Tag Archives: 401k
Reader Question: What should I do with my old 401k? | Roundup
I got a question from a reader the other day that is a pretty common one (what to do with your old 401k), so I decided to answer it as a blog post today. Here is her question:
Hi Bob, I have a 401k with my old job and my new job does not offer a 401k option (or else I would just roll my 401k over). What should I do with this 401k? Leave it alone? Roll it over into a Roth IRA? (What are the tax implications if I were to do this?) Roll it over into some other entity that I am not aware of?
I don’t know if a little background info matters but…, I started this 401k when I was 20, stopped depositing money into it when I quit my job at 30 (I quit to stay home with my baby for a year) and now I’m back to work but just part time. So what should I do?
What I did with my old 401k
Fidelity Finds Slight Rise in Employee 401(k) Contributions
Fidelity Investments said employee contributions to its 401(k) plans crept upward last year, while the average balance was up nearly 8 percent.
NYT > Retirement
Video: Ask the Experts: New 401(k) rules
MoneyWatch editors Jill Schlesinger and Jack Otter speak with Barron’s editor Beverly Goodman about how a new federal law will help employees save for retirement.
A Plea for Help From 401(k) Land
The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet’s guest contributor program, which is separate from the company’s news coverage.
By Richard Schmitt
NEW YORK (TheStreet) – Dear Uncle Sam,
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New Treasury Rules Ease Purchase of Annuity With 401(k)
New regulations are intended to make it easier for retirees to transfer money from their 401(k)s into an annuity that would guarantee payments until they die.
NYT > Retirement
Starting, Maintaining a 401(k) Made Easy
NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Investing in a 401(k) plan can be stressful because there’s a lot to consider — stock or bond funds, time horizon, appetite for risk. But it doesn’t have to be.
The No. 1 thing to remember, as financial professionals remind us, is to diversify. That helps mitigate risk, which can erode investment returns.
Diversification in a 401(k) account has become increasingly important as those defined-contribution accounts will be the key source of retirement income for many. Nearly gone are the days that pension plans and Social Security could be relied on for income during the golden years.
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Should I use my 401k to pay off student loans?
While it’s tempting to consider using retirement funds to pay off student loan debt, there are huge drawbacks, warns Mark Kantrowitz, founder of Finaid.org.
College savings advice – CNNMoney.com
Your 401K Match Just Got Axed; Now What?
NEW YORK (TheStreet) — According to a New York Post report, “embattled” PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi is considering eliminating the company’s matching contribution to employee 401K retirement accounts, as well as 4,000 layoffs.
Pepsi’s employees also have a separate pension plan, independent of the 401-K, according to the report, but the elimination of the match raises the question of what an employee should do if a 401K match is eliminated. Is it still worth making a tax-deferred contribution into the 401K? Is it worth avoiding the taxes?
PepsiCo employees may not wish to toast CEO Indra Nooyi
For starters, a matching contribution to a 401K is a wonderful thing. If, for example, your employer is willing to match half your contribution up to 3%, and your gross salary is $ 50,000 a year, and you contribute 6% of your salary in a year, you contribute $ 3,000 to the 401K and the employer contributes $ 1,500. That’s a fat 50% immediate return on your investment for that year.
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Video: Make the most of your 401(k)
Personal finance contributor Carmen Wong Ulrich speaks to the “Early Show” anchors about how to make the most of your 401(k).
How to Make the Best of a Bad 401(k)
NEW BERLIN, Ill. (TheStreet) — Chances are, you have a 401(k) or some other sort of Qualified Retirement Plan such as a 403(b), 457 or some other numerical combination. And chances are, unless you’re in the extreme minority, your 401(k) plan has some features that are lacking. Most often, we’ll see such things as limited options for diversification (although this is less likely these days), expensive fund choices and limitations for access to funds (not necessarily a bad thing).
How do you make the best of a bad 401(k)?
Unless you’re in the extreme minority, your 401(k) plan has some features that are lacking, and you’ll have to go through the funds to see where the weaknesses lie.
Review your fund options carefully. You should have the basics available to you in terms of diversification choices: domestic stock, international stock, money market (often referred to as stable return or something similar) and fixed income or bonds. If you don’t have at least these basic allocation options available to you, you need to have a serious talk with your administrator.
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