I keep seeing that you should be putting 15% of your income (link2, link3) into a retirement account. Does that include the employer match? For instance, if my employer has a 4% match, do I still put in 15% or do I drop it down to 11%? What if my employer has a 10% base (not match. If it was a match then of course you put in the full 10%), do I now drop it down to 5%?
If my total contributions is 15%, then I will have the same amount of money in the end no matter what my employer's plan is. If I put in 15% of my earned money, then in scenario 1 I technically have a 19% contribution but in scenario 2 I have a 25% contribution, which are drastically different (and they are a lot more than the flat 15%). So my question is does the rule of thumb of 15% include your employer match?
Note: this is more for educational purposes than it is me searching for advice.