Rollover of old accounts

#1

You may have answered this already and if so my apologies. I recently completed your Personal Finance Club course and I learned so much, but I probably need to go through it again because I am still feeling a bit confused on what to do about my various retirement accounts from previous employers. I have several accounts that aren’t growing much at all. Do you recommend that I roll the old ones over into my current Roth IRA to make regular contributions for buying and holding target date index funds? A PFC Employee recently recommended using Capitalize for a similar situation and I am curious if I should do the same? Any guidance you could provide, I would greatly appreciate.

Here is a snapshots of my various accts below:
• Mutual of America (current employer)-401K
• Fidelity (previous employer)-Roth IRA
• Principal (previous employer)- 401K Acct
• TransAmerica-(previous employer)-403(b)

#2

Hi @Mrs.Goode7! Thank you for your question and we are glad you liked the course!! Here are some thoughts from my perspective!

  1. When you say the accounts aren’t growing much at all, I think it may be worth looking into why this is. Is the money in the accounts invested the way you want them to be?

  2. Keep in mind if you roll over your non-Roth (traditional) employer accounts to a Roth IRA, that will be a taxable event. You will want to avoid this, unless it is intentional. To avoid this, you have the option to roll non-Roth (traditional) employer accounts into a traditional IRA.

  3. The pros of rolling your old employer accounts into an IRA / Roth IRA include that the fees / expense ratios may be lower, you have a wider selection of funds to invest in, and it is easier to keep track of since you won’t have multiple different accounts at different places to track.

  4. I have never used Capitalize so can’t speak to if that is the right resource to use. From what I hear, they have a good reputation though!

I hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any questions!

Shane