Author Topic: Solo 401k vs. regular 401k (1099 + w2 employee).  (Read 425 times)

PeterParker

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Solo 401k vs. regular 401k (1099 + w2 employee).
« on: May 28, 2021, 01:48:44 PM »
Hey I made a related post before but it didn't account for the possibility of a Solo 401k.

So I have about $100k in an old 401k at an old employer with a heinous 1% of assets annual fee, applied monthly. So it's costing me $1,000 a year.

I'm deciding between two options to roll over these funds into.
One is my new employer 401k. They have some really low cost funds (such as Legal & General SP 500) --- that are as low as 0.01% ER, probably averaging around 0.03% ER. They also currently charge 0.25% of assets so that's $250 a year, but they claim we'll reach the break point of 0.15% "soon" -- whatever that means. Maybe my 100k will help that along.

The other option I like is Etrade (for 401k loans on rare case they are needed to reduce PMI or some situation) for a solo 401k as a I made 1099 consulting side gig income at the moment. They have a number of decent Vanguard ETFs also at 0.03% ER. There is no holding fee as far I see. In fact there might actually be a bonus of $200-$300 to move $100k in there (I think I'm technically at 99k now so it would be $200).

So ... essentially the cost is whether I pay $150-$250 a year, or don't pay that and get a one time bonus of $200.

BUT --- the downside of the solo 401k is that ---- there is more paperwork potentially. I would never contribute to this account with the 1099 income (I think with a sole proprietor 20% QBI, it's better to contribute the w2 income to the w2 401k). I'm not planning to hit my 401k contribution limit of 18k anyway.

I guess the main paperwork is account setup --- if it ever gets beyond $250k (it wouldn't), and a form to file when I close the account. (Which apparently you can still keep the account open but no contributions even if your business is dormant/ non-revenue).

Am I overthinking this? Which one would you do?

bacchi

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Re: Solo 401k vs. regular 401k (1099 + w2 employee).
« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2021, 02:17:31 PM »
Why not roll it into a traditional IRA?

PeterParker

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Re: Solo 401k vs. regular 401k (1099 + w2 employee).
« Reply #2 on: May 28, 2021, 02:41:49 PM »
Hmmm no loan options (though unlikely) --- and also in the future MAYBE I'll want to keep the option of backdoor Roth open? Although perhaps I shouldn't worry about that either.

tawyer

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Re: Solo 401k vs. regular 401k (1099 + w2 employee).
« Reply #3 on: May 28, 2021, 04:26:34 PM »
Just do the paperwork and consider yourself to have been paid $250 to do it.

If I were really lazy I'd just create a rollover IRA, and solve the reverse rollover problem when I was ready to do backdoor Roth, if ever.