(FORTUNE Magazine) – Dear Annie: I work for a small, cash-strapped technology company, and it has come to my attention that my employer has been deducting my weekly 401(k) contributions but has not been forwarding them to the mutual fund company that is supposed to be investing them. Is this legal? I've heard that companies have 30 days to transfer the funds. Is this true? What recourse do I have if my company goes under and takes my retirement money with it? --Underfunded

Dear Under: If your employer is indeed misdirecting your money (that is, it hasn't just vanished into, say, a telecom fund), it would be a big mistake to wait for the company to go under before you take action. Under ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974), funds deducted from your paycheck immediately become "plan assets," meaning that although your employer may wish otherwise, your 401(k) contributions are not his property. U.S. Labor Department regulations require him to send the dough along to the mutual fund company before the 15th day of the month following the month in which the deduction was made. If there's a snafu in the paperwork or some other innocent delay, he owes an excise tax on the money. If, on the other hand, the failure to deposit the funds in the 401(k) is deliberate, and the money is going to some other use (like paying the electricity bill), it's a criminal offense for which he could get slapped with a gigantic fine or spend up to five years in the big house.

In any case, you need to put a stop to this before any more time goes by. Contact the nearest office of the federal Pension Welfare Benefits Administration, or the closest U.S. Department of Labor office, and they will get it straightened out. You might want to have a little talk with your boss first, to give him a chance to mend his ways before you call in the feds, but you know him better than I do. Given a warning that you're onto him, how likely is he to skip town?

Dear Annie: I recently took early retirement and I'm considering starting a second career as a stockbroker. I think I'd be at least as good at it as my broker is, since I know a fair amount about the markets and have strong sales skills. But how do I get started? What credentials do I need? --Taurus

Dear Taurus: The brokerage biz is peculiar. Unlike most professions, where you first get the credentials--pass the state bar exam if you're a lawyer, for example--and then seek a job, the way it works here is that you must first get hired by a securities firm, which then sponsors you in getting your bona fides.

So your first step is to persuade a brokerage firm, bank, or insurance company that you have the right stuff (they're all recruiting aspiring brokers these days, in spite of the markets' current gyrations). They'll probably give you some kind of aptitude test to see whether you have the makings of a great salesperson. If you do, they'll send you for the training you need to prepare for the Series 7 licensing exam, administered by the National Association of Securities Dealers. (For a little taste of what the training typically covers and what the exam is like, go to www.stcusa.com, the Website of Securities Training Corp.--the biggest Series 7 training company--and click on "Demo Area.") The test lasts about six hours and asks 250 arcane questions. About 70% of the people who take it pass on the first try. Once you've passed the Series 7, voila--you're a broker. Good luck.

Dear Annie: How do you network to find a new job when your bosses know everyone in the community? I work for a human resources consulting firm in the biotech industry, and for a variety of reasons I'd like to move to an in-house HR position. But if the president and VP of my firm knew I was looking to make this move, I would probably be fired immediately. (About a third of our staff has gotten the ax, for one reason or another, in the past six months or so.) If I want to prevent word of my search from getting back to them, should I ask networking contacts to keep our talks strictly between us, or is it assumed that such chats are confidential, or what? --Mum's the Word

Dear Mum: "We run into this a lot. It's a small industry," says Jim Audet, who is head of West Coast biotech recruiting for headhunters Russell Reynolds (www.russellreynolds.com). "You can certainly stress up front, in any networking conversation, that it's confidential. And some networking avenues are more discreet than others. For instance, you might want to stick to one-on-one meetings with people in their offices, rather than working the room at a trade show. Still, there's really no foolproof way to keep your search a secret."

But cheer up. Audet has three reasons you needn't worry too much. First, "people are always talking to other people--it's natural." And in your business, if anyone questions why you were meeting with so-and-so, you can always intimate that you were angling to bring so-and-so's company on as a client. Second, fearing that you'll get the boot if you're discovered, he says, "may be a little paranoid. Just because your firm fired a bunch of other people recently doesn't mean they want to lose you." And third, if talking to lots of people helps you get the job you really want, then even if someone does blab to your boss, it may just be worth whatever trouble may ensue. "If you're not willing to take a bit of a risk," says Audet, "then any job hunt is going to be tough." Too true.

E-mail: askannie@fortunemail.com Mail: Ask Annie, FORTUNE, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, Room 1559, New York, N.Y. 10020. Please include an after-work phone number. Annie offers additional advice at www.askannie.com.