If you’ve left your job and rolled over your retirement savings to an individual retirement account (IRA), there’s a ch💞ance you're missing out o🐻n hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of investment gains by leaving the money uninvested. 

A new study from Vanguard found that, in 2015, 28% of workers who rolled over their 401(k)s into IRAs left their savings in cash for more than seven years. Younger investors, women a✱𝔍nd people with smaller balances were more likely to leave the money uninvested, Vanguard said.

Experts Recommend Rollovers — But Remember To Invest Tܫhe Cash

When you move on from a job, you have a few options with your 401(k) retirement-plan savings. You can leave the money where it is, move it to your new employer's 401(k), cash it out — at the risk of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:💃taxes and an early withdrawal penalty — or 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:roll it over into an I🅺RA. Experts tend to recommend the latter.

Priya Malani, founder of financial advisory firm Stash Wealth, says 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:rolling the funds over to an IRA can offer more investment options and funds with lo꧙wer expense ratios than 401(k)s. A rollover may also be a good idea for people to consolidate their accounts in one place, making the money easier to manage, according to Preston Cherry, founder of Concurrent Financial Planni𝄹ng.

Once the money is rolled over, experts remind you to complete the process by making sure you're putting that cash to work.

One example of the potential missed opportunity: Vanguard estimates that for investors under 55, rolling the money into a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:target-date fund is equivalent to an increase of at least $130,000 at age 65. Target-date funds shift investors' portfolio allocations toward more conservative investments as they age.

"Whatever you do, don't leave it in cash, and unless you are very close to retirement," Malani said. "Don't invest it conservatively or you'll be unnecessarily giving up growth potential and missing out on that valuable concept called 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:compounding."