Question to those who got laid off recently. What have you done with your 401k savings? Left it where it was or rolled it over?
What are the risks of leaving it where it is? and what are the advantages of rolling it over into an IRA?
7 replies (most recent on top)
If you were 55 when you left GM and are under 59 1/2 you should leave it in GM. This way you can use the funds without penalty if needed. If you roll it over then you can’t until 59 1/2. Also some of the GM fidelity investments have a lower expense such as the Contrafund option than you would get from a fidelity rollover.
you can either roll into an IRA or roll it into your new employer's 401k. that's what I've done when I changed jobs. if I'm working and my job has a 401k and I have an IRA, and a Roth IRA, it's just too many retirement plans to take care of. I like it simple: one tax deferred, one I pay tax now.
I rolled some of it to a new self directed Fidelity account with more choices then rolled that to a tastyworks account with even more choices and I left some of it in the GM fidelity account. Reason I left some of it in the GM fidelity account is I can take out a loan from that 401K in an emergency.
I rolled it over to my personal IRA, since I already have an account with Fidelity. I have better control over where to invest my money and more investment options, e.g. ETF, Mutual Fund, Stock, Bond, etc. I even when ahead and opened a personal HSA to transfer GM's HSA from BoA. I don't want to put my money in any accounts associated with GM where they could possibly benefit from it.
Cash it in and buy lottery tickets
You can leave it where it is and it should be fine. Else you can roll over to your favorite IRA where you may have more investment options. Honestly it may not make a difference unless you really want a specific type of investment and/or that option has a high expense ratio.
Unfortunately I had to use what little I had to pay my mortgage back in December.
It's not something I wanted to do but I had no choice, I'm a single parent trying my best to fix everything, it's been a horrible year not only for me but many.
I'm behind in every bill I have and I'm worried I'll never catch up. Thank you GM