Posted on 12/09/2016 5:51:06 AM PST by davikkm
You are?
I was asked by my work right after Thanksgiving to travel to Abu Dhabi and stay for December. On the flight over, I was pleasantly surprised that Etihad Airline’s feature Xmas film was “It’s a Wonderful Live”. Watched it a little early this year enjoyed every moment.
There’s a movie called “The Hebrew Hammer” which is quite funny that involves a Jewish PI in a classic 1930’s style detective. Anyway, he’s investigating a conspiracy of Jewish kids being indoctrinated with the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” - An orthodox Jewish blaxploitation hero saves Hanukkah from the clutches of Santa Claus’ evil son.
Reminds me of Enron. A secretary put $50,000 into her “retirement” account and complained that she lost millions. She learned there is no golden parachute. So will the cops and firemen. Though it is sad.
Post a pic - you will see.
I’ll have to check it out, thanks. Sure won’t be seeing that one on Etihad. :)
I’m sure they don’t fly to Israel.
Well played, sir. Well played indeed.
L
PS: It’s in my mix of Holiday movies. Christmas Carol starring Alastair Sim (only he could do it justice) then It’s A Wonderful Life and finally The Hebrew Hammer which in this case Christmas and Hanukkah fall on the same day. Symbolic, yes?
There is an advantage of the pensioner grabbing the money and running.
Take the money, roll it over into a tax free IRA account at the bank. This way, no matter how the company you left does you will have money. The money still builds while you live off that interest. No tax paid on it except on the withdrawal of the interest. You can also leave the account to your heirs when you die.
With a company pension, the checks, like Social Security, cease when you die. It does not mater if you live a year or twenty years, after retirement, the money ceases.
Companies with good pension plans have found they can shaft the employees by converting to a “Cash Balance” pension plan, a highly complicated form of pension in which the employee ends up with less. Several employees I know lost over $100,000 in the plan when the company went to Cash Balance pensions.
The main problem with this is when you get that check in your hot little hands, you are tempted to pay the IRS fees and, with the rest, hit the CHEROKEE CASINOS!
I know several who left the company with lots of moola, and within six months were back begging for their old jobs, any job, back.
The Dallas municipal employee pension is in dire straits, that’s been well publicized. Insiders started a run on it and it spread, whether due to panic or knowledge of just how dire those straits are, I couldn’t say.
I really hate these gold-plated pensions. I came into the workforce just as pensions were beginning to be phased out among the private sector. I have a small one, five years vested, from my first “real” job. I’ve been tempted to do a lump sum withdrawal, not because of any fear but due to having been in something of a rough patch off and on since 2008. I’ve resisted thus far.
Even with the relatively small monthly pension payment forecast, it’s actually surprising how much the lump sum actually is.
**Reminds me of Enron.***
One of my co-workers had family who worked for Enron. He said the their company stock and pension were worth $300,000! ONE YEAR later, it was worth $3000.
TAKE THE LUMP SUM AND RUN while they still have the money on hand!
“And a couple of senators in the meetings calling their wives telling them to get as much cash out of cash machines as they could because the banks may not be opening Monday was also disconcerting.”
All the more reason for people to have a few bucks in cash “for emergencies.” Enough money to gas up the car, drive away from danger, gas up again and get a room for a few days.
The key to this whole thing is that most of our economy is based on credit, which can disappear in a heartbeat. And when it does, the economy collapses to a shadow of it’s “credit based” size. This means massive deflation, at least at first. The reason is simple: Most people have very little cash on hand. And when cash is all that you can use to purchase stuff, well, the law of supply and demand kicks in.
It’s why we make sure we always have a pre-determined amount of cash on hand.
If’n ya’ll likes ya’lls pentions, we’s gawn keeps ‘ems.
Post #9.
My point was some secretary making $65,000 a year and putting 5% into her 401K or stock for 20 years means she put in $65,000. At one time it might have been “worth” $300,000. When it crashed she lost what she had put in - $65,000. She did NOT lose $300,000.
I used to work with a guy who’d say “Well, I lost money today. The stock market went up and I don’t have any stock.”
In 2014 and 2015 the fund lost $370 million on investing activities with a loss of $238 million in 2015 alone. Benefits paid to members for those two years totaled $533 million. The fund hired its first Chief Investment Officer in mid 2015. That individual left after one year and the position remains vacant.
At this rate the future looks bleak. It reminds me of what former Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Jim Hightower once said about family farms: It’s still possible to make a small fortune in family farming provided you start out with a large fortune.
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