One Less Account To Manage!
Last week, I finally rolled over my old 401k account. The reason I closed it 7 months after leaving my job was that my last paycheck triggered account activity in two of my funds and I would have had to pay a penalty to move that money out within 60 days of the last transaction. CRUD. So I decided to wait the 60 days. One of my new co-workers told me that they could transfer the shares from one company to another, but he was wrong about that. Most plans don’t work that way. You can keep the shares if you roll over the balance and stay with the same company, but I hated the investment company that held this account and wanted to move the money somewhere else.
If you know you are leaving a company and you have to wait 60 days from your last transaction to move our money out of a fund, stop contributing to that fund 2-3 months before you leave your job. Then you can rollover immediately upon quitting.
As for me, I decided to wait till the balance rebounded, which never happened. (Can you say high of $28K, low of $21K?) Finally, I said forget it. I know where I can get a better return without the stress of staring at a depressed balance.
So I liquidated it by telephone with CSR’s from my current IRA company and the old 401k one. I have no idea why they need to do a paper check overnighted, but the money landed in my account on Tuesday night and was available for trading on Wednesday at market open.
When will these companies reach the 21st century and do an EFT for account rollovers?
That’s just nuts. You can online trade but not move money over a wire? Stupid. Oh and then I was charged a $10 fee for the overnight service, which wasn’t truly overnight, i.e. access in 24 hours.
I turned around and bought 5 shares of BRKB. I finally fulfilled my dream of owning Berkshire Hathaway and getting a coveted copy of Warren Buffett’s annual pearls of wisdom. I’m not the savviest investor, not by a long shot. But I feel like I can keep my head down and go with Berk B for a long time. It was a good time to buy it since it’s down about 20% for the year and backed off the 52 week high.
Now there’s just a little money left over and I’ll be shopping for some depressed stocks to buy and hold. Anyone out there got some good dividend stocks they like?
Mrs. Micah wrote:
BRKB…wow. You know how they say you can use 10% of investing money for experimentation? I say…screw that I’m putting 10% towards Buffet. I suppose that’s sort-of experimentation, it’s just not as crazy as some options.
Posted on 28-Jul-08 at 11:33 am | Permalink
dogatemyfinances wrote:
My last job’s 401(k) (ADP) took two weeks, sent a physical check to me, made it out to the wrong Vanguard entity, AND charged me $50 for all the service I got. I’d say yours is doing pretty well.
Posted on 28-Jul-08 at 8:09 pm | Permalink
Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge / Sometimes You Have to Cash Out wrote:
[…] already know not to cash out my 401k. I but I had to do it anyway because of the stupid way the plan was set up not to transfer shares from one institution to […]
Posted on 30-Jul-08 at 8:40 am | Permalink
Andrew Stevens wrote:
Mrs. Micah, the problem is that you’re not just betting on Buffett’s skill. You’re also betting on his health. He’s not going to be around for forever and it’s not clear what happens to Berkshire’s stock when it loses the “Buffett premium.”
Posted on 30-Jul-08 at 4:13 pm | Permalink