If you leave a company before fully vesting in a 401-K, what happens to your contributions?

If you leave a company before fully vesting in a 401(k), retaining your contributions and the earnings on them is the correct outcome. When you contribute to a 401(k) plan, those contributions come from your own salary, and they are always yours. Even if you do not fully vest in the employer's contributions, your own contributions remain intact regardless of your employment status.

Additionally, you are entitled to any earnings generated by your contributions while they were in the account. This means that if your investments appreciated or generated interest during the time you were contributing, that growth is also retained when you leave the company. Therefore, you have ownership of both your contributions and any earnings associated with them, which provides a financial benefit even if you do not receive the full value of the employer's contributions until you are fully vested.

In contrast, if you left the company before vesting, you would typically lose access to the employer's contributions and any associated earnings tied to that portion, as these are dependent on meeting certain tenure requirements established by the employer.