The email lands on a Tuesday. Subject line: "Important company update."
You know before you open it.
The company is done. Doors closing. Everybody out by the end of the month.
And somewhere in the back of your head, a much louder question starts shouting over the job-hunting panic.
What happens to my 401(k)?
Here is the good news, and it is genuinely good. Your 401(k) does not belong to your employer. It never did. A company going under is a terrible thing for your paycheck and a mostly boring thing for your retirement account.
But "mostly boring" is not "nothing." There are real ways to lose real money here, and almost all of them come from doing nothing for too long.
Let us walk through it.