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The biggest thing I see unmentioned is the ERISA protections. Do not turn your 401(k) into an IRA before understanding the implications of losing that protection. It's a safety mechanism for your future self.

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Hey, thanks for the note! Would you mind linking me to a resource that would go into ERISA and it's effects on a 401K (or perhaps an example of what I would be protected from)?

The IRS website is pretty vague on what the implications are besides providing "protections".

Here are a couple of links [1] [2] that explain some of the details; I don't really know much about it myself beyond these (and obviously can't vouch for their correctness). It's admittedly not mentioned in many webpages that discuss IRAs and 401(k), so I think a lot of people don't hear about it, which is unfortunate. I wish I had good advice on how to dig up information like this without a priori knowledge, but I don't have great advice there—in my case, all I had was a nagging feeling of skepticism ("that can't be the only difference between IRAs and 401(k)s, can it? it doesn't seem compelling enough...") that kept me Googling until I found out about ERISA.

[1] https://www.irahelp.com/slottreport/how-safe-creditors-your-...

[2] https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/04071...

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