This may sound nitpicky, but here we are. I can be kind of nitpicky.

After several years of not maxxing out my Roth 401k (recovering finances after buying a home), I am back on track to have it maxxed out by the end of this year. One thing that I noticed though is that when I get my (basically standard-of-living) raise next year, technically I could drop by contribution rate 1% and still max it out. So if it takes 20% this year to fully max it out, next year's raise will mean I only need to contribute 19% to max it out.

I tend to like my personal income to stay even throughout the year. With my HSA, I also make sure my contributions are such that I pretty much get the same amount deducted each month with a slightly smaller amount coming out in December, and I think I'd like to do the same with my 401k.

OTOH, I have been debating lately if it would be worth it to have more money in December as December is typically a very low income month for my husband (he works freelance in events) and it's also most often a low month for our AirBnB business. So having a bit more extra money coming in with my paycheck might be nice.

Do you try to spread your deductions to be as equal as possible throughout the year? Or do you deliberately max out early on? I would love to hear what others are doing and why while I'm mulling this over.