conversation: User (Northstat): "I'm a single male who started a new job this past May in CA. I began contributing to my 401k 3mo later. I have increased my witholding allowances to 10 in order to max out my 401k in the 4mo. that I can contribute this year while still bringing home a good size check. My plan is to drop my allowances back down to 2 after Jan 1st.\n\n\nI previously was a grad student and teaching for considerably less.  My thought process is that increasing my witholdings for a small portion of the year would allow me to max my 401k in the 4 months that I can contribute. After the first I will resume to much lower allowances so the overall tax that I've paid during the year would average out closer to the amount I should owe. \n\n\nDoes this make sense? Am I at risk for something I've not accounted for?  Ideally I would like nothing back at the end of the year or to pay/receive very little as I want to avoid giving the government a free loan (I'm confident I can make better use of the $ now through basic investing), how do I estimate the number of witholdings I should take?\n\n\n\n\n\n**edit: I've reduced my witholdings/allowances back down to 1.  I had thought that as long as I pay the correct amount of tax by the end of the tax year, this was ok. I didn't realize that this was wrong.  Do I need to contact someone to rectify this or will this work itself out when I pay taxes at the end of the year?**"
  Self: "You may find these links helpful:\n\n- [401(k) Fund Selection Guide](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k_funds)\n- [401(k) FAQs](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k)\n- ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics)\n\n*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*"
  