Our method
Verified means traced to the source. Every time.
Retirement content online is full of outdated limits, recycled 2024 numbers and rules quoted from blogs quoting other blogs. 401k Decoded exists to do the boring thing properly: trace every figure to an official source before publishing it.
§ 01
Official sources only
Limits, thresholds and dates come from IRS publications — Notice 2025-67, IR-2025-91, irs.gov — and dol.gov. Never from second-hand articles.
§ 02
Citations in place
Every guide lists its sources with direct links. You should never have to trust us — you can check us, in one click.
§ 03
Re-checked on change
We monitor IRS and Federal Register updates. When a rule changes, the guide is corrected and re-dated — no zombie 2024 numbers.
§ Questions people ask us
Who is behind 401k Decoded?
An independent educational publisher: this website, the free 2026 Cheat Sheet and the 401k Decoded YouTube channel. One promise across all of it: plain English, and numbers you can trace to the source.
Are you financial advisors?
No. We are not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, accountant or law firm, and nothing here is personal financial, tax or legal advice. We explain how the rules work — decisions about your money belong with you and a qualified professional, ideally with our sources in hand.
Why should I trust a YouTube channel with my 401(k) questions?
Don't trust — verify. That's the point of our method: every figure we publish links to the official document it comes from. If a claim of ours ever doesn't match irs.gov, the IRS wins — and we fix it. Corrections: team@401kdecoded.com.
What does the stamp in your videos mean?
Every video ends with our brass stamp pressed on the document — it's our seal: the numbers in this video were verified against official IRS sources before publishing. The burned shield-and-key mark below is the same emblem you see on our logo.
The seal from our videos — numbers verified before the stamp falls