CYCB, thanks for the info. Are they are tax consequences from rolling the 401k in to a traditional IRA? I know that there are if you roll in to a Roth.
There are zero tax consequences if you "sweep" the 401k to the IRA. You must not take custody of the money, even for an instant. The money must transfer directly to the IRA. Just a bunch of paperwork.
It is likely some or all of your 401k holdings will have to be liquidated to cash in order to transfer. The positions in most 401k's are proprietary, meaning those particular holdings only exist under the umbrella of that particular institution.
For example, a time horizon fund geared towards a specific year for retirement won't exist in the IRA you want to transfer to, so that position must be liquidated in the 401k for the transfer. Then you can re-establish a similar type of holding in the IRA if you want.
Having a self-directed IRA requires a more hands on approach, rather than a 401k that is pretty much on auto pilot. I personally want COMPLETE control of my money, and not be limited by what is offered under a UPS/Teamsters plan. Again, my favorite are mutual funds that have been around for a long time (15 years or more) and their performance history shows an average of 8% during that time. I just ran a quick screen for funds falling under my parameters and found several dozen without digging much. This one based on fixed income has an inception date of 05/11/1987 and has averaged 8.61% annually. Another, small cap equity fund founded on 10/01/1991 averages 12.28%. I'm not making these up, these are real.
Just remember, don't do anything you don't understand. YOU must understand, after all, it is your money.
A good financial advisor would be a good follow up for anything you learn here.
