than not investing in the account in the first place. I was just irrationally wary about my other savings goals falling behind and not really looking at the whole picture here that this is all saving and investing. Edit 2- Thanks again for all the feedback; the responses Ive gotten have forced me to better understand my benefits this alone is probably a significant win and also encouraged me to adopt a smarter view on my personal finances another big win, I believe. In general Ive really enjoyed this subreddit and as a community yall have definitely encouragedinspired me to pursue healthy milestones and take better care of my financial wellness. Im glad I finally made a post and was able to benefit from this community even more.  <response>: you are making an immediate 100 gain with 0 risk. Can anything else match that? Thats the whole point of always getting your matching.As for avoiding this so you can start to invest - um putting money in your 401k is investing. So dont take money from a retirement match to invest it in a non-tax sheltered place.Building an eFund might be a reason to skip a month or two, but overall, Id go for the match over saving in different accounts. 