in the middle of 2008 I was advising people to cash in their 401Ks and take the tax hit because that was exactly what I was doing at that time – let’s see, took a 15% tax hit and avoided a 30-50% decline in the equity markets – again, not bad advice in hindsight
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Sounds like most of your personal positions have worked out over the past 3-4 years. Congrats.
Perhaps this was not available in your plan, but wouldn’t you have saved the 10% penalty, plus federal and state taxes (I am surprised you took only a 15% hit, that’s good tax planning) and simply put the money in the cash-equivalent or money market choice.