Gads! I've got to roll over my 401K.

[James]

I just got my statement today and got that lousy feeling. I remember hearing a commercial for a financial product that would preserve the asset, but I didn't have a chance to write it down. Does anyone have any good suggestions for a rollover choice? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[BFrank]

If you just want to sit still for a while and avoid risk, you could roll it into a Money Market fund somewhere (anywhere). The interest rate is lousy, but you won't lose any money.

[Uncle Skid]

"a commercial for a financial product"?

Not that "professional" help has been all that great for me lately, but it sure sounds like you should discuss this with somebody you, or somebody you know well, trusts -- personally.

[.:.impossible]

I Bonds yield 5.64%.

[papsrus]

Without knowing more about your situation, it's hard to give meaningful advice, but here's my 2 cents:

I would talk to a financial planner before doing anything. An asset mix that makes sense for you might ease your mind more than moving your entire nest egg into a single asset class and then wondering if you did the right thing.

[connoisseur series500]

Whatever your decision may be, plan for the long run. So if you are currently scared and tempted to put your $ into money market funds, it would hurt you in the long run. My investments have been hurt, like everyone elses with the stock market downturn, but I asked myself where I wanted to be long run, and the only answer was "stocks." If that's the case, then you put your 401k there, and if it's already there, you leave it there.

The problem with temporary safety choices such as money markets is that you never know when to reenter the stock market. You may miss some downturn while you are in your safe haven, but you'll also miss a good amount of upside while hesitating over a reentry point.

The commercial was talking about annuties, perhaps? They have their advantages, but they are very costly. Be careful and read up on everything first before going into one of those.

[Drew Peacock]

Consider stocks that have a long track record of divided payments. Caterpillar comes to mind. I would look for about a 5% dividend and try to find a company where you think there may be longer term price increases. I mentioned Caterpillar because it seems to fit in with where the stimulus money may first be invested.

[papsrus]

Say you had an asset mix of 25% high yield stocks (like Caterpillar, mentioned above), 25% bond fund, 25% market index fund, 25% growth fund (small cap, mid-cap, whatever). You get a nice yield out of half your portfolio while still retaining exposure to the market as a whole with 75% of your assets, including some limited exposure to growth.

Again, talk to a financial planner (as opposed to a broker), tell him or her your concerns, and get some suggestions about asset mix. I don't think you want to put your entire nest egg in any one asset class no matter which end of the income/growth spectrum you're on. And I certainly wouldn't make a decision based on a statement or two during a historic market slide. As someone mentioned above, we've all taken about a 50% hit at least.

Also, from the title of your thread I initially thought you were rolling your 401k over into an IRA. But you could be just looking for a less growth-oriented asset mix?

Edited April 17, 2009 by papsrus

[James]

Thanks for all of the input, all. Yes, I'll be talking to a financial planner, but wanted to get as much input as possible on the issue as possible -- and what better way than to toss the question out to a bunch of jazz brainiacs!