If you're like most Americans, you change employers about as often as you change hairstyles.

Indeed, the average worker switches jobs more than 10 times before reaching age 40, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

All that job-hopping may help broaden skill sets, but it also creates a dilemma for those who are unsure what to do with the 401(k) dollars they accrue.

Generally, you have four options when you leave your job:

That last option really isn't a good choice, lest you sentence yourself to a lifetime of professional servitude. Nonetheless, many people take that route. According to Hewitt Associates, a Chicago-based human resources consulting firm, nearly 45 percent of employees take a cash distribution from their 401(k) plan when they leave their jobs.

Others use a wiser approach. According to Hewitt Associates, 32 percent of people who leave a job keep their 401(k) money where it is, and 23 percent roll over their accounts -- either into an IRA or their new employer's 401(k).

Leaving money in an old 401(k)

Despite the advice of some experts who favor the flexibility of an IRA (see below), Pam Hess, director of Hewitt Associates, says many employees are better off leaving their money in a defined contribution plan -- either their former 401(k) or their new one.

"Generally, the benefits of leaving your retirement money within a defined contribution plan are superior to rolling them over to an IRA," she says. "You have the purchasing power of the entire plan behind you rather than being out there on your own."

Indeed, mutual funds affiliated with 401(k) plans typically waive load fees for plan participants and transaction costs for 401(k) investors can be lower. Meanwhile, IRAs frequently charge an annual (though nominal) maintenance fee.