Retirement and 401(k)

You're eligible from day one

Unlike most of our benefits, the 401(k) doesn't wait for the first of the month or a 90-day mark — you're eligible to enroll as soon as you start. The plan is administered through Guideline, integrated with Gusto payroll, so your contributions and the company match move automatically once you're enrolled; nobody has to remember to file anything each pay period.

If you don't make an active election within your first 30 days, you'll be automatically enrolled at a 3% pretax deferral rate, with that rate increasing by 1% each year up to a cap of 10%, unless you go into Guideline and change it yourself. Auto-enrollment exists so that nobody misses out by default — it isn't meant to be the plan you actually want, so it's worth logging in and choosing deliberately.

The company match

Daisy matches your contribution dollar for dollar, up to 4% of your pay, and that match is immediately vested — it's yours from the first paycheck it lands in, with no cliff and no schedule to wait out. If you contribute 4% or more, you get the full match; if you contribute less, the match is proportional. There's no reason to leave part of this on the table if your budget allows it: it's the closest thing to free money this handbook can honestly offer.

Traditional vs Roth

Guideline lets you split your contribution between two tax treatments, and you can change the split at any time:

Traditional (pretax) 401(k): your contribution comes out of your paycheck before taxes are calculated, which lowers your taxable income now. You pay income tax when you withdraw the money in retirement.
Roth 401(k): your contribution comes out after taxes are already taken, so there's no tax break today. In exchange, qualified withdrawals in retirement — including all the growth — are tax-free.

Which one makes sense depends on your income now versus what you expect in retirement, and it's genuinely a personal-finance question rather than a company policy question. Guideline's tools can model both; if your situation is complicated, a tax advisor is worth the conversation. The company match itself is always contributed on a pretax basis regardless of which way you split your own contribution — that part isn't optional and isn't something Guideline lets you route to the Roth side.

Contribution limits

The IRS sets an annual limit on how much you can contribute to a 401(k) yourself, separate from the company match, and that limit changes most years. Rather than print a number here that will be wrong within a year, check the current limit on the IRS website or in your Guideline dashboard, which stays current automatically. If you're 50 or older, a separate catch-up limit applies on top of the standard one — same rule, check the current figure rather than trust a printed one.

Rolling in money from a previous job

If you have a 401(k) or a traditional IRA from a previous employer, you can roll it into your Guideline account instead of leaving it behind or cashing it out. A direct rollover, where the old plan sends the money straight to Guideline, avoids withholding and avoids the risk of missing the 60-day window that applies to an indirect rollover. Guideline's support team walks you through the paperwork, and it's worth doing sooner rather than later — old 401(k) balances are easy to forget about and easy to lose track of across a few job changes.

Questions

Enrollment, contribution changes, and rollovers all happen inside Guideline itself, reachable through your Gusto account. For anything about eligibility timing or how this fits with your other benefits, see "Health insurance" or ask People Ops.