401K
This is similar to PF (Provident Fund) account you had in India.
When you are here through some Desi companies be it a small sized
or multi national, they won’t let you any details or benefits of
401K. For me it took 2 years to know what is 401K and what are the
benefits.

What ever the money you contribute towards 401K a similar match
will be made towards your 401K. The matching varies from organization
to organization. Please check with your HR team about the matching %.
But at least in my case (total match was 5%), I.e. they matched 100%
for my 3% contribution of my Annual salary. Then for the next 2% of the
salary they matched 50%. Lets take an example here, lets say Annual
salary is $75K. Since I know the best matching from my company was 5%
(3% and 2% formula).

I did total contribution of $3750 for the entire year starting
Jan - Dec. You can contribute every month say $312.5 every month. So my
company contributed total of  3% of full match which is $2250 and 2% of
half match which is $750, so totally they contributed $3000.

So total contributions went into my 401K account is $6750 (but my
contribution was just 3750). Please continue to contribute towards your
401K till you are in USA.

Once you leave USA or if you want to break 401K account, all that you
loose is (20% Federal Tax + 5% State Tax + 10% Penalty). In this case you
loose $2362.5 out of $6750. But you will get back $4387.5, Wahhh in worst
case also you made a profit of ~$650. This is for just 1 year calculation,
if you stay 2 years multiply by 2, if you stay 5 year then multiply by 5.

If you don’t want to break 401K even after you leave USA, then you can
claim this amount when you reach 65 years. By then with simple interest
of 6-8 % PA it would be XXX.

Note: I am not a financial adviser. This is what I saw in my life with
my 401K account. One more thing when you open 401K don’t distribute your
funds unless you know what you are doing. In my case I left it default.
Default is Low risk and low returns. I am not responsible for any losses
you incur from this article. This is purely my own case. I am posting it
just because you can also gain some thing.