You may find these links helpful:

• 401(k) Fund Selection Guide
• 401(k) FAQs
• "How to handle $"

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10% penalty plus it gets added to your income for the year for tax purposes.

this was very likely a mistake. given how small the pool of money is, its likely not going to have too significant of a negative impact on you, but you should really strive to make better decisions going forward.

It's a bad habit. It had 40+ years to grow if you rolled it over into an IRA plus whatever you add to it over time.

In 45 years assuming 10% average annual growth and you adding nothing, it would have been worth about 109k.

=FV(10%,45,0,1500)

• Tax: The $1,500 will be added to your 2022 income, so you'll pay income taxes on that money. You had at least 20% withheld, depending on the rest of your income tax situation that may or may not cover you.
• Penalty: You'll owe a 10% penalty on the distribution, assessed at tax time.
• Investment growth: You'll obviously lose years worth of investment growth.

You shouldn't cash out 401ks when you change jobs, you should roll it over to the new job. It would've been a better idea to do a direct rollover to a 401k or IRA.

If you're still within 60 days of the 401k closure date, strongly suggest you put the full 1500 into an IRA coded as an indirect rollover, or at least the amount you received net of taxes.

You should have done a trustee to trustee transfer to either the new 401k or your own IRA. The way you did it you will need to make up the difference that was withheld yourself so that you deposit the full 1500 if you want to avoid penalties. You will get it back at tax time.

If you’re being put into a position to where you need savings money then you should probably be re evaluating the amount of money you contribute to retirement.

Emergency fund first, then retirement.