can I buy stocks with 401k money?

Answer 1

Absolutely, positively, YES. You should check with your plan to see if it is allowed in your plan. Most 401K, IRA, and Annuity these days allowe purchase of stocks. Your gains are tax deferred too. Just like you allocate money to various mutual funds, you would purchase stocks with your money. It is really simple. However, you assume all the "risks" (and "rewards") for the performance of the stocks you purchase - you do not have a fund manager to blame if things go sour.

Answer 2

That would be a very bad decision. What you should do is roll the 401k into an IRA with a brokerage company - try Scottrade or Vanguard. Then you can trade stocks and still have the tax deferment. Another bonus of trading stocks in an IRA is that you don't have to report the transactions - if you trade outside of an IRA you have to report every single transaction on your tax return, which can make tax preparation a nightmare if you do it yourself or very expensive if you have someone else do it.

Answer 3

It all depends on the 401k. Some allow for stock purchase some do not. Check in the Summary Plan Description (SPD) section that deals with the investment options.

Answer 4

Totally depends on who is administering your plan.... Fidelity does allow stock and ETF purchase....an outfit called Nationwide that runs some plans now allows holders to trade stocks ( with 50% of their money) through Schwab.....
I think more plans will be allowing more trading ... once someone does it, everyone usually follows suit.
If you can check your holdings on-line, there's probably also a " link" there telling you HOW you can move your money.....if not, you've got to have a phone number somewhere on your quarterly(or year-end) report.
I hope you get what you want!!

Answer 5

It depends. If your 401k is through work you are limited to whatever the offer. If your 401k has moved over to a Rollover IRA to a place such as Fidelity then yes you can invest it however you want.

Answer 6

It's allowed by law but a plan is not required to offer it as an option. Most don't...

But, check with your Summary Plan Description or your HR. Often times it's allowed but not promoted as the owner wants to do it but doesn't let HR tell anyone else that they can so that he doesn't have to pay for the administrative headache that it causes. And if he/she can do it then everyone can.

Answer 7

That's what a 401(k) is for.