Money "trapped" in 401k

[Andreuccio]

Re: Money "trapped" in 401k

Shame on Yahoo! Finance for distributing it.

Yeah, Yahoo! Finance. :mad: Home of "experts" Robert Kiyosaki and Ben Stein. I believe they have no shame.

[WDCRob]

Re: Money "trapped" in 401k

Tax free? Or penalty free? Tax free would make it fairly hard to ignore for most people.

[Guest]

Re: Money "trapped" in 401k

Of course there's a huge difference between borrowing from a 401k to invest the proceeds elsewhere vs borrowing to consume.

But the point is moot. The company (you can likely deduce which one from headlines) just laid my wife off today anyway as bad earnings news came in. First on my list is to roll that baby over into an IRA and put it to work.

A large lump sum severance pkg will also need investing. So much for not having the cash free to put into gold.

No worries, no debt but a modest 6.25% mortgage (fixed, 30 yr) with over 30% equity. Spent the last year getting that house in order and cleaning up any loose variable rate ends (thanks to books like America's bubble economy!)

[zmas28]

Re: Money "trapped" in 401k

I hope this is the right place to ask this, apologies if it is not. I'm trying to find a way to "rescue" money trapped in a 401k. We have about $60,000 in a 401K account with a current employer where you have the typical 5-6 choices of mutual funds plus an "income" fund that pays about 5%. There are the various big/small/medium stock mutual funds, a bond fund, and one international stock fund to choose from.

I had it in international stocks for a while, but was concerned a US recession might take down the international companies in this fund since they mostly seem to be in global large companies that sell to the US. It's in the income/cash fund now, parked. I know this isn't a great long term place for it.

Is it worse to be parked in dollars than to be in the international stock mutual fund where at least they benefit from the currency gains and their economies (hopefully) can't be as bad over the next few years as I expect here?

Also, is there any severe disadvantage to just borrowing 50% of the 401k funds to invest in things like GLD which I prefer to the plan choices? No problems with the cash flow on a plan loan or repaying it quickly if the job should end. Even taxable (25% bracket, as a "collectable"), the return should likely be higher, right?

I'm in the same place as you are in regards to not enough choices in my 401K at Fidelity. However, I was told you can make a withdrawal from the 401K without any adverse tax consequences. The pretax portion can be rolled over into a traditional IRA for example, and this would allow a wider range of investment options "outside" the 401K . The downside I guess is that the aftertax part is no longer accumulating money on a tax deferred basis.

[metalman]

Re: Money "trapped" in 401k

Of course there's a huge difference between borrowing from a 401k to invest the proceeds elsewhere vs borrowing to consume.

But the point is moot. The company (you can likely deduce which one from headlines) just laid my wife off today anyway as bad earnings news came in. First on my list is to roll that baby over into an IRA and put it to work.

A large lump sum severance pkg will also need investing. So much for not having the cash free to put into gold.

No worries, no debt but a modest 6.25% mortgage (fixed, 30 yr) with over 30% equity. Spent the last year getting that house in order and cleaning up any loose variable rate ends (thanks to books like America's bubble economy!)

the lead time the guys offer here is key. glad to hear you were ready for the one income situation. hope it doesn't last too long.

[Guest]

Re: Money "trapped" in 401k

I found this on the web today

In the News (More...)
401(k) plans do not offer enough defensive alternatives, portfolio Manager Axel Merk tells Fox Business.

apparently the Merk Hard Currency fund agrees.