The 401(k) Rollover, Re-Ranked: Your Situation, Your Weights, the Same Counted 2026 Numbers
The four options from 'Your 401(k) When You Leave the Job (2026)' as an interactive route: pick the answer that is yours to the one question, weigh the criteria the money actually moves, and the ranking re-runs on the article's own dated numbers.
Built from the counted numbers in Your 401(k) When You Leave the Job: Leave It, Move It, Roll It, or Cash It — the Four Options Counted at 2026 Fees and Rules
Interactive decision
The four options, re-ranked on your weights
The separation form prices none of the four vehicles; this route does, at the same dated 2026 rules. Pick your answer to the one question, and the verdict re-runs.
Every factor in the table except one can be priced in an afternoon: fees are on the disclosure, withholding is avoidable by choosing direct, taxes are the same at arrival whichever parked vehicle you pick. The one that cannot be bought back is access. Pick the answer that is yours to the one question — do you need this money before you are 59½ — and the route sets the weights the article argues for.
-
the answer is no, the decision collapses into the ten-minute version
its weights set the verdict belowThe ten-minute version the article hands to this answer: read the fee disclosure, ask the new plan whether it takes rollovers, and move the money direct to wherever the cheaper vehicle is — fees and the menu decide, penalty access does not
-
you are 55 or older this year
If the honest answer is yes and you are 55 or older this year, the old plan is the only vehicle that was ever going to answer the access question, and the other three options each cost exactly one exception — the rule of 55, the one factor you cannot buy back with a fee
-
I need some of it now
If the money is needed — an eviction, a medical bill, a bridge to the next paycheck — the math may still say cash out part of it; the article counts this answer with its eyes open at $15,350 on $50,000, 30.7% of the money at 2026 rates
Penalty access before 59½
The rule of 55 is the one factor you cannot buy back with a fee: the exception to the 10% additional tax is written against separation from service with the employer whose plan holds the money, it is a plan rule that an IRA does not inherit, and it dies at the next signature — a new-plan rollover resets the separation. These are the only irreversible items in the article.
fee drag
The cost of the vehicle, not the cost of the market: on the benchmark, the fee — not the market — is $23,231 of the twenty-year ending number on $100,000 at 0.43% against 0.03%. The one number worth looking up today is the administration and recordkeeping charge on your participant fee disclosure; compare that against 0.03% and you have your real version of the count.
| fee drag | Penalty access before 59½ | Creditor protection, bankruptcy | One account instead of two | 20% withheld | The April bill, not the check | the full menu of the market | money you can reach | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leave it | 1 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 3 |
| Move it | 3 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| Roll it to an IRA | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Cash it out | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
Leave it — fee drag: The plan you are in keeps the fee structure it already has — the benchmark small-plan average 0.43% is the number this option lives with; look up your own disclosure.
Leave it — Penalty access before 59½: Rule of 55 alive if you separated at 55 or later from this employer — at 56, penalty-free access to $40,000 the same year, $4,000 of additional tax not owed.
Leave it — Creditor protection, bankruptcy: ERISA-qualified: protected in bankruptcy without a dollar limit, on anti-alienation rules state law cannot reach — the strongest protection of the four options.
Leave it — One account instead of two: The money stays in the old employer's plan, in the fee structure it already has — one account instead of two is what the move buys, not leaving.
Leave it — 20% withheld: No distribution, no withholding — nothing is paid to you, so the 20% never enters the picture.
Leave it — The April bill, not the check: No taxable event — there is no April bill, because nothing is distributed; the money stays pre-tax.
Leave it — the full menu of the market: The plan menu you already have — two plans a block apart can run 0.1% and 1.0% on identical money; the menu is not yours to pick.
Leave it — money you can reach: Reachable through the rule of 55 door if the age condition fits, and the plan's loan provisions — if the plan has them — stay available only in this vehicle.
Move it — fee drag: A plan-size lottery: the same benchmark table that showed 0.43% at the small end shows 0.31% at the large end — cheaper if the new employer is large, but you inherit that menu without choosing it.
Move it — Penalty access before 59½: Reset — the door stays shut until you leave the new employer or turn 59½; the new plan reset your separation, and for most readers that is years.
Move it — Creditor protection, bankruptcy: ERISA: no dollar limit — the new plan carries the same unlimited protection.
Move it — One account instead of two: One account instead of two — the first of the two things the move buys, stated by the article as worth something.
Move it — 20% withheld: A plan-to-plan rollover carries no waiting period and no withholding — mandatory withholding does not apply to a direct rollover (IRS Publication 575; Tax Topic 413).
Move it — The April bill, not the check: The money is not taxed and not a contribution, it simply changes vehicles — no April bill follows a direct plan-to-plan move.
Move it — the full menu of the market: The new plan's menu and rules become yours wholesale — someone else's menu, cheaper on the large-plan benchmark, but not one you chose; acceptance of rollover money is a plan term, not a right.
Move it — money you can reach: The door that was open the moment you left the old job stays shut until you leave the new one or turn 59½ — for someone who left at 56 and rolled forward at 57, the whole difference between money you can reach and money you cannot.
Roll it to an IRA — fee drag: The full menu at IRA prices starting at 0.03%; the fee question is one you answer by buying cheap — the $23,231 twenty-year drag on $100,000 is the small-plan side of this comparison.
Roll it to an IRA — Penalty access before 59½: No rule of 55 — the IRA has its own exception list and separation-at-55 is not on it; the same $40,000 in the hands of the same 57-year-old costs the $4,000.
Roll it to an IRA — Creditor protection, bankruptcy: Capped: $1,711,975 per debtor in cases electing the federal exemptions (April 2025 adjustment); outside bankruptcy, protection depends on state law and varies.
Roll it to an IRA — One account instead of two: The IRA comes with the widest choice of where the account lives; a pro-rata rule waits behind any traditional IRA balance you already hold.
Roll it to an IRA — 20% withheld: Direct, trustee to trustee: nothing withheld, the money never touches your hands. Indirect, a check made out to you: 20% withheld on $100,000 is an $80,000 check and a $20,000 chase in sixty days — avoidable, which is why the checklist starts with 'direct.'
Roll it to an IRA — The April bill, not the check: A direct rollover is not taxable, though even a rollover that is not taxable is reportable on the return; the indirect form's shortfall, if you do not complete it, is ordinary income in the year of the distribution.
Roll it to an IRA — the full menu of the market: The full menu of the market at IRA prices, starting at 0.03% for the indexed versions, and the widest choice of where the account lives; what to hold inside is the cost table's question, not this one.
Roll it to an IRA — money you can reach: Roll the money to an IRA and the exception does not travel with it — the IRA has its own exception list, and separation-at-55 is not on it; from there the IRA's own routes and 59½ govern access.
Cash it out — fee drag: There is no vehicle left to charge a fee — the money stops being tax-deferred, all of it, this year; the cost arrives as tax instead.
Cash it out — Penalty access before 59½: The 10% additional tax rides on it unless an exception fits — $5,000 on a $50,000 distribution at 2026 rates.
Cash it out — Creditor protection, bankruptcy: None — it is income; the protection question ends the moment the money is cashed.
Cash it out — One account instead of two: The vehicle here is the checking account, and its function is: the money stops being tax-deferred — all of it, this year; the bill arrives in April.
Cash it out — 20% withheld: In hand at separation, after the mandatory 20% withholding, the check on $50,000 was $40,000; the rest of the bill arrives in April.
Cash it out — The April bill, not the check: The April bill is the option: $15,350 of $50,000, 30.7% of the money, at 2026 rates to a single filer at $60,000 of salary — the number moves with your bracket, not with your feelings.
Cash it out — the full menu of the market: No menu — the vehicle is the checking account; there is nothing left to invest inside it as retirement money.
Cash it out — money you can reach: Reached immediately, at a price — the $15,350 was counted so the household chooses it with its eyes open; if the money is needed, the math may still say cash out part of it.
The order below is the weighted sum of the scores above — slide the weights to your situation and it re-runs. For the ten-minute answer the article's own instruction is to move the money direct to wherever the cheaper vehicle is, direct and in writing — never a check made out to you; for the yes-and-55-or-older answer the old plan is the only vehicle that was ever going to answer it; for the need-it-now answer that is Option 4, priced at $15,350 on $50,000 before you reach.
Recommended at your weights
- Roll it to an IRA 81
- Move it 75
- Leave it 46
Engine spec (machine-readable mirror of the decision model)
{
"spec_version": 1,
"scenarios": [
{
"id": "noearly",
"name": "the answer is no, the decision collapses into the ten-minute version",
"default_weights": {
"fees": 5,
"penalty": 0,
"creditors": 2,
"oneaccount": 3,
"withheld": 2,
"aprilbill": 2,
"menu": 5,
"reachable": 0
},
"why": "The ten-minute version the article hands to this answer: read the fee disclosure, ask the new plan whether it takes rollovers, and move the money direct to wherever the cheaper vehicle is — fees and the menu decide, penalty access does not",
"source_ref": "раздел «The One Question That Decides It», абзац «If the answer is no, the decision collapses into the ten-minute version»"
},
{
"id": "age55",
"name": "you are 55 or older this year",
"default_weights": {
"fees": 3,
"penalty": 5,
"creditors": 4,
"oneaccount": 2,
"withheld": 1,
"aprilbill": 2,
"menu": 2,
"reachable": 5
},
"why": "If the honest answer is yes and you are 55 or older this year, the old plan is the only vehicle that was ever going to answer the access question, and the other three options each cost exactly one exception — the rule of 55, the one factor you cannot buy back with a fee",
"source_ref": "раздел «The One Question That Decides It», абзац «If the honest answer is yes and you are 55 or older this year»; раздел «The Things Nobody Puts on the Option List», пункт «The rule of 55»"
},
{
"id": "neednow",
"name": "I need some of it now",
"default_weights": {
"fees": 0,
"penalty": 1,
"creditors": 0,
"oneaccount": 1,
"withheld": 0,
"aprilbill": 0,
"menu": 0,
"reachable": 5
},
"why": "If the money is needed — an eviction, a medical bill, a bridge to the next paycheck — the math may still say cash out part of it; the article counts this answer with its eyes open at $15,350 on $50,000, 30.7% of the money at 2026 rates",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 4 — Cash It Out, Counted Before You Reach», абзац «If the money is needed — an eviction, a medical bill»; раздел «The One Question That Decides It», «If the answer is 'I need some of it now,' that is Option 4»"
}
],
"variants": [
{
"id": "leave",
"name": "Leave it",
"source_ref": "лидер-список четырёх опций, пункт «Leave it»; таблица «The Four Options, Counted», колонка «Leave it»"
},
{
"id": "move",
"name": "Move it",
"source_ref": "лидер-список четырёх опций, пункт «Move it»; таблица «The Four Options, Counted», колонка «Move it to the new plan»"
},
{
"id": "ira",
"name": "Roll it to an IRA",
"source_ref": "таблица «The Four Options, Counted», колонка «Roll it to an IRA»; раздел «Option 3 — Roll It to an IRA: Direct, and Indirect Priced»"
},
{
"id": "cash",
"name": "Cash it out",
"source_ref": "таблица «The Four Options, Counted», колонка «Cash it out»; раздел «Option 4 — Cash It Out, Counted Before You Reach»"
}
],
"criteria": [
{
"id": "fees",
"name": "fee drag",
"source_ref": "лид статьи — «the fee drag of a small-plan menu against a 0.03% IRA over twenty years on $100,000»"
},
{
"id": "penalty",
"name": "Penalty access before 59½",
"source_ref": "таблица «The Four Options, Counted», строка «Penalty access before 59½»"
},
{
"id": "creditors",
"name": "Creditor protection, bankruptcy",
"source_ref": "таблица «The Four Options, Counted», строка «Creditor protection, bankruptcy»; раздел «The Things Nobody Puts on the Option List», пункт «Creditor protection, by vehicle»"
},
{
"id": "oneaccount",
"name": "One account instead of two",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 2 — Move It: One Account, Someone Else's Menu» — «Done, it buys two things. One account instead of two»"
},
{
"id": "withheld",
"name": "20% withheld",
"source_ref": "таблица «The Four Options, Counted», ячейка IRA — «indirect: 60 days, 20% withheld, the $20,000 chase on $100,000»"
},
{
"id": "aprilbill",
"name": "The April bill, not the check",
"source_ref": "таблица «The Four Options, Counted», строка «The one thing to check first», ячейка Cash it out"
},
{
"id": "menu",
"name": "the full menu of the market",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 3 — Roll It to an IRA» — «the full menu of the market at IRA prices, starting at 0.03% for the indexed versions»"
},
{
"id": "reachable",
"name": "money you can reach",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 2 — Move It» — «the whole difference between money you can reach and money you cannot»"
}
],
"steps": [
{
"id": "s1",
"type": "choice",
"lead": "Every factor in the table except one can be priced in an afternoon: fees are on the disclosure, withholding is avoidable by choosing direct, taxes are the same at arrival whichever parked vehicle you pick. The one that cannot be bought back is access. Pick the answer that is yours to the one question — do you need this money before you are 59½ — and the route sets the weights the article argues for.",
"source_ref": "раздел «The One Question That Decides It», лидирующий абзац",
"options": [
"noearly",
"age55",
"neednow"
]
},
{
"id": "s2",
"type": "explain",
"criterion": "penalty",
"comment": "The rule of 55 is the one factor you cannot buy back with a fee: the exception to the 10% additional tax is written against separation from service with the employer whose plan holds the money, it is a plan rule that an IRA does not inherit, and it dies at the next signature — a new-plan rollover resets the separation. These are the only irreversible items in the article.",
"source_ref": "раздел «The Things Nobody Puts on the Option List», пункт «The rule of 55»"
},
{
"id": "s3",
"type": "explain",
"criterion": "fees",
"comment": "The cost of the vehicle, not the cost of the market: on the benchmark, the fee — not the market — is $23,231 of the twenty-year ending number on $100,000 at 0.43% against 0.03%. The one number worth looking up today is the administration and recordkeeping charge on your participant fee disclosure; compare that against 0.03% and you have your real version of the count.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 1 — Leave It: the Fee You Already Have», абзацы со счётной базой и про disclosure"
},
{
"id": "s4",
"type": "compare",
"cells": [
{
"variant": "leave",
"criterion": "fees",
"score": 1,
"detail": "The plan you are in keeps the fee structure it already has — the benchmark small-plan average 0.43% is the number this option lives with; look up your own disclosure.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 1 — Leave It», абзац про fee structure и 0.43%"
},
{
"variant": "move",
"criterion": "fees",
"score": 3,
"detail": "A plan-size lottery: the same benchmark table that showed 0.43% at the small end shows 0.31% at the large end — cheaper if the new employer is large, but you inherit that menu without choosing it.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 2 — Move It», абзац «a plan-size lottery»"
},
{
"variant": "ira",
"criterion": "fees",
"score": 5,
"detail": "The full menu at IRA prices starting at 0.03%; the fee question is one you answer by buying cheap — the $23,231 twenty-year drag on $100,000 is the small-plan side of this comparison.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 3 — Roll It to an IRA», лидирующий абзац; раздел «Option 1» со счётной базой"
},
{
"variant": "cash",
"criterion": "fees",
"score": 0,
"detail": "There is no vehicle left to charge a fee — the money stops being tax-deferred, all of it, this year; the cost arrives as tax instead.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 4 — Cash It Out», лидирующий абзац"
},
{
"variant": "leave",
"criterion": "penalty",
"score": 5,
"detail": "Rule of 55 alive if you separated at 55 or later from this employer — at 56, penalty-free access to $40,000 the same year, $4,000 of additional tax not owed.",
"source_ref": "таблица «The Four Options, Counted», строка «Penalty access before 59½»; раздел «The rule of 55»"
},
{
"variant": "move",
"criterion": "penalty",
"score": 1,
"detail": "Reset — the door stays shut until you leave the new employer or turn 59½; the new plan reset your separation, and for most readers that is years.",
"source_ref": "таблица, строка «Penalty access before 59½»; раздел «Option 2 — Move It», абзац про rule of 55"
},
{
"variant": "ira",
"criterion": "penalty",
"score": 2,
"detail": "No rule of 55 — the IRA has its own exception list and separation-at-55 is not on it; the same $40,000 in the hands of the same 57-year-old costs the $4,000.",
"source_ref": "таблица, строка «Penalty access before 59½»; раздел «The rule of 55»"
},
{
"variant": "cash",
"criterion": "penalty",
"score": 0,
"detail": "The 10% additional tax rides on it unless an exception fits — $5,000 on a $50,000 distribution at 2026 rates.",
"source_ref": "таблица, строка «Penalty access before 59½»; раздел «Option 4 — Cash It Out»"
},
{
"variant": "leave",
"criterion": "creditors",
"score": 5,
"detail": "ERISA-qualified: protected in bankruptcy without a dollar limit, on anti-alienation rules state law cannot reach — the strongest protection of the four options.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Creditor protection, by vehicle»; таблица, строка «Creditor protection, bankruptcy»"
},
{
"variant": "move",
"criterion": "creditors",
"score": 5,
"detail": "ERISA: no dollar limit — the new plan carries the same unlimited protection.",
"source_ref": "таблица, строка «Creditor protection, bankruptcy», ячейка Move it"
},
{
"variant": "ira",
"criterion": "creditors",
"score": 3,
"detail": "Capped: $1,711,975 per debtor in cases electing the federal exemptions (April 2025 adjustment); outside bankruptcy, protection depends on state law and varies.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Creditor protection, by vehicle», абзац про 11 U.S.C. 522(n) и Federal Register 90 FR 8941"
},
{
"variant": "cash",
"criterion": "creditors",
"score": 0,
"detail": "None — it is income; the protection question ends the moment the money is cashed.",
"source_ref": "таблица, строка «Creditor protection, bankruptcy», ячейка Cash it out"
},
{
"variant": "leave",
"criterion": "oneaccount",
"score": 2,
"detail": "The money stays in the old employer's plan, in the fee structure it already has — one account instead of two is what the move buys, not leaving.",
"source_ref": "лидер-список, пункт «Leave it»; раздел «Option 2 — Move It», абзац «Done, it buys two things»"
},
{
"variant": "move",
"criterion": "oneaccount",
"score": 5,
"detail": "One account instead of two — the first of the two things the move buys, stated by the article as worth something.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 2 — Move It», абзац «Done, it buys two things»"
},
{
"variant": "ira",
"criterion": "oneaccount",
"score": 3,
"detail": "The IRA comes with the widest choice of where the account lives; a pro-rata rule waits behind any traditional IRA balance you already hold.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 3 — Roll It to an IRA», лидирующий абзац и абзац про Roth conversion и pro-rata rule"
},
{
"variant": "cash",
"criterion": "oneaccount",
"score": 4,
"detail": "The vehicle here is the checking account, and its function is: the money stops being tax-deferred — all of it, this year; the bill arrives in April.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 4 — Cash It Out», лидирующий абзац"
},
{
"variant": "leave",
"criterion": "withheld",
"score": 5,
"detail": "No distribution, no withholding — nothing is paid to you, so the 20% never enters the picture.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 2 — Move It» — «The 20% withholding does not enter a direct rollover at all — it only applies to money paid to you»"
},
{
"variant": "move",
"criterion": "withheld",
"score": 5,
"detail": "A plan-to-plan rollover carries no waiting period and no withholding — mandatory withholding does not apply to a direct rollover (IRS Publication 575; Tax Topic 413).",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 3 — Roll It to an IRA», абзац про direct rollover; раздел «Option 2», абзац про Publication 590-A"
},
{
"variant": "ira",
"criterion": "withheld",
"score": 4,
"detail": "Direct, trustee to trustee: nothing withheld, the money never touches your hands. Indirect, a check made out to you: 20% withheld on $100,000 is an $80,000 check and a $20,000 chase in sixty days — avoidable, which is why the checklist starts with 'direct.'",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 3 — Roll It to an IRA», абзацы про direct и indirect rollover"
},
{
"variant": "cash",
"criterion": "withheld",
"score": 0,
"detail": "In hand at separation, after the mandatory 20% withholding, the check on $50,000 was $40,000; the rest of the bill arrives in April.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 4 — Cash It Out», абзац с итоговой счётной базой"
},
{
"variant": "leave",
"criterion": "aprilbill",
"score": 5,
"detail": "No taxable event — there is no April bill, because nothing is distributed; the money stays pre-tax.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 1 — Leave It», лидирующий абзац — «the same pre-tax money, taxed when it comes out»"
},
{
"variant": "move",
"criterion": "aprilbill",
"score": 5,
"detail": "The money is not taxed and not a contribution, it simply changes vehicles — no April bill follows a direct plan-to-plan move.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 2 — Move It», лидирующий абзац"
},
{
"variant": "ira",
"criterion": "aprilbill",
"score": 4,
"detail": "A direct rollover is not taxable, though even a rollover that is not taxable is reportable on the return; the indirect form's shortfall, if you do not complete it, is ordinary income in the year of the distribution.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 3 — Roll It to an IRA», абзацы про indirect и reportable"
},
{
"variant": "cash",
"criterion": "aprilbill",
"score": 0,
"detail": "The April bill is the option: $15,350 of $50,000, 30.7% of the money, at 2026 rates to a single filer at $60,000 of salary — the number moves with your bracket, not with your feelings.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 4 — Cash It Out», абзац со счётной базой"
},
{
"variant": "leave",
"criterion": "menu",
"score": 1,
"detail": "The plan menu you already have — two plans a block apart can run 0.1% and 1.0% on identical money; the menu is not yours to pick.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 1 — Leave It», абзац «The averages are averages»"
},
{
"variant": "move",
"criterion": "menu",
"score": 3,
"detail": "The new plan's menu and rules become yours wholesale — someone else's menu, cheaper on the large-plan benchmark, but not one you chose; acceptance of rollover money is a plan term, not a right.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 2 — Move It», абзац «What changes is that the new plan's menu and rules become yours wholesale»"
},
{
"variant": "ira",
"criterion": "menu",
"score": 5,
"detail": "The full menu of the market at IRA prices, starting at 0.03% for the indexed versions, and the widest choice of where the account lives; what to hold inside is the cost table's question, not this one.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 3 — Roll It to an IRA», лидирующий абзац"
},
{
"variant": "cash",
"criterion": "menu",
"score": 0,
"detail": "No menu — the vehicle is the checking account; there is nothing left to invest inside it as retirement money.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 4 — Cash It Out», лидирующий абзац"
},
{
"variant": "leave",
"criterion": "reachable",
"score": 3,
"detail": "Reachable through the rule of 55 door if the age condition fits, and the plan's loan provisions — if the plan has them — stay available only in this vehicle.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 1 — Leave It», абзац «What leaving preserves»; раздел «The rule of 55»"
},
{
"variant": "move",
"criterion": "reachable",
"score": 2,
"detail": "The door that was open the moment you left the old job stays shut until you leave the new one or turn 59½ — for someone who left at 56 and rolled forward at 57, the whole difference between money you can reach and money you cannot.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 2 — Move It», абзац про rule of 55"
},
{
"variant": "ira",
"criterion": "reachable",
"score": 3,
"detail": "Roll the money to an IRA and the exception does not travel with it — the IRA has its own exception list, and separation-at-55 is not on it; from there the IRA's own routes and 59½ govern access.",
"source_ref": "раздел «The rule of 55», абзац про plan rule и IRA's own exception list"
},
{
"variant": "cash",
"criterion": "reachable",
"score": 5,
"detail": "Reached immediately, at a price — the $15,350 was counted so the household chooses it with its eyes open; if the money is needed, the math may still say cash out part of it.",
"source_ref": "раздел «Option 4 — Cash It Out», абзац «If the money is needed»"
}
]
},
{
"id": "s5",
"type": "verdict",
"recap": "The order below is the weighted sum of the scores above — slide the weights to your situation and it re-runs. For the ten-minute answer the article's own instruction is to move the money direct to wherever the cheaper vehicle is, direct and in writing — never a check made out to you; for the yes-and-55-or-older answer the old plan is the only vehicle that was ever going to answer it; for the need-it-now answer that is Option 4, priced at $15,350 on $50,000 before you reach.",
"source_ref": "раздел «The One Question That Decides It», все три условных вывода"
}
],
"allowed_labels": [
"the answer is no, the decision collapses into the ten-minute version",
"you are 55 or older this year",
"I need some of it now",
"Leave it",
"Move it",
"Roll it to an IRA",
"Cash it out",
"fee drag",
"Penalty access before 59½",
"Creditor protection, bankruptcy",
"One account instead of two",
"20% withheld",
"The April bill, not the check",
"the full menu of the market",
"money you can reach"
],
"golden_examples": [
{
"name": "verdict on the default ten-minute scenario",
"weights_basis": "the answer is no, the decision collapses into the ten-minute version",
"expected_top": [
"ira",
"move",
"leave"
]
},
{
"name": "verdict when only money you can reach matters",
"weights_basis": {
"fees": 0,
"penalty": 0,
"creditors": 0,
"oneaccount": 0,
"withheld": 0,
"aprilbill": 0,
"menu": 0,
"reachable": 5
},
"expected_top": [
"cash",
"leave",
"ira"
]
},
{
"name": "verdict when bankruptcy protection is the whole question",
"weights_basis": {
"fees": 0,
"penalty": 0,
"creditors": 5,
"oneaccount": 0,
"withheld": 0,
"aprilbill": 0,
"menu": 0,
"reachable": 0
},
"expected_top": [
"leave",
"move",
"ira"
]
}
]
}