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Friday, January 29, 2010

Transfer Your 401k To A IRA When You Lose Your Job

By Kimberly Klark

Rolling over your 401k plan into a more flexible IRA plan allows you to continue putting off paying taxes on your 401k distribution. If, however, you choose to take your 401k distribution out, you can get it in one lump sum or get a check spread out over a specified time period or whatever options for payout your plan provides.

Take note that when you are under 55 years old decide to leave your job and just take out your 401k, you will be charged with 10% for taking out your money early. However, if you are at your retiring age (55 and above), you will have the privilege of withdrawing your money in lump sum and some tax benefits. See your accountant to make use of these benefits.

When you lose your job, the need for money may be more important than planning for the future until you can get a secure job position. However, if you have found a new job, your option to roll your 401k distribution into an IRA has some real hard savings of monies because of the tax situation in taking out a cash settlement of your 401k distribution monies.

The only way taking out a cash lump sum can be financially lucrative as far as income taxes are concerned is if you are over the age of 55 when you lose your job or leave it. If you are under 55, taking out a lump sum from your 401k makes you eligible for an immediate 10% early withdrawal penalty, plus you will pay income taxes on your money as if you had just earned that money the year that you withdrew it from your 401k plan.

In deciding for 401k rollover, the basic thing you ask yourself is, how much money can you afford to lose when you take out your retirement savings before its time? With this kind of financial issue, the best person to turn to is someone involve with finances too, like an accountant or tax consultant. In case you lose your job, it is important to remember not to make any impulsive decision of pulling out your 401k money. What is a 401(k) Rollover? When you leave employment, either voluntarily or not, you will need to roll over your 401k plan to a new account within 60 days of your departure. Failure to do so may lead to high management fees charged to your plan as well as possible penalties.

What is a rollover? A rollover is simply changing your 401k plan from your employers sponsored plan to a new employers plan if you change jobs, or to a private plan if you are currently unemployed. This process does not have to be complicated or cost you any additional money. But you will need to do it within the time frame stated or you could face many fees which will deplete your account in record time. Never cash out your account with the intention of restarting it later! You will not only face heavy fines from the brokerage house you will be fined, penalized and taxed by the IRS for early withdrawal of retirement savings.

The question of rolling over 401k plans is basically one of how much money do you want to lose by handling you plans distribution before retirement age? That question and many others can best be answered by a tax consultant, an accountant, or some other financial advisor. One thing is for sure, when you lose your job, you shouldn't just jump at the chance of spending monies that you took years to accumulate in your 401k plan. - 23305

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