If you’re having a hard time saving money for a summer vacation or finding cash to repair the family car, contributing to a 401(k) is probably not at the top of your list. But, according to the senior editor of Money Magazine, that is not how it should be. “I don’t see how stopping or lowering your contributions to your 401(k) or other retirement accounts helps you,” writes Money’s Walter Updegrave in this CNN article. Unless you’re truly scraping the bottom of the barrel, Updegrave does not condone ignoring your employer’s 401(k) option. To boot, though you might be skittish to invest given the stock market’s recent unpredictable dives, Updegrave points out that what you’ll earn after stocks when stocks are peaking is much lower than the return you’ll likely get when you buy after stocks have been seriously hammered. Bottom line, if you’ve been shirking your 401(k) responsibilities, get back in the investing game as soon as possible.