Wait...where did my retirement money go?
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What happens to your retirement savings when you leave a job?
Okay, so I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I think I might have money somewhere, maybe hundreds or thousands of dollars, that I have no idea how to access. When I was in my 20s, I didn't really think about retirement. That was a problem for future me. But now I am future me. I'm 35 years old, and I'm trying to figure out what happened to those retirement accounts for my early 20s. My employers automatically enrolled me in them, or at least I think they did. I don't know. If I'm going to be honest, I can't even remember the name of the companies that managed my retirement accounts. One night not long ago while lying in bed, I spent like an hour digging into this, but because everything was saved under my old work emails, I couldn't figure it out.
And as I was going to sleep, I thought, surely I can't be the only one in this situation, right? So why don't I make an episode out of this? Maybe if I document my process, it'll encourage other people to do the same. But apparently, even turning it into a work assignment didn't really help. After I pitched this to my team, days passed, inertia kicked back in, and soon enough, I found myself on a call with our producer, Alice, who was gently laying down the law.
You stalked me. Are there any resources you're coming across about who I should call? And what I was going to tell you is, I think... I think that me telling you who you should call kind of defeats the purpose of me figuring this out on my own.
Why do you keep putting this off? I just haven't been feeling great. And so the idea of having to do an administrative task feels really cumbersome.
Do you think part of the reason you've been putting this off is you're afraid that when you look at the account, there won't be any money there?
That's part of it, for sure. Where I'm like, yeah.
Okay.
But what if there's a lot of money?
You're going to take me on vacation. Right? Do you want to do the Google search right now while we're on this call?
Yeah, let's just do it. I'll just do it. I'll just do it. Okay. In 2012, I worked for NPR as a fellow. So I was only there for a year. But I had retirement benefits. I remember the website was TIAA.org. So then maybe I need to call customer service.
Okay.
the deep sigh after the... No, I don't want to do it.
Should I just do it right now?
Yeah, do it right now. I feel like I have a gun to your head being sent to you on this right now.
Oh, I can't tell if this is relatable or just deeply embarrassing. One second.
Thank you for calling PIA. This call may be monitored or recorded for quality, security, or cleaning purposes. Are you calling about an existing PIA participant?
No.
Oh, yes, yes. Please enter in your telephone keypad the social security number of the person you are calling for. Please enter the name of your social security number. Sorry, looks like we're having trouble recognizing that. Let's try that again. Let's try that again.
Oh my God, I hate these robocalls.
Let's try that again.
Talk to customer service.
Let me get someone to help.
Thank you for calling your retirement center.
How common is it for people to lose track of their retirement accounts?
This is Brendan. How can I help you?
Hi, Brendan. My name is Rima. I have a quick question about an over-retirement account.
And you have an account with TIAA?
Well, that's what I'm trying to figure out. I'm trying to see if I do have an account with you all.
I'm not seeing anything pop up for me, so I don't believe you have an account with us.
Oh, really? Do you know if I've ever had an account with you all?
No, or else we would have had an account for you with your social.
Okay. All right. Well, thanks. I appreciate it.
No problem. Well, thank you so much for calling TIAA. Have a great rest of your day.
You too. Bye.
Bye-bye.
Welcome to This is Uncomfortable. I'm Rima Grace. We have a thing we do on this show called This Week's Question, where we pose a question about our relationship with money and try to find some answers. And this week, I'm getting a little personal because I want to know, how much money do I actually have in my old retirement accounts? And why does my brain, and maybe yours too, avoid these kinds of financial chores that could seriously help us?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What happens to your retirement savings when you leave a job?
0:01–3:12
2
How common is it for people to lose track of their retirement accounts?
3:12–5:57
3
Why is it so hard to manage retirement accounts?
5:57–12:00
4
What are the options for rolling over retirement accounts?
12:00–15:46
5
How does procrastination affect financial tasks?
15:46–20:05
6
What psychological strategies can help overcome procrastination?
20:05–24:13
7
How do we change our approach to financial chores?
24:13–28:14
8
What did Rima discover about her old retirement accounts?
28:14–37:10