I can highly reccommend the whole Vanguard family of funds. Been with them for a long long time. The one thing that sets them apart aside from their unquestioned intregrity, is a fierce effort to keep your costs low, since in times of a stagnant market that is where most of the money goes.
as far as rolling over a 401k to an IRA I have never heard of any company charging so much as one penny, they really want your money. There are no tax conseqeunces as long as you do it in a specified amount of time ( like 60 days or something) but if you choose to open an IRA at Vanguard, you just give them the 401k info and they do it all for you. You never see the money it just goes directly from the 401k at one company to the IRA at another. The only tax consequence would be if you chose a Roth. But even if you just go with a Reg IRA now you can at anytime convert part or all of that to a Roth later if you dtermine that that suits your needs better. The wonderful thing about your set up is going to be the fact that you can move your money from one asset class to another without paying any cap gains taxes.
and another thing, I really don't like the Vanguard site that much, but that is probably because I remember the old days when I use to spend hours studying all their funds. Call them on the phone and tell them you want all info on all their funds sent by snail mail and enjoy studying them while you sort your new investment strategy out. And ask them any questions you have.
Thanks for the info. I did a lot of research on this, this week. I am rolling an old Putnam-based Employer sponsored 401K account to my TD Ameritrade Solo 401K, which I established for my business about 10 years ago. Not all Solo 401K plans "accept" rollovers such as these, but TD Ameritrade did, and they are giving me a nice bonus as well, for bringing these assets over. Yeah, no capital gains is a nice feature of these deferred tax accounts.
nowadays most of those mutual funds also trade as etfs, so you can buy them through ameritrade if I could just get my crystal ball polished up a little, I realy think I could do it all with just 3 etfs spy gld bnd good deal on the bonus, it's always nice when somebody actually wants your business. Usually wherever I go now they make me feel like am a huge inconvenience.
Short Treasuries (TBT), long gold for the time being. Should make you a nice return in the next 3-9 months minimum.
Sorry for the double post but if you've got ten more years, just wait, you'll make a better return from keeping your money intact for a few months and buying a market correction i.e. Buffet super value style.