bamasam

First rule of thumb is invest the amount that you are comfortable with, by that I mean what you can afford to put up without putting you in a bind on your finances. When you put the money in it forget the money, DO NOT borrow or take money out of the 401k plan!!

First thing is to put aside an amount to cover your bills for at least 3 months for emergency back up if anything were to happen to either of you, ie .. sickness, injury, layoff.

Second is make sure that you have a widely diversified plan based on how soon you would be looking at retireing. Some plans even have set groups of diversity based on what year you would like to set for retirement..ie. 2015, 2025. Like you have allready stated make the most of your employers match and forget the money for a long time :banghead