Quote:
Originally Posted by john walker's workshop
She's 69. And yes, she/we know nothing, is why we're asking. Just want to stabilize the investment in case war happens and crashes lots of stuff. Not interested in spending any of it. It was rolled into an IRA @ T Rowe, i find after perusing some old mail.
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There's two sorts of investment money:
- taxed
- tax advantaged
401k/IRA are 'tax advantaged'. In those cases you didn't pay tax on the money before it was invested. That means more money invested so can appreciate more. When you withdraw the money from the account you pay tax on the gains as if its income.
If you leave the money in the account and just change the allocation then there's no penalty and no tax implications. You could 'sell' the mutual fund and buy a gold index, or a money market index, etc. There's no tax implications or penalties as long as the money stays in the tax advantaged account.
Sounds like what you want to do is reallocate because you think market is going to tank.
I really REALLY think you need to talk to a professional and figure out your investment goals, etc. I don't mean find someone out of the phone book or ask on pelican forums.
There's people that you pay a one time fee and they analyze your situation and tell you what to do.
Someone here pointed me at the bogleheads web site. Really good helpful people there. Thats a reasonable place to ask.
Read the "Asking Portfolio Questions" post:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6212
Read up on questions and answers here:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=1
Theres a ton of solid knowledge about how to allocate resources during retirement. Really important thing is to not try and 'time the market', you're just gambling and can lose a bunch of money. Hopefully your current mutual fund is appropriate for you. Generally mutual funds are bad because they have higher fees which eat into your gains.
EDIT: Exactly what MRM said. Do what MRM says.