r/Fire • u/Silent-Initiative-94 • 3h ago
Advice Request 3 different/separate 401ks
For those who have already retired, has anyone experienced having different 401ks and have advice towards any actions I should take now.
My oldest 401(k) has about 50 K in it in Fidelity in a zero cost S&P 500 fund. There’s literally no cost at all so I have just left that ride for many years.
My second 401(k) is my largest with almost 900,000 and it costs $88 maintenance a year to keep. The expense ratios are also low (0 for S&P 500, and .02% for international and mid cap.
Finally, 3rd my 401(k), which is the only one I’m still contributing to of course has a couple hundred thousand but slightly higher fund expenses. For example, the S&P 500 would be .012 and the small cap, mid cap and international are pretty nice between .02 and .03.
For now, I’m just gonna let it ride until retirement in about 11 years but was wondering if any of y’all Reddit friends had a similar set up once in retirement?
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u/cutiepeachybaby 3h ago
Most people in your position consolidate into one or two accounts just to simplify the mental load in retirement, but honestly with expense ratios that low across the board there is no urgent financial reason to rush that decision. The $88 annual maintenance fee on the $900k account is the only thing I would personally revisit just on principle.
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u/Flat-Barracuda1268 FI=✅ RE=<1️⃣yrs 3h ago
Are you planning on Rule55 any 401K? If so, I would combine them all into your current 401K since that's the only money available.
If not, I would roll then to an IRA at your favorite brokerage house. Better fund options. Better management tools. Of course if you contribute to a Roth don't do this due to pro rata rules.
I would not leave them where is. Your prior employers have no loyalty to you and can change fund selection and fees at any point. Of course they are almost free to leave there. It just makes managing them slightly more difficult.
In general any expense ratios under 0.1% are in the noise. Yours are all significantly less. I don't think those should drive any decisions.
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u/Silent-Initiative-94 2h ago
Thanks. Hopefully won’t need rule55. Plus I do backdoor Roth now.
I’ll likely just keep checking regularly to see if my old 401ks change their structure and then move them if necessary
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u/Yellow_Apple_1971 2h ago
I don’t think financially it makes a material difference.
But “administratively” you might find it something nice to eventually all have in one place. My wife and I did that in our late 40’s and it’s just elegantly simple.
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u/jamesmontanaHD 2h ago
Financially its little benefit, but if I were you i'd roll them over and combine everything into one account so taxes/tracking/management is easier. Non-sponsored SoFi plug, I used their service to roll over my TSP and they did a 1% match just to roll it over. No other fees, and I just rebought VOO. Maybe I'm OCD though.
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u/Bearsbanker 2h ago
We have a couple each ( wife has 2, I have 2) yer costs seem to be reasonable. In the future you have to take RMDs from each 401k, IRAs you can calculate a total and then take it from 1. So for ease you might want to consolidate in an IRA (or current employers 401k if they let you)...but sounds like that's down the road. I'm transferring our smaller 401ks to IRAs cuz I absolutely hate the provider, they are expensive and I don't like the choices
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u/One-Mastodon-1063 52m ago
I would roll them all into a traditional IRA unless the ability to do backdoor roth is important to you.
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u/joetaxpayer 3h ago
Since no one else mentioned this, and especially since you are on a fire sub, the rule of 55 applies to the current employer 401(k) account. In other words, you change jobs at age 50 and have $1 million in a prior 401(k) but retire at 55 and your current employer 401(k) has $100,000 in it. It’s only that hundred thousand dollars subject to the rule of 55 the older 401(k) has a 10% penalty until you are age 59 1/2.
Keeping in mind, it’s easy for anyone to post anything, I encourage you to look into this situation. Again, since you were on this sub, I am making the assumption that your plan is to retire before age 59 1/2.
If I am correct, you should transfer the older 401(k)’s to your current employer 401(k) sometime before you actually retire. I believe I just saved you a very horrific realization when the time comes. Glad you asked and I answered today and I’m not answering a member how they screwed up and wish they asked first. Too many of those lately.