On Dec 18, 2:09*am, sanjaynewsgr...[at]gmail.com wrote:
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If your employer is contributing to only the 401a, then I would at
least make as much contribution to the 401a to get the max employer
contribution first.

For Fidelity, what's are your choices of investment vehicles? I have
Fidelity and access to practically all their funds. But then my
employer did a terrible thing and redo the contract, so now I only
have access to about 15 funds, mostly bad choices. In general
Fidelity offers more investment options than TIAA-CREF.

<sanjaynewsgroup[at]gmail.com> wrote in message
news:9444ccc4-a1f4-4bf6-b4d7-886696cf0e60[at]v4g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...

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I am not qualified to know all the ins and outs of these plans, but most of
our retirement funds are in a 457(b) because that is what was available to
us and I am somewhat familiar with that part of the tax code. The feature I
liked most is that with a 457 there is no penalty for withdrawal before age
59.5 as long as you have separated from service. Because of this provision
I would recommend that you use the 457 plan for at least some of your
retirement funds. You will, of course, not be required to take the funds
before age 59.5, nor even when you separate from service. But with funds
available to you before age 59.5 you will protect yourself from tax
penalties should something happen where you need that money at a younger
age. You might get injured and need the money, or you might decide to retire
early, or you might find you want to work at something that pays less but
you enjoy more, or . . .

Elizabeth Richardson

I have 2 questions:

1) At my work we have option to invest in all three of above (401(a),
403(b), and 457 (b)) retirement plans. Employer is contributing a
percentage of salar to 401 (a) but I am also allowed to contribute
additional money through salary reduction. In addition to that, I am
allowed to contribute 16,500 to both 403(b) and 457 (b). So I can
contribute up to around 42K/year. Of course, that is much higher than
I would like to contribute so my question is which of these 3 plans is
better.

2) For all these plans, we have a choice: Fidelity or TIAA-CREF
families. Any opinions on which one I should prefer,

Thanks,

Sam