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Sunday, January 25, 2009

Consolidate Your 401k's Into An IRA

By Tony Bellows

You will hardly ever find a person that stays with the same company of employment for the entirety of their career. In fact, more than likely a person will change jobs and companies several times during their life. Since the majority of companies offer a 401k retirement package, these people that change companies may end up holding multiple 401k accounts under their name.

What should you do with your 401k fund after switching companies? You might look into a 401k rollover to IRA.

Rolling your 401k fund into an IRA can be beneficial in multiple ways. I'll briefly discuss a few of them.

To begin, if a person changes companies 3 times, they will own 4 401k policies (3 from the previous employers and 1 from the new one). Having multiple accounts can be difficult to manage. You would have to follow paper on all 4 accounts instead of just 1. And most people will get discouraged by the excess paperwork and stop taking the needed interest in their portfolio. This can create huge problems down the road.

By rolling your 401k into an IRA fund after each job change, you can consolidate that paperwork and make your retirement much easier to manage. And you can continue to add your 401k plans to a single IRA as often as necessary. That same person that changed jobs 3 times in their career would have now only 1 401k and 1 IRA. That would be worlds easier to handle.

Also, consolidating your accounts into an IRA reduces your risk factor. If you leave the 3 previous 401k plans with the previous companies you run the risk of the companies going under. That would in turn leave your 401k worthless. There is still a small risk when you invest in an IRA with a financial institution, but the risk is much smaller than the alternative.

And the best part of it is that you will put yourself in control of your own future. And who better to handle it that the person that cares most about it?

But the 401K is still a great investment as it offers 100% return of investment. You don't find a deal like that every day. Contribute as much as your company will match and put any extra funds toward your IRA.

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Green Dot Prepaid Card - Review

By Dan Moskel

The Green Dot card is a prepaid credit card. Commonly used by individuals without a bank account.

It gives card holders free direct deposit, which can save you hundreds of dollars a year on expensive check cashing fees. In addition this is a real debit card accepted at millions of locations world wide.

There is a monthly maintenance fee of $4.95 however if you deposit $750 or more monthly this fee is waived. There is no credit check or bank account required for approval.

You can access cash at over 900,000 ATM's in 120 countries and it is accepted online and over the phone.

Frequent criticisms of this card are; the number of fees and poor customer service. It carries a reload fee of $4.95 when a MoneyPak is used to deposit funds.

These are purchased at retailer locations such as Walgreens, Wal-mart, Kroger, CVS and more. There is also a $2.50 ATM Withdrawal fee and a $9.95 activation fee.

The Columbus Bank and Trust Company issues the card and it comes as a Visa or MasterCard.

They do offer an upgrade to your account for Premier Membership at a cost of $20. This will give you priority customer service.

Upon completion of your application you will be mailed a card in 7 - 10 business days. You can also purchase this card at many retail locations.

Parents have found this card useful to teach their children money management skills. Additionally it is an easy way to send students money that are away at school.

Should your card be lost of stolen your money is protected, creating a much safer alternative to carrying cash.

You use it to pay your bills. Additionally it will give you a convenient way to track your spending and stay within a budget.

In sum we do not suggest this card. We are alarmed at the extra fees for priority customer service. We feel that when it comes to your hard earned money everyone is entitled to priority service.

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