<prompt> Human: Edit: It appears the consensus is that many most? places will only match on pay periods in which you contribute. Let my expensive mistake be a valuable lesson to you.OriginalI dont really pay attention to the 401k match because I assume its there. I had to look at my pay stubs for something else and noticed I hadnt received an employer match contribution for a long time. I emailed HR and they said that because I max out my 401k early I dont get any subsequent employer match. She made it sound like if I set up my contribution so that by the last pay period I max out my 401k, I would receive my match in full. Is this actually legit? To me this sounds very very wrong. A 50 match of 6 to me is a promise to match even if I max out my 401k in January, in July, in December, or if I dont max out at all. This seems like it should be against the rules. Is it?Thats my question and now Im going to whine. Feel free to skip. I like paying off my mortgage for the year as early as possible and maxing out my 401k as early as possible. Those are my two biggest expenses by far and Im lucky enough to be able to do this. When Im done with my bills in July it feels like I receive a massive huge raise for the rest of the year and with no real expenses its a pretty great feeling. Having to change my 401k contributions to accommodate this will honestly kind of suck.  <response>: She made it sound like if I set up my contribution so that by the last pay period I max out my 401k, I would receive my match in full.Is this actually legit?Yes. Some employers, including the federal government, match on a per-pay period basis. So, if you get a 50 match on the first 6, your maximum employer match per pay period is 3 divided by the number of pay periods your company uses. If you subsequently dont contribute, you miss out on those pay periods matching contribution. 