So here we are. You, your various financial advisers, your 401k money, and our two cents of advice. We’ve gathered here today not for a funeral (unless you really mess this decision up!) but for something that some feel truly could be life and death: talking about your 401k rollover.

Some people will avoid rolling over their 401k when they lose or leave their job and instead withdraw the money. They feel that it’s better to have cash in hand than to go through the hassle of moving it around and the apparently attendant risk of leaving cash out there where sinister things like bearish stock markets can snatch it up for themselves. Some people will also tell you that the moon is made of cheese. Now, we don’t want to ridicule anybody’s financial decisions but we do want to make it abundantly clear that having the option to roll over your 401(k) is not a bad thing. It is, in fact, very good when you have that chance.

The thing about a 401k rollover is that you have lots of different options. If you’re in the market for a new job (or already have one), chances are pretty good that your new employer will have a 401(k) plan. There are no penalties to roll your funds into that new plan (unless one or the other of the companies charges some sort of fee, which doesn’t seem too likely) and that way it goes right back to growing the way it was before. Now, granted, some employers might not have the same quality options when it comes to the funds that your 401(k) money is being invested in, and other employers may have tighter restrictions about what you can and can’t do with your money, but this is a safe place to go if 59 ½ is still a long ways off.

Now, on the other hand, let’s say that for some reason or other you decide to avoid the new employer’s 401(k) plan. That’s all right; you have several options for having a 401k rollover go into an IRA (individual retirement account). Your IRA may be anchored in one of several different funds, which is what gives it the flexibility that appeals to some. For example, you may have an IRA set up with a low-profile or low-cost brokerage firm. These options are nice. They guarantee (insofar as anything financial can be guaranteed) a fair bit of stability with the growth of the money. Of course, in today’s financial market, any guarantee is effectively no guarantee.

Even with that as a given, though, you might find yourself interested in other 401k rollover options, such as targeting an IRA based in a mutual fund or something similar. Cash levels tend to fluctuate more in these higher-risk funds, but unless the economy tanks for a whole two decades, it’s possible that your account targeted by the 401k rollover will outlive any problems in the economy.

Whatever the case with rolling over your 401k, don’t feel too bad about the situation. New employment will be on the horizon, and with your 401(k) locked away, you’ll be pretty much set.