Did you know that every postdoc has access to their own financial planner for retirement/savings for FREE?
The university has contracted the services of folks from Fidelity investments who can meet with postdocs as a group or one-on-one to go over investing and to help you make a savings plan. Fidelity is one of the investment firms that offers investment products available through the UC Retirement system. Even though postdocs are not technically part of the UC Retirement system, the vast majority of us are automatically put into the safe Harbor plan - which takes money out of our paychecks and puts in into a savings fund directly. If you want that money to be invested in stocks or bonds (instead of simply a savings fund), you can go online to change your allocations. To learn how to do this - or to track down the Fidelity rep on campus, contact Campus Human resources 10920 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 200 Los Angeles, CA 90024-6504 Campus Mailcode: 146548 (310) 794-0830; (310) 794-0835 FAX and they will get you all sorted out.
Also, when you leave the University - if you never dealt with this money while a postdoc - be sure to contact Human Resources to get your money out of the account. Though I am sure they try, apparently lots of money goes unclaimed every year because people don’t update their addresses with the university - and they simply can’t track you down. So, at the very least, call them when you leave, fill out the paperwork and get your cash back - it will easily be in the thousands of dollars!