UPS doesn't match for union employees. I'm on record at this website as saying I would rather take a UPS match than a pension contribution. A little bit each week along with favorable market conditions can turn a little bit into a small fortune.
I started contributions in June of '02 (I was 28 years 8 months old) at 7% of my salsry. So I missed, by luck, most of the worst bear market since the depression. I had at least 30 years to retirement and was not going to let short term flucuations in the stock market affect the way I invested at this early stage.
So I invested agressively (100% stock funds to this day) and increased my contributions to reach 14% of my salary right now. Each raise I recieve now, I will increase my contribution to the 401k by that percentage. I grew my balance to around $40,000 in less than 5 years. The 401k is a powerful tool.
If I stopped investing today and just let the investments grow, I would have hundreds of thousands of dollars at age 65.
So to all you 18-21 years olds, start now and you'll be a millionare in your 40's! Good luck!