Ok, I’m at the end of my rope on this, so I’m going to beg. This is me begging. Is anyone out there a tax adviser or tax attorney who can give me free advice? Last year I rolled over a 401K into a traditional IRA. This year my old employer sent me a letter saying that they can’t do math correctly and they rolled over an extra couple thousand dollars because of a vesting error, which they’d like back now. I have talked to several people, from my IRA custodian, Marketplace Money, a free legal-aid pension lawyer, and even the IRS. Yes, I voluntarily called the IRS. That is how crazy this shit has made me. I have Googled and researched and asked for help and wasted at least 8-10 hours of my life trying to figure this mess out, but I still have no fucking clue how to remove this money from the account with little or no penalties or excess fees. Can anyone help me on this? Please, Dear God. The end [...]

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On the radio

If you listen to public radio, you might have heard me this weekend as a call-in guest on Marketplace Money. Unlike any of my other media appearances in the past few years, this one had nothing to do with my books, my blog, weight loss, headaches, or anything relevant to my online presence. Instead, I had a question about a $2600 request for overpayment on a 401K rollover from my last employer who made a vesting error on the employer’s matching contributions and oh my God do you want to stab your eyes with a rusty paperclip yet? Because I do. Anyway, I wanted some help sorting out this financial mess that was not my fault but is now my problem, so Tess Vigeland and Kathy Kristof came to the rescue. You can listen to it by clicking the “Listen to the Show” or “Listen to this Story” buttons on this page and scrolling to the 21:35 mark. I even slipped in a plug for PastaQueen.com! I’m getting much better at this self-promotion [...]

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