Workers Lost Consolidating Old 401(k)s
Individuals are struggling to consolidate and manage retirement funds (401k, 403(b), IRAs) from multiple former employers. This often involves dealing with complex transfers, outdated systems, lost funds, and a lack of clarity on the best course of action, leading to frustration and a feeling of being overwhelmed.
SOURCES (60)
“Ohhh… I didn’t know that potentially it might not even be possible to use a small portion of my 401(k) while still at my job. Thanks for that insight.”
“So i moved a Roth Ira to Fidelity from M1 finance. M1 automatically picks the funds for you. The funds are BND,BNDX, SHY, VCIT,VEA and VWO. It doesn't seem to be doing great. I want this for be for retirement in 25 years or so. Should I sell everything and put it in a TDF or something like VOO. Sorry im new to this and started reading The Little Book submitted by /u/orthodox_nola [link] [comments]”
“Let's assume a married person has a traditional 401k with all $100k pre-tax contributions. The plan administrator charges high fees 0.4%. They leave their job and don't work so can't roll it over to another 401k. Their spouse still works and they are 10-20 years from retirement and currently in 22% tax bracket. Option 1: Rollover to traditional IRA (downside of this is pro-rata rule for backdoor roth contributions) Option 2: Rollover to roth IRA and pay tax on the whole thing (downsi”
“Then yes I would steer clear of Traditional/Rollover IRAs, both of you. She can keep it in the Transamerica 401k for now. Once she gets a new job she can roll it to her new 401k. Reason you don't necessarily want to keep it in the old 401k forever is they can rack up fees, plus is just one extra account to have to maintain.”
“Just FYI, assuming a somewhat decent 401k plan the money left behind in that old account is "actually working" just as hard as it would somewhere else. A 401k is an investment account, just with special rules and tax advantages. The general go-to for retirement investment is something like a total market (maybe S&P) index fund or a target date fund. Those are very common in modern plans; things didn't used to be as employee-friendly. There's also a common misconception (not”
“An employer correcting their own error in the same year it occurred is not a taxable event to you. You should just see your 403b account balance go down when they take the funds out. You should not get a 1099-R next January and should not have to report anything on your own tax return,.”
“I’d look into rolling it over soon. Last year I had a massive headache since I hadn’t thought about the transfer and needed to get it done fast since my previous job was going to liquidate it since I no longer worked there and I’d have gotten a check minus whatever massive fees and taxes would have been taken out for technically pulling it early.”
“Roll it to an IRA for better investment options and lower fees, or to your new 401k to keep things simple. Just avoid cashing out to bypass taxes.”
“Never had an advisor (part of the problem). I recently signed up with one and have been slowly moving assets over to their managed account.”
“I have an old Roth 401k, under 10k, from a previous employer. I’m trying to buy a house and thought the extra cash for down payment would be useful. I have no clue what to even consider when doing something like this. My contributions were already taxed, right? But employer match and earnings were not so not sure how that works. Thoughts? submitted by /u/JM_General [link] [comments]”
“I’m rolling over an old 401(k) into an IRA, and I have some travel and personal things coming up that I don’t have time to figure out specific investment strategies, where can I park this money safely for a few months but also not completely miss growth or dividends? submitted by /u/valuewatchguy [link] [comments]”
“Hey guys I'm extremely uneducated when it comes to retirement/financial planning but I am trying very hard to learn more and plan accordingly. I am a firefighter/paramedic with 3 years on. When I retire (at 25 years on and 52 years of age) I will receive 75% of my highest salaried years through my pension. I also have a Roth 457, I am currently contributing 8% of my salary into it (I am increasing 1% a year until I hit 12-15%). I know everyone's retirement goals are different but will th”
“I worked my first job out of college for about 10 years before leaving to a new position in January. Now that I’ve been in that position for about six months, I can see myself working until retirement age. I am 37 and I’m hoping to retire at 55, but I may be a bit light on funds for that. Here is a screenshot of my estimated distribution at 55 If I take a reimbursement now, I will get a little over $136K, if I take a one sum at 55 I would get $522k. I’m pretty sure I will take the one sum versus”
“Married 58 y/o male here, our combined 401k balance is about $1.68 million. Balance increased over $240k during last 12 months which is the “crossover point” as it surpassed our combined working income. Since my wife was laid off months ago and we wanted to free up additional money for expenses, I reduced my 401k contributions down to 6%. Not only does this still provide the maximum free company match, but the momentum of compounding gains we are seeing makes it look like we will easily reach a”
“On line 5 "Employee contrib./ desig. Roth contrib. or insurance premiums"? Do you know if they are supposed to send me a 1099-R or do I generate my own? Also so in the future if I wanted to withdraw contributions, how would the IRS know how much of the value of my Roth IRA is contribution vs. earnings? Do they keep records as far back as when I opened my Roth IRA?”
“"They" is my (now former) 401(k)/Roth 401(k) servicer, in this case Empower Financial Services. If "they" is your Roth IRA company: they don't. You do. Have I been supposed to be doing this since I opened my Roth??”
“Is the way this works in 2026 seriously that they liquidate the assets into cash, and mail a check to Schwab? Yes How do they keep straight what portion of the Roth 401(k) was contribution vs. earnings? They don't. You do using your 1099-Rs”
“Hi all, Question about 401k rollover and what to do. I am an early 30s physician in fellowship, spouse is same age, also in fellowship. I am in what will eventually be a high paying surgical subspecialty. Spouse is in a lower paying medical subspecialty, if it matters. I finished residency and my residency had a 401k. My fellowship has a 403b. I have approx 20k in my residency 401k. Our current annual income is in the 150-200k range, and once we are both attendings in a few years, we could be co”
“Depending on your new 401k you may be able to do a reverse roll-over of the IRA into the 401k (nice if you ever want to do a Backdoor Roth). Hopefully your SIMPLE had been open for at least two years as well.”
“I switched jobs and my new job uses a Fidelity 401k. Im 42. My income is about 350k and I’m maxing my 401k (4% match with about 400k in it) as well a backdoor roth (about 50k total right now) and contributing to a taxable brokerage 2k a month(200k currently) and an HSA. My other accounts are all roughly 70/30 of VTI/VXUS. The new 401k pretty much only has 2 viable options in the funds.. either a vanguard target date (2055) or Fidelity SP500 (FXAIX) and international (FSPSX). There’s no total us”
“Employer has 401k set up with Voya. I'm planning to open Schwab self directed brokerage account so I can keep life simple and invest in VT/VTWAX. It looks like I can't actually automate contributions to the SDBA. Has anyone figured out if this can be automated in Voya? I think the workflow I'll end up with is something like: - Contributions go to Voya S&P 500 index fund - Once a month, log in to Voya and transfer to Schwab SDBA - After the transfer clears, log in to Schwab and bu”
“Novice here. I have about $150k in a 401(k) of a previous employer. I'm ready to move it. My current employer (I work for the State of California) uses Savings Plus and although I have monthly contributions going to that account, Savings Plus gets some poor reviews by people who try to take distributions. I also have a Vanguard brokerage account (post-tax) into which I'm slowly moving inheritance funds. I found that I could open a Vanguard IRA and move the 401(k) money there, but are the”
“I recently started a Roth IRA before realizing that the money is in a money market fund which obviously isn’t what I want. Is there a way to transfer the money that’s already in my Roth to VFIAX without paying tax? submitted by /u/RichReward7208 [link] [comments]”
“Yes it would be a bad move to cash out the old 401k. Look into getting a loan on your existing 401k to avoid the 10% IRS penalty (this is assuming you’re not gonna go right back to piling up CC debt). Only do this if you’re confident that you won’t get laid off or change jobs before you pay it back as the loan becomes due.”
“Not sure what tax bracket you’re in, but between taxes and penalties, expect ~%25 of whatever you withdraw to go to the IRS. Before you do anything drastic, it might be worth seeing if the CC company (or companies?) will work with you on a lower-interest payment plan. Not sure what the best answer is, but pulling from the 401k should be the option of absolute last resort and f no other option makes sense. Ultimately, you gotta do what you gotta do.”
“pretty sure transferring to any new bene or owner restarts the 15 year clock on rolling to Roth”
“Mind sharing what you do? I’d love to learn more to having that type of savings.”
“Hello everyone! I'm 32 years old and recently started working at a state university, so I'm now enrolled in a PERS retirement plan. I also have a 401(k) from my previous employer that's currently with Fidelity, and I'm exploring the best option for it. Right now, I'm considering three possibilities: Leave it with Fidelity as-is. Roll it into a Traditional IRA with Fidelity. Roll it into the 457(b) plan offered through my new employer. One of my long-term goals is to retire ar”
“Hey everyone, I’m getting close to my 20 years of guard service and feel like I didn’t prepare enough with retirement. I believe I’m at a crossroads and just hoping someone smarter with the system than me can help me decide which path makes more financial sense. My stats: Married w/ 1 kid 39 years young Payed off home Living in Alaska E7 on High 3 retirement plan 19 years of Guard service 11 years of TAFMS Currently working in an AGR slot Savings: $45k in TSP (45% C, 24% S, 22% I, 9% F) 10% cont”
“Yea a few who took the money and paid the penalty. I can roll it over into a IRA or 453b. If I ever go back to double dip both pensions id have to start over at year 1. Otherwise if I leave it I can do 2 years and get my pension after I retire from here in DE.”
“Got into investing around christmas and recently started talking to a financial advisor through Primerica. When I worked at Sherwin-Williams, I had a 401k through Fidelity that I rolled over into a Roth IRA after I quit. In the roth, I currently have 1/3 of my money in the Freedom 2045, 1/3 in J&J, and and 1/3 in FDRXX (which I later tound out is just a nolding account like SPAXX). I also have about 2k in FXAIX (non retirement ) that i've been using as a longer term savings account. I pu”
“Hey all! I was recently laid off and am wondering what to do with my 401k. I’m 31 and have about $30,000 in it. I don’t have a new job lined up yet and am wondering if I should keep my 401k where it is and roll it over to a Roth IRA or something else. I’ve been trying to look into my options but am a little confused on what’s best. What would be best in the long term? submitted by /u/ThatzWhatSheSaid_ [link] [comments]”
“I'm 44, work and own a small LLC (i will post about later wanting to understand investing the cash in savings) My current employers 401k is with MS Vestwell for the following: FXAIX 70%, FSMDX 10%, SWSSX 10%, BTMKX 10%, It is limited on where i can allocate, would this be a good option, LIHKX BlackRock LifePath Index 2045 K. Edit: employer matches 5% so im maxing at the match. I also have a simple IRA with AC (AROAX) form a prior employer, it seems to be growing pretty well. Then there is my”
“So I left a job in 2013 about 6 months before company match 403b would be fully vested. I haven’t touched the account since. There’s currently 55k in it but it shows 45k as the vested balance. My question is when do they take the non-vested part back? Seems odd to have not done by now after 13 years… submitted by /u/Affectionate_Owl4476 [link] [comments]”
“Hi, I am new to investments. I recently parted ways with a job who had 401k and options through payroll, tjey had no clue what they were doing, locked me out of my account, tried breaking into it fron their end while I was trying to get into it and got it locked. I’ve been getting emails about the money I had in there from the time I was there, I can’t get it out. I was told I could leave it there by the employer and apparently you cannot. It was through paychex flex and as I stated I can’t get”
“I can’t get my work 401ks to show in DivTracker. The account itself shows up but says $0 value and basis. Is this normal? submitted by /u/Ok-Inspection7565 [link] [comments]”
“Hello, I have a old 401k with net benefits Fidelity. It's a TDF vanguard 2050 with an expense ratio of 0.033. I've been self-employed now for three years and have a SEP IRA. Should I move everything over or leave it? I am new to all this and not sure what to do or what to invest in that is similar. I also maxed out my Roth IRA the last few years. And the suggestion would be helpful. submitted by /u/TDNPueblo [link] [comments]”
“I have my brokerage with fidelity. Eveything is invested in VTI/VXUS. I'm trying to move everything to vanguard under one roof. I started filling out their transfer form, but vanguard asked me if I wanted to move the money into a money market fund or a cash deposit. I dont want to sell my investments because that would trigger a tax event. I just want to move them over to vanguard. Am I misunderstanding this? submitted by /u/manayunk512 [link] [comments]”
“Pension normally has 2 portions: one from your own contributions, another portion from employer contributions. When you leave, you can take your own portion as a lump sum, but not the employer portion. If you choose continued pension, both portions will work for you. I’m not saying 100% sure, please check by yourself. If you ask a financial person, he or she will say lump sum and would be happily managing your money into his/her portfolio. It is their business, they can say that no problem. And”
“I'm looking for some guidance on the best strategy for my retirement accounts. Have been reading a lot posts here and it feels like the more I read the more I get unsure of what I should be doing. I'm 55, retired in 2023. I have retirement funds in a 401(k) and 403(b), and I'm considering rolling them into a Traditional IRA. My long-term goal would be to gradually convert portions of that Traditional IRA into a Roth IRA over several years to manage taxes rather than doing one large c”
“I am a new Vanguard customer. I have an IRA, Roth and brokerage account. I’ve noticed that the performance doesn’t seem to update very often and it’s annoying. Does anyone else see this? Is there something I should be doing to see the most recent performance data? Thanks for your input. submitted by /u/coilygirl [link] [comments]”
“What happens to the roth 401k and regular 401k? Can they be rolled into my ira and roth ira?”
“I see, interesting... So what about when to convert a 401k into a traditional IRA? Like as soon as you leave the job? I have one from an old employer still sitting in Fidelity that I was going to rollover to my new employer 401k, but maybe it's better to rollover to traditonal IRA with this logic?”
“I'm curious what other people think as I'm about torn..I've NEVER liked the idea of a 401k from the standpoint of kind of locking away money for a world that will be radically different in the future (possibly abundant, we'll see) and losing some of my easy liquidity and flexibility while young. So obviously I'm matching my employer 5%. That's a no-brainer. The question is around aggressively maxing the 401k annually (which would be 17.5% with my current salary) OR Invest”
“Hey all, Used to work for a large healthcare organization for about 3yrs about 13yrs ago. They had an employer match, which I met. Total balance now is around 120k. I'm self-employed now and just opened a solo 401k/Roth 401k thru Fidelity, and I'm curious if I should roll my old employer based fund into my new 401k. Mainly, I just had the thought wondering what fees I have associated with that old account if it being managed by Fidelity (I believe it was always a TDF, but I'm not ent”
“I have an 8+ year old 401k at Voya from my former employer's plan. I stupidly never looked closely at the disclosures and assumed the expense ratios from the public data on my investments were MY expense ratios. Turns out there's a .50% wrap up fee from Voya, so my average expense ratio is around .59% which I've read is rather high. My current employer's 401k fees are also pretty high, but I get an 8% match so I do currently use it. Since I don't want to rollover to my curren”
“Me and my wife who is also with my company both think we might want to early retire. We are tired and burned out. just turned 56 this year. If I close my company of 30 years completely can I tap into my roth and regular 401ks using the rule of 55? Might tap my roth first but not sure yet and I know money I put in I can take out any time its been 25 years. But what if I want to tap my regular solo 401k? Rule of 55? What do I have to do with the irs is use the rule of 55? What about my ira account”
“Do you also get 457b? Or is the 401a your only employer-linked retirement plan? We do have a list of available funds - but it is like 50 funds long. You can take screenshots .”
“No, because your 401k provider can't let you roll traditional (pre-tax) funds to an IRA while you are still working for your employer. They can only do that with after-tax (non-Roth) funds, if the plan allows. But you should be able to roll the traditional 401k funds into the Roth 401k, via an in-plan rollover. This would accomplish the same thing as far as taxes are concerned.”
“Does your work 401k plan even allow for in-service withdrawals under age 59.5? If not, then the question is moot (assuming you're under that age).”
“I am 27 and make about 83k in my current role. I have a previous 403b at Equitable from a teaching job with about $5k and an old 401k from a different company with about $1.5k. The 401k company got bought out and the buyers rolled our 401ks over to Inspira Financial and the account is now labeled as a rollover traditional IRA. I've done some research on this sub and elsewhere on how to proceed, but I'm feeling confused about which way to go. I know I could roll both the 403b and 401k int”
“I’m rolling over my old TIAA 403b to a Vanguard IRA. These are the funds my existing VG IRA is in, should I dump the money in the same funds? Change up funds? Same funds but different percent allocations? I’m 68 won’t be taking RMDs until 73.5 VASGX 80s/20b 7% VBIAX 60s/40b 8% VWENX 66s/33b 21% VFIAX idx 31% VTHRX 60s/40b 34% I’ve got a Roth and an investment acct at VG, plus bank CDs/MM submitted by /u/le_fromage_puant [link] [comments]”
“u/MeMorphoKnight this is probably the best answer you’re going to get with the limited information we have”
“If I had the option of dumping everything in VT or similar I would, but its not an option. I saw that the default TDF (RN3 - T. Rowe Price Retirement 2060 Tr-C) has an trustee fee of 0.34% and decided to see what else is offered and.. I don't really recognize most of these investments. My roth is all FSKAX, and my HSA is VT. Otherwise i have these options in my roth 401k at schwab: I just copy pasted these Sticker ER or trustee fee Large company DODGX - Dodge & Cox Stock I 0.51% T2T - T.”
“What did the company that maintains the pension tell you when you asked them?”
“So when I left my last job where I was grossly underpaid, I rolled over my 401K into my personal IRA with T Rowe. At the time they had just switched over to using Voya and it was a complete hassle getting the money rolled over and Voya took their time but eventually the transfer went through. Now my current job ( where I've been for approx. 4 months) also uses Voya and when I went in to check my balances there I saw that my former employer had allocated matching monies on June 30th ( I'm”
“Hello bogleheads! I just recently had to rollover my old employers 401k into my traditional and Roth IRA accounts. I have about 45k in my core position in the Roth IRA and 105k in my traditional IRA to invest now. Previously, my 401k was in a TDF which held roughly 10% bonds, which equated to about 5% of my total portfolio which I am fine with as I’m in my late 20s. But now that it is mine to freely invest, I’m wondering what account is best to hold 5% bonds, or more broadly if I should try and”
“I recently moved a small rollover 401K from my previous employer to my individual Rollover IRA account and wanted to know what's the best way forward for my investments. I usually put my regular investments into VTI+VXUS+BND and don't invest in individual stocks. Should I follow a similar pattern for 401K allocation or should I choose any target date funds ? I am not a US Citizen and on a temporary work permit so I'm not sure if it makes sense for me to contribute more to 401K since”
“As the title says help me decide 401k portfolio. Early 40’s looking to see what people would pick for a diversified portfolio from the options below. currently in TDF, but want to move in to a more aggressive portfolio without bonds. Currently no need for bonds due to having a pension. • AB Large Cap Growth Fund Class A • Allspring Special Small Cap Value CIT E • American Century U.S. Mid Cap Value Equity Trust Fee Class R2 • BlackRock Equity Dividend Fund Investor A Shares • DFA Real Estate Sec”