[masraum]

Originally Posted by 3rd_gear_Ted

Laid off after 30 yrs. @ Boeing in 2010, converted 401K to cash and paid BIG penalty. Took money to a Pro and have since earned back ALL penalty fees and THEN SOME.
Investment rules:
1. I didn't have S*it when I started.
2. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
3. You'll never get rich letting someone else mange your investments or work for them

Nice, congrats. Good stuff.

Originally Posted by KC911

I deferred my pension back then Steve. Now I'm seriously considering taking a lump sum payout and rolling it into a IRA so I have total control and can manage it myself, though at this point the returns will be similar. Everyone is different... my situation (being single) and now my age has me looking at this stuff more closely. If I croak .... the pensions... poof... gone! I might just take lump sum payouts (now) and get 100% while I can... I dunno.

I rolled my 401k over to IRAs as I left major corporations during my career .... probably should have done similar with pensions I had earned also. I could have (at a much younger age) invested them more wisely for "my" situation ....

In hindsight

No real regrets here .... just wish I had a "do over" now.

Got it. Good info.

Yes, old 401k are in IRA. Most 401k don't have all of the investment options that I'd like, so an IRA is better since the investment options are basically anything you want. My current 401k is the closest that I've ever come to having all of the options that I want in an investment account.

I'm 50, and not doing badly, but way behind where I'd like to be, so I have everything in several different low cost index funds or similar ETFs of various asset classes (large cap, small cap, growth, value, domestic, foreign). I haven't started moving things into bonds yet. I figure I'll need to start doing that in the next 5-10 years.