IRA/401K — advice?
Hi Terry, I'm sixty-three years old and have been retired for two years plus from the railroad (43yrs). I have an IRA and 401k held by separate financial institutions that were opened late in my career. ( reasons are to numerous to mention) Neither has been added to or subtracted from. I have no idea what I should do in regards to cashing them in and saving as much as I can against stock market uncertainty. Thank you so very much! Sincerely, Dave
Terry Says
OK, you're right -- it's time to start paying attention to this money. I don't know what "institutions" are acting as custodian. But I do trust places like Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, and Fidelity to set you on a plan to diversify your investments appropriately -- and to start planning for required minimum withdrawals in less than 10 years. You can call for advice BEFORE you do a rollover -- telling them your age, financial situation, amount of assets -- and asking them how they would diversify your investments. Since they are not paid commissions, and all have low cost funds, you should at least be moving in the right direction. Then you can make an informed decision about having them do a direct rollover. One other thing: your 40l(k) just might have an investment that pays higher rates of interest and is not available outside the 40l(k) plan. So ask the 40l(k) plan and if that is the case, you might want to keep some of your money in the 40l(k) -- and just do a rollover for your IRAs.
