The company I work for is shutting down the 401K program. Suggestions on what to transfer it to?

If Obama wins in November a coffee can in the back yard would be the safest place. Oh, keep out some for ammo.

Beware of Fidelity.

Tax-Free IRA Rollover is an option. Make sure that you do not touch the money or you will be taxed. The company should make the check directly payable to the IRA holder (direct-pay) to prevent taxes.

That sucks.
I would suggest an IRA. 100% rollover.

I transferred mine from the hartford to fidelity about 7 years ago and it has grown well each year. I have averaged 10% growth a year I would say maybe closer to 12%. I will check and see how it is doing this year right now.

update: YTD is +19.8% for me. Not to shabby I don't think. I wish I had 100,000 in it, but it is growing and will be there for me one day.

Sounds good, but how much did you LOSE around 2007-8?

This is true to an extent. If they make the check out to you then you have 60 days to deposit it into a rollover IRA before it becomes a taxable event.

I just tried looking back but it only goes back 24 months. I really don't think or remember it being to bad that year. I remember it tanking to like -10 or -12% return for a couple months, but it all bounced back late year and early the next year to put me back in the money quick. I have all of mine split between fidelity real estate and growth. They have been good to me and I plan to leave them there. I know a couple older men of the family who lost 150K+ when everything went to crap.

Average Annual Total Returns 2 (%)
as of 08/31/2012
Fund S&P 500 DJ US Sel Real Estate Sec
1 Year 21.27 18.00 19.39
3 Year 25.22 13.62 24.02
5 Year 3.60 1.28 2.61
10 Year 11.07 6.51 11.16
Life 10.52 N/A N/A



Average Annual Total Returns 2 (%)
as of 08/31/2012
Fund Russell 3000 Growth
1 Year 17.99 17.01
3 Year 18.03 15.58
5 Year 5.36 3.63
10 Year 11.00 7.19
Life 12.74 N/A

Thanks for the clarification. Sorry if I was wrong. I thought the 60 days was how long you could borrow from your IRA without penalty. Didn't know it also included the rollover.

Transfer it to a bank held (cd) ira. that way you can get to it if you need it.

When I retired in '99 I rolled my 401K over into a fidelity account. it was set up at 27%stock, 56% bonds, and 17% short term. I just about always showed some gain but was always a little behind the DOW. I got to watching it a little closer and I discovered that even though I was makind a pretty good return in many of the holdings I was loosing my ass in the Fidelity accounts of which there was always at least 5 or 6. The Fidelity losses were eating up a good chunk of the other gains. When I tried to get them to stop including their holdings, in 2006, they refused so I rolled it over into a local bank IRA. Right now Bank IRAs are a poor investment but mine is at the fixed rate that it was in 06.
Check and see who has your 401K now. Fidelity had mine and thats how I wound up with them in '99.

i spent mine.now my shop is my 401k plan.best thing to this point i have ever done.now in four years(29 of this month)is worth 6 time what i started with.
you have a trade/skill. i have some and seen alot of you work.could make your own too.

I moved mine into Woodmen of the World. Although I have only been with them for a little over a year I have been real please with their service. I have my very on agent that I can call, hell I even have his cell phone number.

In 08 my value dropped around 50 percent in my 401k. It was in fidelity also. I was very concerned at that point as I am sure alot of people were. I think that had little to do with fidelity.

You can take a portion of it and put it into a self directed IRA like Equity Trust Company. Their fees are higher but you can invest in things like real estate, tax deeds, collectables, buy up mortgages, loan money, just to name some of the things you can do completely tax free. You can set it up as a traditional IRA and pay taxes on the money you make when you draw it out, or as a ROTH and pay taxes now and all the money that grows is tax free. Back when the market was crashing I rolled some of mine over and bough and sold some real estate with mine. I still have some real estate that I'm sitting on in my IRA waiting for the prices to go back up some before I sell. Tax deeds are pretty good also...

roth ira

if you move a 401k(traditional ira) to a roth, you will pay alot of taxes.

Just checked mine again and I am at +16.1% for the year.