Elise and I are really keeping track of our investments. I’ve had two 401(k) accounts in my life thus far. Upon leaving the company that offered my first 401(k), I rolled my investments into an IRA. When Vidbook.com closed, I rolled my second 401(k) into the same IRA. It’s just easier to manage one retirement account. I guess if I have the option to contribute to another 401(k) plan, I will and I’ll have to keep track of it as well as the IRA.
Elise has also had two 401(k) accounts. The first one was offered to her when she was working at Circle C. The second 401(k) account was when she was working at Sallie Mae. We received a letter from Fidelity yesterday stating that her money would be distributed to her because she a) no longer works at Sallie Mae and b) she has a balance that is smaller than their set limit and to which is not being contributed.
Anyway I like Fidelity because we were able to speak to a human after a short and relatively painless browse through their voice activated, automated menu. This was after 9 p.m. My retirement savings is with Prudential. They work normal business hours. I’m sure they take three hour lunches too. But I like Prudential’s online portfolio manager better than Fidelity’s. I don’t know why I just wrote about that. That was nerdy. I should have used that space to practice my west coast gangsta lyrics. Oh well. Too late now. I did notice something though: When I type the word “gangsta”, I get a little red squiggly line underneath it, indicating that it is misspelled. I wonder how long it will be until we all will have the delightful opportunity to work with software that utilizes an ebonics spellchecker. Hey! There it goes again. “ebonics” gets a squiggly red line too.
Anyway, we called Fidelity and setup a rollover IRA for Elise. While we were at it, we decided to have Elise’s 401(k) from Circle C disbursed and rolled into this new IRA that we’d just setup. The only problem is that we need to get a request for disbursement form from Elise’s former employer. Elise’s 401(k) plan was provided by a company named GCP Management, LLC. GCP took over Circle C shortly before Elise quit. GCP no longer owns/runs Circle C. Elise’s pay stubs have an address, but no phone number. We couldn’t find a GCP Management, LLC anywhere [online] to get a phone number. We called information, no luck.
I decided to e-mail the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce and explain our situation. A nice lady wrote me back and knew nothing of GCP Management. I wrote her back and told her that they used to manage a public golf course. That helped. She e-mailed me back to tell me that Golf Club Partners is listed with the address that I provided for her. She gave me their phone number. So now we have to call them to request a disbursement.
The moral of the story? Practice your gangsta rap every chance you get. It’s easy to become distracted by proper grammer and your financial security.