401k Cashout Calculator

Nearly everyone who leaves a job with money in an old 401(k) faces the same fork: roll it into an IRA or the new employer's plan, or cash it out. Cashing out is tempting — it's money in hand today — but it triggers ordinary income tax on the ENTIRE balance immediately, plus a 10% early-withdrawal penalty if you're under 55 (a narrower cutoff than the 59½ most people expect, because of a little-known exception called the Rule of 55). Unlike a 401(k) loan, which you repay, a cash-out is permanent: that money never goes back, so decades of future compounding are gone for good. This lesson races two after-tax paths from the day you leave the job to the age you plan to retire: rolling the full balance over, tax-deferred the whole way, against cashing out and reinvesting whatever's left after today's tax bill. Rolling over almost always wins, and by a lot — but not unconditionally, and the simulator shows the real, narrow exception too, not just the common case.

Free and interactive — no sign-up, nothing to install. Read the full lesson for the plain-language explanation.