You may find these links helpful:

• General Information on Rollovers
• 401(k) Fund Selection Guide
• Retirement Accounts
• "How to handle $"

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You're over the limit where they could do an auto-cash out (usually, balances below $5K can be automatically cashed out depending on how the plan is set up). So, there shouldn't be a check just floating around while you're out of the country.

Ultimately, you should be able to leave it there as long as you want to (which is not a bad thing if it's a good plan with low fees and a good investment lineup), you could roll it to an IRA or your next company's 401k (assuming that 401k allows for rollovers coming in, which a majority do), or take a distribution (not advisable since you'd likely incur taxes and/or an early withdrawal penalty).

You mention having 25k in your 401k. Do you have other financial stuff in place or are you planning on surviving on only 25k? I'm also curious if you have any debt.

It sounds like OP only wants to know what will happen to it, not to use or survive on it.

Fair enough I just figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

Open an IRA if you don't have one, call your 401k administrator once you've quit and tell them you want to roll it into the IRA. Once it's in there, make sure you invest it, otherwise it's just sitting as cash and getting no interest. Look at the prime directive as to how you may want to invest but typically index funds are safest.

Here's a link to the PF Wiki for helpful guides and information.

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You should call the 401k provider and explain the situation. They will tell you whether you have enough in the account to be able to leave it there. If so, you can just chill until you come back and decide what to do with it. I have left money in prior company's 401ks for over a year before. It may not be a long-term solution, in my case after a year I got hit with fees and that prodded me to move it.

Moving it is actually quite simple: you open up a new Rollover IRA account (perhaps even with your current bank), and that bank gives you directions on how to tell your 401k provider how to send them the money directly. If it's sent directly, you won't have any tax implications for the transfer other than filing an additional form with this year's taxes.

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Most retirement plans don't let you move them to a personal IRA (roll over) until after a couple of pay cycles. This gives any laggard paperwork time to filter through the system and your real total for the account has settled down. Additionally, some investment types don't translate well, so you might want to 'go to cash' in the 401k a week before you do roll it over (perhaps something like a IRA with Vanguard or Fidelity or Schwab... just thinking of decent choices) and you have contacted both the destination company and the current trustee to find out procedures, expected fees and such.

> Once it’s in there, make sure you invest it, otherwise it’s just sitting as cash and getting no interest.

The settlement account that your money just sits in earns interest. Right now, those accounts are earning ~2-4.5% interest.

Vanguard: https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vmfxx

Fidelity: https://www.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/fidelity-funds/money-market-funds-fcash

Don't use the phrase "roll it." That could trigger an indirect rollover where the sponsor cuts a check, withholds 20% for taxes, and starts a 60-day countdown for the ex-employee to deposit the check plus the missing 20% into an IRA, which is exactly what OP is trying to avoid.

OP doesn't need to talk to 401(k) sponsor at all. OP needs to open the appropriate type of IRA, and give the 401(k) account details to the IRA sponsor to initiate a direct transfer.

That's more than I'd have thought. When I quit my job in 2013 I just let the money sit there for 5 years until I learned more about investing and realized I'd lost a ton of money by having it gain a couple dollars a month.

You are correct in your statement to invest the money, it is just that interest rates are quite high at the moment and expected to go higher.

Why invest into a risky market right now when the guaranteed account is giving 4.5%!?

Because nobody knows whether the market will actually go down or up. Staying out of the market right now because it's risky is saying that you believe you know what direction the market will go. On the contrary, the research indicates that time in the market beats timing the market.

I had the bright idea to move my entire 401k balance into company stock, just prior to leaving WorldCom in 1999 because the internet isn't going away, right?

I would advise against a similar course of action for you.

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I've always done my own IRA, it just seems better to keep it in my control. But there are other options.

I recently rolled over my 401k to a personal roll over account on Vanguard. This company called Capitalize made the process super easy and they have great staff. Hicapitalize dot com

For people whose income is above the Roth IRA eligibility threshold, a Traditional Rollover IRA will limit their ability to perform a Backdoor IRA conversion due to the pro-rata rule

Probably no rush to remove it from the company 401k account. Maybe wait until end of year when all bonuses and final company contributions hit the 401k. Then rollover 401k to a IRA at Vanguard or Fidelity or another low cost IRA admin firm.
I rolled my 401k out shortly after leaving a firm then there was a final contribution of about $49 in the 401k that I then had to do a second rollover. A bit of a PITA.

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This.

Don't do it too fast, or you'll end up doing it twice.

In the grand scheme of things, it's minor, but still...ugh.