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NOT touching 401K after retirement
Old 05-24-2023, 02:31 PM   #1
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NOT touching 401K after retirement

Several retired friends and colleagues that I know haven't touch their 401K for years after retirement. I just wonder if it's unusual and if anyone here is doing it.

I think some of us are over saved and end up not living or enjoying as much in their younger days. How much is enough? 2 millions?? 3 millions? Why?? so you died left over a big chunk of your wealth for your kids and son/daughter-in-laws?

Your thought?

enuff
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Old 05-24-2023, 02:38 PM   #2
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Also not touching my 401k until probably RMD time, although already withdrawing from my IRA. So I am not the best example.
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Old 05-24-2023, 02:43 PM   #3
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I'd guess that most could benefit from doing some Roth conversions. That could be done from traditional IRAs instead of traditional 401ks, and the benefits can vary from person to person.
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Old 05-24-2023, 02:44 PM   #4
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I know people who have pensions in addition to 401k's. Not touching the 401k is a moot point. Mostly early boomers who were transitioned into 401k's and also have a significant pension.
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Old 05-24-2023, 02:56 PM   #5
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Off topic, but this reminds me of the early days of my old company. Apparently, we had hired a bunch of trust funded engineers and it became a badge of honor to just throw your weekly paycheck in your desk drawer.

Each year, around September, the payroll accounting would get so out of whack that they'd be herded into the boss's office and forced to cash all their checks.
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Old 05-24-2023, 03:17 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Enuff2Eat View Post
Several retired friends and colleagues that I know haven't touch their 401K for years after retirement. I just wonder if it's unusual and if anyone here is doing it.

I think some of us are over saved and end up not living or enjoying as much in their younger days. How much is enough? 2 millions?? 3 millions? Why?? so you died left over a big chunk of your wealth for your kids and son/daughter-in-laws?

Your thought?

enuff
I rolled my 401k over into a tIRA shortly after I retired and have done a lot of Roth conversions so while money has moved between different types of retirement accounts, we have not made any withdrawals... in fact, we've made contributions since we paid the taxes on Roth conversions with taxable account money.

In retrospect, we probably have oversaved... put please don't let the kids know. I've told them if there is anything left that it was estimating error on my part.

We haven't scrimped though... we pretty much spend as we want to but we don't go crazy.
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Old 05-24-2023, 03:53 PM   #7
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Since we retired four years ago, we have done Roth conversions from our taxable IRAs, but we have not withdrawn from them or from our 401k, 403b, 457 or Roth accounts. That will probably change this year since A) we locked up so much of our after tax money in I-Bonds; and B) we have resumed international travel.
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Old 05-24-2023, 04:03 PM   #8
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I rolled my 401k over into a tIRA shortly after I retired and have done a lot of Roth conversions so while money has moved between different types of retirement accounts, we have not made any withdrawals... in fact, we've made contributions since we paid the taxes on Roth conversions with taxable account money.

In retrospect, we probably have oversaved... put please don't let the kids know. I've told them if there is anything left that it was estimating error on my part.

We haven't scrimped though... we pretty much spend as we want to but we don't go crazy.
Same here. I've done Roth conversions, but never actually withdrawn from my tIRA (rolled over from my 401k). Plus, we have a small side business that makes us enough money that we can contribute to our Roth as well. I'm hoping to not do any withdrawals at all from the Roth, and hopefully can avoid withdrawing from the tIRA until RMDs start in 5 years. Just started DW's SS (bye bye conversions), and will start mine at 70 in 3 years. Hopefully that plus our remaining after tax investments will allow us to save the IRAs.
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Old 05-24-2023, 04:07 PM   #9
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The only touching that I've done is Roth conversions. Probably wait until RMD's come into play 5 years from now to take any $ out.
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Old 05-24-2023, 04:13 PM   #10
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We rolled all of our 401k money to IRAs. We have only done Roth conversions and movements between funds in the IRAs. We are not planning to spend our IRA money until RMDs begin. We did have to start taking beneficiary IRA withdrawals in 2021.
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Old 05-24-2023, 04:26 PM   #11
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I only got a 401k 7 years ago so it holds less than 10% of our total portfolio. Since it’s a small amount relatively speaking I could easily leave it alone probably for the rest of my life.
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Old 05-24-2023, 04:58 PM   #12
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I retired over 10 years ago and haven't touched my 401k either but I will need to start soon due to RMD's. Just haven't needed it. I did start tapping my IRA's a few years ago in an attempt to keep me under the IRMAA limits when RMD's start.
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Old 05-24-2023, 05:02 PM   #13
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Like others, I rolled the 401k to a tIRA, but have only touched it for Roth conversions over the past 7 years. Which means, like others, we probably over saved.
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Old 05-24-2023, 05:05 PM   #14
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We are just touching the IRA's doing Roth Conversions.
Did roll some 401K's to IRA's , so all that money is mixed now.

Haven't touched the remaining 401K's , as there is still some IRA left.

Given a choice of withdrawing from 401K or IRA, I'd pick IRA as the 401k has more lawsuit protection.
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Old 05-24-2023, 05:31 PM   #15
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I know people who have pensions in addition to 401k's. Not touching the 401k is a moot point. Mostly early boomers who were transitioned into 401k's and also have a significant pension.
Been a long time since most workers had access to pensions. This site notwithstanding.
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Old 05-24-2023, 05:35 PM   #16
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Roth conversions only. Always rolled 401k(s) into IRA.

But this does not mean anything. Many of us saved both pre and after tax.
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Old 05-24-2023, 06:04 PM   #17
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I used my 401(k) for a few years after I retired at age 56. The rule of 55 enabled me to access retirement funds without a penalty. I have taken some money from it since. I'm not rolling it over to my IRA since I like the investment choices and the company.
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Old 05-24-2023, 06:15 PM   #18
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I retired over 10 years ago and haven't touched my 401k either but I will need to start soon due to RMD's. Just haven't needed it. I did start tapping my IRA's a few years ago in an attempt to keep me under the IRMAA limits when RMD's start.
Same here- don't need it. I've done some Roth conversions but they were a drop in the bucket. I've been reading that it might make more sense to liquidate the 401(k) over my lifetime and take the tax bite rather than leave Ds and DDIL with a $1 million+ inherited IRA they'll have to liquidate over 10 years and probably pay even higher taxes.

I still can't make myself do it.
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Old 05-24-2023, 06:19 PM   #19
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Originally Posted by Enuff2Eat View Post
Several retired friends and colleagues that I know haven't touch their 401K for years after retirement. I just wonder if it's unusual and if anyone here is doing it.

I think some of us are over saved and end up not living or enjoying as much in their younger days. How much is enough? 2 millions?? 3 millions? Why?? so you died left over a big chunk of your wealth for your kids and son/daughter-in-laws?

Your thought?

enuff
I have a solidly funded retirement, but I don't feel like I oversaved. If I did, well, I'd rather have a little too much than not enough. This is because I think it would feel awful to go through inflationary times such as we have now, if I could barely make ends meet.

My TSP (~401K for feds) is not very big. I retired at 61 and from that day forward I took the same three figure monthly amount from my TSP as my RMDs would be (once I had to start taking them).

Do what feels right for you! My big brother told me, "nobody cares about your money as much as you do" and he's right. What he meant, was that we each need to make these decisions for ourselves and work out what will make our retirement happiest for us.
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Old 05-24-2023, 06:36 PM   #20
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I retired 10 years ago at 56 from a mega aerospace corp. I took their buy out with 30 years of service. I was fortunate to be able to save close to $1M in the 401. I took annual 3% with my pension until social security at 62. Since then I have not make any withdrawal. It slowly back to original amount when I retired. I do have questions since my YTD return is only 1% due to lower company stock (25%) , the rest in income fund at guarantee 3.5 % rate. I am thinking to transfer out of 401 to IRA and get some CD, Tbills, and other low risk investments. I’ll be ok at a 5% return … we are also wondering whether to convert to Roth but was told our tax rate at 22% is not worth it just leave it and the kids will deal with it at inheritance as they have 10 years. Appreciate any thoughts on this topics.
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