AKRON, OH — Derek Paulson, 38, learned Tuesday that his employer, Midland Supply Group, has offered a 6% 401(k) match for the entirety of his eleven-year tenure, a benefit he never accessed after misplacing the enrollment packet during his first week and assuming the matter had resolved itself.

Paulson made the discovery while attending a mandatory financial wellness seminar he had also been ignoring for eleven years. A slideshow slide reading “Free Money You May Already Be Leaving Behind” is reported to have prompted an immediate and sustained silence from Paulson that colleagues described as “the quiet of a man doing very large math.”

“I thought the HR lady was speaking metaphorically,” said Paulson, who has since filled out the enrollment forms and emailed HR a follow-up question asking if there was “any kind of retroactive situation available.” There is not.

“He just kept typing numbers into his phone calculator and then setting the phone face-down on the table,” said seminar facilitator Renee Okafor, 44. “He did that four times. The number didn’t change.”

Financial planners estimate Paulson forfeited approximately $61,000 in employer contributions over the period, a figure that does not include compound growth, a detail Paulson’s wife has asked everyone to please stop mentioning around him.

Paulson says he plans to enroll immediately and “make up for lost time,” a phrase his financial advisor, Gerald Chu, 52, noted carries no technical meaning in retirement planning but chose not to say out loud.

At press time, Paulson had signed up for the 6% contribution and was searching his email inbox for eleven years of benefit enrollment reminders he had filtered directly to trash.