Getty Images Workers who change jobs typically have four options for their 401(k) plan: leave it in the 401(k), roll it over to an IRA, move it into a new employer's plan or withdraw the cash and pay the taxes and penalties. Which option workers choose is influenced by inertia, income, wealth, debt and even whether workers already have an IRA account, according to a recent Employee Benefit Research Institute analysis of health and retirement study data about people age 50 and over. Here's a look at how workers decide what to do with their 401(k) balance when they change jobs: Leave it in the plan. Leaving the money in a former employer's 401(k) plan is typically the default option. And 35 percent of older workers who remained in the labor force following a job change decided to leave their money where it was, the most popular choice. "It might also be a non-decision – a simple case of inertia, leaving the money where it already is, rather than making an affirmative choice, or deferring any decision until they need the money," Sudipto Banerjee, a research associate at EBRI, writes in the report.
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