I am a little confused by your question.  I am assuming here that you have left your job either voluntarily or involuntarily and that there remains there your 401K plan.  If you were contributing and being matched by your employer there would be no more contributions once your paychecks stopped.  And you will need to do something with the money in the plan.  You could leave it there but that it would just be sitting in their plan without any new contributions.  Or you could roll it over in to another plan that you can continue to contribute to.  This way the funds would continue to grow. Seek financial advise.  Good luck.