If FERS investors hit the dollar cap before the last pay period of the year, their contributions will shut off until 2014 and so will government matching contributions (although the automatic 1 percent of salary government contribution for FERS employees would continue). Once lost, matching contributions can’t be recouped. To prevent that from happening, investors might need to make a new investment allocation. Employees might wish to discuss the situation with their payroll offices, to determine how many pay dates will remain in the year by the time they make a change, in order to set up their deductions to their best benefit.
