<prompt> Human: I just got an offer for a job that pays roughly 65k a year. I wanted to see if there are any ways i can maximize my tax returnAssistant: Ideally you dont want to maximize your return so much as reduce how much taxes you pay in. You can do this by making sure you are claiming enough allowances and by using as many pretax deductions flex spending accounts, 401k, etc as you can. The tax return is just an interest free loan youve given The government, better to just pay as little in as you can.Human: is it wise to start putting money into my 401k? im roughly 22 years old and wanted to save up as much as possible to put a 20 down payment to a house. My company matches 150 of my 401k. What do you mean claiming allowances?  <response>: Dear god yes please start contributing to your 401k.For one, at age 22, every dollar you contribute is likely to become 15. For two, 150 match is amazing, so that actually means every dollar becomes like 35. If you put 10,000 this year and your companys 150 match has no cap -- this part is unlikely, that could very well become 350,000 by age 62 7 returns -- if we use 5 the number becomes 175k. I think its fair to assume it will land somewhere between 5 and 7 percent, even including a major catastrophe or twoThe older you get, the less return on your dollars you get time is the biggest payout, my opinion is that dollars invested in your 20s are of the _utmost_ importance. 