Whats the deal with rolling over 401k?

[pontifex]

So I changed companies recently and i want to move my 401k plan from my old company to my new one.

They tell me I have to wait 30 days. ok, no problem. 30 days pass and I call back.

"we haven't received a separation notice yet so we can roll it over for you. Call back next week to see if we received the notice."

call back next week. Same crap again. Financial stuff like this is mostly above my head, but isn't it my money? why do they need a separation notice to disperse it? shouldn't I be able to move it at any time?

I have to call back next week now...and keep calling until they get the notice. and they tell me there's nothing I can do on my end to speed it up.

 

[JS80]

Call your HR dept and tell them to hurry up

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Do not rollover into a new Company plan.

Remove it and place it in a self directed IRA - less fees more options. Fidelity is a great choice.

 

[pontifex]

Do not rollover into a new Company plan.

Remove it and place it in a self directed IRA - less fees more options. Fidelity is a great choice.

I don't even know what an IRA is. Heard of it, but no idea about it. I don't even understand the choices I have with my 401k plan...

Fidelity is the who my new company's 401k plan is with.

 

[rasczak]

I don't even know what an IRA is. Heard of it, but no idea about it. I don't even understand the choices I have with my 401k plan...

Fidelity is the who my new company's 401k plan is with.

start learning. this way you can grab a good gold on your future and retirement. i started late and am now playing catch up. i just hope i can crack a million before i retire.

 

[Yossarian]

You can probably do better with your own IRA than the new company's plan. Many companies have 401k choices that suck--high cost managed funds. an IRA is pretty much the same thing as a 401k (pretax contributions, tax sheltered until retirement) but you'll be able to choose from more investment options, it isn't through your employer. Vanguard is good, so is Fidelity. You should do some research on how to allocate funds in 401k/IRA depending on your goals.

At a basic level you want to consider all your investments as a whole, not each account individually. Then from that whole, allocate some to bonds and some to stocks. Rule of thumb is 110 - your age = percentage to put in stocks (you'll see other numbers thrown around too). Then from the stock portion, 20-30% should be international and the rest domestic. Choose low cost index funds, contribute regularly, reallocate yearly, and you're pretty much all set. These are all very rough rules of thumb.

You can get a lot of good info and advice here--
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=6b1f7500aadac779024d313dcf9386bb

 

[her209]

You can probably do better with your own IRA than the new company's plan. Many companies have 401k choices that suck--high cost managed funds. an IRA is pretty much the same thing as a 401k (pretax contributions, tax sheltered until retirement) but you'll be able to choose from more investment options, it isn't through your employer. Vanguard is good, so is Fidelity. You should do some research on how to allocate funds in 401k/IRA depending on your goals.

At a basic level you want to consider all your investments as a whole, not each account individually. Then from that whole, allocate some to bonds and some to stocks. Rule of thumb is 110 - your age = percentage to put in bonds (you'll see other numbers thrown around too). Then from the stock portion, 20-30% should be international and the rest domestic. Choose low cost index funds, contribute regularly, reallocate yearly, and you're pretty much all set. These are all very rough rules of thumb.

You can get a lot of good info and advice here--
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=6b1f7500aadac779024d313dcf9386bb

Whoa... haven't seen you post in a loooooooong time.

 

[NoCreativity]

You can probably do better with your own IRA than the new company's plan. Many companies have 401k choices that suck--high cost managed funds. an IRA is pretty much the same thing as a 401k (pretax contributions, tax sheltered until retirement) but you'll be able to choose from more investment options, it isn't through your employer. Vanguard is good, so is Fidelity. You should do some research on how to allocate funds in 401k/IRA depending on your goals.

At a basic level you want to consider all your investments as a whole, not each account individually. Then from that whole, allocate some to bonds and some to stocks. Rule of thumb is 110 - your age = percentage to put in bonds (you'll see other numbers thrown around too). Then from the stock portion, 20-30% should be international and the rest domestic. Choose low cost index funds, contribute regularly, reallocate yearly, and you're pretty much all set. These are all very rough rules of thumb.

You can get a lot of good info and advice here--
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=6b1f7500aadac779024d313dcf9386bb

I thought it was stocks.

 

[olds]

IIRC, you need to roll it. If you withdraw it, they tax it at 20%

 

[Ionizer86]

What kinds of expense ratios do you have for funds in your old/new 401k? If both are high then you can roll over to a Rollover IRA with a provider of your choice.

At Vanguard, if you have 10k for instance, you can get the Total Stock Market fund and only pay an expense ratio of 0.07%. That is serious win and hard to beat.

 

[Yossarian]

I thought it was stocks.

You're right, I wrote it incorrectly. You should have more stocks than bonds.

 

[Yossarian]

Whoa... haven't seen you post in a loooooooong time.

hehe yeah I decided that most forums in general are a waste of time so I stopped posting. But I was really bored at work.

 

[Engineer]

IIRC, you need to roll it. If you withdraw it, they tax it at 20%

and throw in a 10% penalty on top of that.

I'm in the same situation as the OP....must roll over a 401k pretty soon. Might roll two of them at the same time (previous two employers).