Oddbean new post about | logout
 I would keep the Roth as is. The US Government isn't going to go away fast enough and you can hedge that risk.

Regarding the 401K, personally, I would quit the job to get access to those funds whether rolling to a traditional IRA or liquidating it and paying the taxes + penalties.  If you have a good enough relationship with your employer there's no reason why they can't hire you back if you want/need to keep being a W-2.  And if they don't, well, that should be enough of a red flag to reconsider that relationship anyways.

As to the decision to liquidate, this may depend on the size of the account, and how much you'll forego in both early withdrawal penalties (10%), and potentially pushing you into higher tax bracket for that withdrawal.  Another option, again depending on your personal situation, is to quit, roll the 401k to a traditional IRA, and immediately setup to take substantially equal periodic payments (SEPP) per IRS rule 72(t). That removes the 10% penalty, though it puts more paperwork in your court.  This tends to be more palatable the closer you are to traditional retirement age and for larger accounts.  For those that are just starting careers and have smaller accounts, I'd just say eat the penalty to take immediate lump sum control and then buy Bitcoin with the proceeds.