Consolidating Retirement Accounts

Posted by: Sophie H. | Jan 03,2008


Over a lifetime, it can be difficult to organize all of your different retirement accounts.  The New Year is the perfect time to get all this in order.  Even though we’re part of an older generation in which job longevity was more common, there may be a number of retirees who have switched from job to job throughout their lives.  This does mean a person’s a drifter or irresponsible, but in a continually evolving economy, in which technology seems to change every five minutes, job titles change along with them.  Because of this, retirees may have had five or six jobs throughout their lives.  The old-time case where someone gets a job out of high school or college and then sticks with it until they receive the gold watch is not quite realistic anymore.  

So what this can mean is that a retiree is facing five different 401(k) accounts.  One of the major problems with setting up a retirement fund is just a matter of plain organization.  You’ve got savings, investments, 401(k)’s all coming from different sources.  It can be difficult to figure out just how much you’re saving for retirement if you have money tucked into all of these different corners.  Consolidation is not just a good idea for debt, but can also be used for retirement accounts for something like a 401(k).  

Just getting all of this in order can be a major step towards becoming more progressive with your retirement savings.  One of the things that is most recommended for any type of financial management is getting all your paperwork in order.  It sounds trifling, but just seeing all that paperwork spread before you can help light a fire to start effectively saving for retirement.  Either you might be pleasantly surprised about how much you’ve accrued over the years or you’ll be worried that you haven’t saved enough.  In both cases, you’ll get a handle on where you stand for the future.  If the picture’s rosy, you’ll be more inspired to pad that coffer.  If it’s not so rosy, now is your chance to make a change.  

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