Hi friends I'm Laura Adams and you're listening to the Money Girl

Podcast. You probably know that you're typically not allowed to take money out of a retirement

account like a 401k or a traditional IRA without paying taxes or an early withdrawal penalty if you're younger

than age 59.5.

But I'll tell you how to use a rollover to move money or property between most types of retirement accounts,

so you avoid those pesky taxes and penalties.

A rollover is a tax-free transfer of cash or other assets from one retirement account to another.

The most common reason for doing a rollover is when you leave a job and want to take your retirement funds with you

instead of leaving them in your old employers account. You can't roll over funds

from a workplace plan while you're still employed. You have to wait until you say

goodbye to your old job.

Here are two examples.

Sally decides to leave her teaching job to relocate out of state.

Though she still has control over her 403B retirement funds, she wants more investment options than the plan allows.

She decides to roll over the account balance into a traditional IRA, where she can choose from thousands of investments and continue to make monthly

contributions.

John is an attorney who leaves his company and starts working for a new firm.

After 60 days he's eligible to participate in the firm's 401k,

and he's really impressed with it.

He decides to roll over funds from his old 401k

directly into his new 401k.

Both of these situations can take advantage of a rollover

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