Should Nurses Stay With One Company Or "Job Hop" To Increase Pay?

 As someone with many years at one facility and who is looking at retirement soon let me say this:

Take care of yourself first.

Any business has the primary goal of making a profit. If a business ever needs to decide between you and making a profit, they will choose profit-making, not you. So take care of yourself first. They do. You should too.

So if that means job hopping periodically to increase your take-home pay and benefits, do it. Everyone always focuses on pay but benefits are important too.

Hospitals and most medical facilities are wildly profitable- even the so-called "charitable organizations". It's a false belief that charitable organizations are self-sacrificing and aren't interested in making a profits. If you don't believe me, look at their financials yourself. They all issue "annual reports". You will be surprised at how much they make in profits.

Here's what I would recommend: Got to work for whomever you please and sign up for their 401K ASAP.

Important: Never leave free money on the table. If they match your contribution and contribute a starting rate of say, 3%, you put in at least 3% too.

Three plus three is six. Six percent of your annual pay is a good chunk of change and when invested over a long period of time, due to "the magic of compound interest", adds up to some serious money.

I know you have loans to pay, cars and well-deserved vacations to buy, houses to save for, and possibly kids to support, but never leave free money on the table. Pay yourself first. You're the one doing all the work. Move yourself to the front of the bill-paying line, not the last spot. Invest that 3% (which is really 6%!) in yourself. Did I say this already: Never leave free money on the table.

If you don't know what to invest in within the 401K, pick something easy like "35 (years) To Go" (until you retire). This easy pick will have a nice mix of stuff inside it and you won't have to pick any actual stocks, bonds, or other things because the investment manager has chosen that stuff already. You won't have to "manage" this account at all.

When you become "vested"***, meaning you own all the money in the account, which can take 3, 4, or 5 years or so, start looking around to see if you can get a better deal somewhere else.

If you can find a better deal (in position, pay, AND benefits), take it.

If you can't find a better deal, stay put and look again in a year or two or three.

If you stay at your job, your company will usually increase the amount they contribute to your 401K periodically. My company caps at 8% (which is really 16% with the match) but it takes a while to get there. That's a nice benefit and something that you will be evaluating when and if you look for other positions with other companies.

Here's 2 points where some people disagree with me:

1) Some say you should stay with a company to increase the amount they contribute to your 401K.

That's a good argument.

I say, if you like your company, your pay, and your benefits, stay.

2) Others say that if you do change jobs, you should roll your previous job's 401K into your new job's 401K.

That's a fair argument as well.

I say leave it because:

A) You likely know very little about investing. Most people don't. And,

B) Having several different accounts adds diversification to your financial portfolio. You are unlikely to have the same investment options or make the same investment decisions with your new company and their 401K. Diversification protects you over the long term from this bad stock or that bad investment or that economic downturn cycle (which typically last 5-10 years).

Having a couple (or even several) fully-vested 401K's is the "no-brainer" way to protect your retirement money. You don't have to become a financial wizard this way, you just have to make sure you spread your savings around in several different retirement funds and you will be as safe as possible with very little effort. Easy-peasy.

If you do want to become more educated financially and feel like managing your retirement savings, by all means do so. You can do this at any time during your life.

If you feel you understand the difference between stocks, bonds, mutual funds, have an adequate to good grasp of long-term investing, and want to "manage" your investments, then you might consider rolling over your 401K's into one so you have less to manage. This gives you less diversification but if you feel pretty good about your knowledge of financial matters this can be a good choice for you.

But if you are like most people and don't understand how this financial stuff is done, then your best protection is to leave a trail of different fully-vested 401K's behind you during your career.

Whatever you decide, you will still need to check on your 401K(s) periodically. Your "35 To Go" account might need to be changed to a "25 To Go" or a "15 To Go" (etc.) account as time goes by.

The reason for this is that these balanced/mixed investment portfolios chosen by the investment managers become less risky as you age. You can afford more risk (and thus more reward) when young and just starting out. A "35 To Go" has that.

But as you get closer to retirement you want to reduce risk (by choosing less volatile investments) and move your investments into safer, more reliable investment options. That's what "25 To Go" and "15 To Go" portfolios do- reduce risk as you get closer to retiring.

***If you leave a 401K to grow over the course of your career and are not vested you will not "own" all the money in the 401K. This will be a very, very unpleasant surprise to you when you finally go to retire. You MUST be 100% vested to own all the money in the 401K.

If you leave a job before becoming fully vested, you can never become fully vested unless you return to that job to complete the vesting process. If you leave before becoming fully vested, I DO recommend you move your money to the new 401K and try getting vested there or even buying and independent-of-your-work retirement fund and parking your money there. It's actually not all that hard to do and you are smart; you can do it if you want to!