Don’t let your investments and hard-earned monies suffer from benign neglect! After switching jobs, many people leave their retirement funds to languish in a former employer’s plan. Let’s face it, life is busy, and this is not always front of mind. A plan may not be reviewed by management often or consistently monitored for quality and diversification of funds by a plan administrator as often as you would think. Once you have left your former employer it becomes much more difficult to monitor the company, the plan’s operations, and the plan’s holdings.
The far better option is to roll the money from your plan into an IRA (or Roth IRA if you have Roth 401(k) monies in your former employer’s plan). Institutions that offer IRAs benefit from size – a size that affords them the ability to offer far more options than the limited choices that your plan will provide. If you work with a financial advisor, ask to understand the fees and costs, if any, of rolling over your workplace retirement plan into an IRA or Roth. Advisors have a fiduciary obligation to outline the benefits and drawbacks of initiating a rollover. When you are ready, contact your former employer’s plan administrator to arrange the tax-free rollover.
Smart Money Tips
- Get rich slowly. Getting rich quickly is a one-in-a-million long shot. Judging from the plethora of seminars, infomercials, and social media posts that promise quick riches, a lot of people prefer immediate results which, we all know, are rarely achieved. On the other hand, if you work hard, do what’s needed to advance in your career, save regularly, invest those savings wisely, and periodically address other important personal financial matters, getting rich slowly is a sure bet. If you can be happy with what you’ve got now, you’ll enjoy more abundance later in life.
Vacation travel season is picking up steam, so here are a couple of tips for hotel visitors.
- Eat locally and avoid room service. A continental breakfast at a big-city hotel costs upwards of $25. Unless someone else is paying for it (and you don’t care about their bottom line), save a lot of money by walking a couple of blocks to get a nutritious meal for less, from a local purveyor.
- Never use the hotel minibar. I would rather expire from thirst than pay absurdly high prices for pathetically small bottles of water and alcohol. Come to think of it, you can always drink water from, dare I say, the faucet. Also, make sure the hotel doesn’t sneak some minibar charges onto your account when or after you check out. This is a shamefully common occurrence.
Food for Thought
Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy.
-Groucho Marx
Money Can Be Funny
All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.
-Spike Milligan
Word of the Week
hofles (HOF-les) – Unreasonable, immoderate, excessive, or intemperate.
Origin: From Old Norse hof meaning moderation or measure, and Old English leas meaning free from. Hence, free from moderation.
There was no changing his viewpoint when he was angry and hofles.