Like common stock, preferred stocks represent partial ownership in a company, each share of preferred stock is normally paid a guaranteed, relatively high dividend and has first right over common stock at the company’s assets in the event of bankruptcy.

• Preferred stock shareholders do not enjoy any of the voting rights of common stockholders.
• Preferred stock may carry superior priority over common stock in the payment of dividends and upon liquidation.
• Preferred stock may carry a dividend that is paid out prior to any dividends to common stock holders.
• The main benefit to owning preferred stock is that the investor has a greater claim on the company’s assets than common stockholders.

According to Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest IRA and 401(k) provider survey in USA, disappointing 40 percent of 20- to 40-year-olds had cashed out their 401(k) retirement savings when leaving a job.

If your changing jobs then better option is to rollover the current 401(k) retirement savings into a new tax-deferred retirement account.

Roll it over yourself, and save more. If you changed jobs six times in your life, then you will have six different IRAs. Instead you can manage your own IRA.

To avoid paying the taxes you would incur by cashing out your 401K money, you want to rollover your 401K into an IRA by following the steps How To Rollover 401K Funds Into an IRA.

Do not confuse the two terms.

Return

What an investor has actually earned on an investment during a certain time period in the past.
Total return includes dividends and capital gains that the fund distributes to shareholders. A mutual fund incurs capital gains when it sells some of its portfolio holdings to lock in profits or redeem fund shares.

Yield

Yield is Prospective not Retrospective. Yield is the investment income paid by many investments. For example the dividends from shares, or the rents paid on property.

Blue chip shares often give good yield because the dividends tend to be higher.