Why am I leaving free pension match money unclaimed?

Say your employer matches up to 4% of your pay, and you give 2%. If you earn $60,000 a year, that 2% gap costs you $1,200 every year — money your employer already agreed to give you, sitting unclaimed because a form was never touched. This is not laziness. It is a number nobody sat down to ask about. You likely are not alone — the people on your team or in your pod probably carry the same unexamined gap, because we rarely compare these numbers with each other. The match was offered to you on equal terms as everyone else at your company. Reason does not accept a habit that serves only inertia and costs you real pay. The fix takes five minutes; the only real cost has been not asking.