Free Republic

This week, I had a piece in the magazine arguing that retirement is trouble. That's a golden oldie for those of you who've been reading a while; my favorite evergreen topic is haranguing my readers to save 15-20% of their income, or fer goshsakes at least 10%, towards retirement. (I mean it guys. You need to save more.) But this piece had an interesting peg: Republic Services, Inc. is in the middle of an epic battle with the Teamsters International over the pension plans that cover their workers. Up until recently, Republic teamsters have been covered by the rather notorious...

Yesterday, I linked Liz Peek’s column from The Fiscal Times pointing out that Barack Obama’s new budget has oddly stringent caps on tax-deferred savings in IRAs and 401Ks. Liz asked why Obama wants to punish savers. Today, Allen Sloan asks in the Washington Post why Obama wants twice as much in retirement benefits than the rest of Americans can build in tax-deferred savings, at least under the budget Obama proposes: For starters, the point at which Obama wants to eliminate the ability of you and your employer to deduct contributions to your retirement account isn’t actually the $3.4 million in his...

How many times have you read financial-advice stories lecturing you to max-out on your IRA, save as much as you can in your 401(k), and even pay taxes now to change your regular IRA into a Roth IRA that will be tax-free until you die? Well, be careful how much you save. That's the message in President Obama's budget for fiscal 2014, which for the first time proposes to cap the amount Americans can save in these tax-sheltered investment vehicles. The White House explanation is that some people have accumulated "substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of...

The National Deficit, along with the lack of demand for Treasury Bonds, leaves the government with no other option!And what you don’t know can hurt you!Goldworth Financial first uncovered the early blueprint of our government’s plot to seize retirement accounts in early 2009. Since that time, we have come up with 10 Basic Questions that people have about this issue: 1. Who’s behind the plot to confiscate retirement accounts?The government takeover of private retirement accounts is a concept first drawn up by Teresa Ghilarducci, who was funded by the White House, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. President Obama’s...

Obama: ‘Prohibit’ Americans from Saving More Than $3M in Retirement Accounts April 11, 2013 By Terence P. Jeffrey Subscribe to Terence P. Jeffrey RSS President Barack Obama (CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama’s proposed budget would simultaneously compel Americans to enroll in a tax-deferred retirement account and “prohibit” them from saving more than $3 million in such accounts. That sum, Obama’s budget argues, is all that is “needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving.” Under current law, American who save money in tax-deferred retirement accounts are taxed on the money in such accounts when they withdraw it--and are charged an...

The federal budget that President Obama will propose today is expected to contain a provision limiting IRA and defined contribution plan accumulations to $3 million. Alternatively, it seeks to accomplish the same goal by imposing a limit based on the cost of purchasing an annuity equivalent to the top benefit allowed for defined benefit plans. Even before the plan was unveiled, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) began analyzing its possible impact. At the same time, the proposal has been blasted as a “plan killer” by Brian Graff, Executive Director and CEO of the American Society of Pension Professionals and...

Don’t put it past our politicians to try it in a financial emergency. The breaking of contracts by the U.S. government, unfortunately, has happened before, and what’s under way in Cyprus shows that feckless politicos will continue to try such things. In 1933–34, amid the depths of the Great Depression, the U.S. government seized the American people’s gold holdings. From that point, until 1975, it was illegal for Americans to own gold, other than in some forms of jewelry or collectors’ coins. In the panic of the Depression years the courts upheld this unconstitutional confiscation. Yes, people received dollars in...

The budget President Barack Obama will submit on April 10 will contain a proposal that would prohibit individuals from accumulating more than $3 million in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and tax-preferred retirement accounts. According to a White House statement, the Obama administration believes the current rules allow some wealthy individuals "to accumulate many millions of dollars in these accounts, substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving." "The budget would limit an individual’s total balance across tax-preferred accounts to an amount sufficient to finance an annuity of not more than $205,000 per year in retirement, or...

When asked if bank account confiscation will be going worldwide, Jim said, ”Well, it’s now in their bag of tricks, but yes, they can do anything they want too now. I for one am worried and I’m taking preparations. Who knows if I’m right or not, but I’d rather be safe than sorry as all of those people who had money in Cyprus have learned. They thought they had a normal bank account…but now it’s been [taken] with the sanctions of many governments and institutions.”

Why is it that every current wirehouse advisor says they’re completely open-architecture, while every former wirehouse advisor says they faced pressure to sell proprietary products?The New York Times ginned up controversy recently with its front-page story, “Selling the Home Brand: A Look Inside an Elite JPMorgan Unit,� which reinforced the view that wirehouses put themselves first and clients second. Now Alicia Munnell (left), director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, picks up the thread.The trouble started with The Times exposé, which detailed how advisors at JPMorgan Chase & Co. were supposedly pressured to sell the bank’s own...

Rule Of Law: Markets tumbled after Cyprus and the EU said they might tax private bank accounts to pay for a bailout. Arbitrary property grabs are a new low and a bad precedent in this crisis. Worse still, it can happen here. As bad as tumbling markets around the world are, they seem to be the only signal strong enough to catch the attention of Europe's otherwise unaccountable bureaucrats who have long since learned to ignore street riots. As stocks fell from Tokyo to New York, Europe's leaders are scrambling to say they had nothing to do with the cause...

Okay, I don't want to get into it too much but I feel I've been doing all I can to prepare for the impending collapse except a safe and effective way to pull out 1/2 my money from my 401K. However, I'm concerned about: A) The penalties and taxes. B) This will kick me up to "millionaire" status if I pull out half. C) I want to put most of that to get my Mortgage down and pay off any other debt and buy some more "tangibles" What is the best way to do this? I've already maxed out on...

There are any number of places on the web referring to a Clinton Administration-era proposal for a "one-time" (yeah, don't get me started, either) tax on 401(k) assets of 15%. There are plenty of them are here at Free Republic. Boortz does it. The list goes on and on. What I cannot find is anything really reference-able on the subject. "Boortz said it" or "xyz on Free Republic said it" really just doesn't cut it. Does anyone here have a real source on this?

A new national study shows that too many of us are cashing out 401(k) accounts to pay bills. If that retirement account is calling your name, a financial expert advises you to stop listening.

The stale old stock pickers’ debate about whether to bet on the right jockey or the right horse might leave out the most important long-term factor for building a diversified portfolio…you just might do better betting on the right track. In other words, and for whatever reasons, it might be true that highest amount of value (best mix of return and risk) might come not from the choice of which CEO is in charge or which sector the company works in, but rather on the policy environment in which the companies are forced to operate. Over time these differences in...

Warning: Stock Market Likely To Crash From Here, 50% Drop! Stock-Markets / Financial CrashFebruary 28, 2013 - 05:37 PM GMT By: Dr Martenson I don't relish the job of constantly pointing out the risks to the equity markets. But since few on Wall Street seem willing (or able) to do this, I'm "making the call" for a market correction, as enough variables have aligned to indicate a high likelihood of stocks heading downwards from here. I've only given one other such warning about equities before, and that was in March of 2008, when I warned of the possibility of a...

Quietly, behind the scenes, the groundwork is being laid for federal government confiscation of tax-deferred retirement accounts such as IRAs. Slowly, the cat is being let out of the bag. Last January 18th, in a little noticed interview of Richard Cordray, acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Bloomberg reported "[t]he U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [CFPB] is weighing whether it should take on a role in helping Americans manage the $19.4 trillion they have put into retirement savings, a move that would be the agency's first foray into consumer investments." That thought generates some skepticism, as aptly expressed...

A recent Bloomberg article stated this: _______________________ The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is weighing whether it should take on a role in helping Americans manage the $19.4 trillion they have put into retirement savings, a move that would be the agency’s first foray into consumer investments. “That’s one of the things we’ve been exploring and are interested in in terms of whether and what authority we have,” bureau director Richard Cordray said in an interview. He didn’t provide additional details. The bureau’s core concern is that many Americans, notably those from the retiring Baby Boom generation, may fall prey...

Via Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, [ZH: We have discussed this threat over the past several years (must read).] The obvious concept is that when the government runs out of money, or they face a drying up in interest for its debt, they will come for the $19.4 trillion in American’s retirement accounts. It seems that day may be finally drawing near. I stopped contributing to my 401k back when I worked at Bernstein, and I will probably now have to give more serious consideration whether I want to take the penalty and move the funds out of my...

Today the twin fake memes of a "Fiscal Cliff" and "Austerity" are combining to create a contrived excuse to tax and steal far more of your wealth and income, including your retirement benefits. The press is filled with articles and editorials like one recently at CNBC entitled "Amid Tax Talks, a cry of 'Save My 401(k)'." Many retirement, offshore and political experts including Jeff Berwick, Larry Grossman and others are now warning how government revenue needs and austerity measures by the Obama Administration today threaten the private retirement system and benefits of millions of successful Americans. Back on January 28,...

CNN) -- IBM, one of America's largest companies, shook the employee compensation world when it announced recently that it would contribute only once every December to its employees' 401(k) accounts. Any employee who leaves before December would not be able to collect the company's match. Workers at IBM aren't marching to the picket line like Walmart workers and longshoreman who protest pay and working conditions, but you just never know. Only about 9% of the nation's employers make matches once a year. IBM's move is paving the way for big companies to go down this road.

What is going to happen to our 401 (k) accounts and IRA’s after January 1? Will the retirement accounts which many Americans have sacrificed so much to accumulate be rolled over into federally issued and guaranteed bonds in order to prop up notoriously under-funded, union pension funds across the country? Getting an answer will prove to be daunting, especially as media attention seems focused on little but the impending “fiscal cliff.” Listening to a poignant, impromptu speech given by Linda from St. Lucie County during the Allen West recount makes clear just how hard she worked to raise three daughters...

DETAILS: THE PLAN TO STEAL YOUR 401(k)November 29, 2012 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: We have a couple of sound bites from the New School professor of economics, the New School for Social Research professor of economics Teresa Ghilarducci, who explains the theft -- uh, the purchase -- of your 401(k) by the government. TIME Magazine now has a big story out saying that this must happen. It must have to happen to save us all. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: By the way, TIME Magazine is not the only one floating this idea for the regime to claim your 401(k). And coming...

Many Americans didn't bother to vote in the past presidential election, some out of apathy or a belief that the election would hardly affect them. They are in for a rude awakening now that Obama has won re-election. His Santa Claus false promises are unsustainable, so there are going to be few winners and a lot of losers as he redistributes wealth. Obama ran on a platform of making the rich “pay their fair share of taxes,” but raising taxes on the wealthy will only fund the federal government for eight days a year. In order to even partially keep...

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Suddenly within 24 hours three articles appeared in the NYT, Atlantic Monthly, and Time discussing a Danish "study" about the tax breaks for the 401K plan. Naturally they all discussed whether the government should abolish the tax break for them. What was it they said about never wasting a crisis?

One of the earliest fears about tax-favored savings accounts like IRAs and 401(k) plans was that when this pool of savings grew large enough Congress would not be able to resist tapping it to help solve the nation’s debt problems. We’re about to find out if those fears—persistent for decades—have been justified. Everything including the sacred mortgage deduction is on the table as lawmakers wrestle with the fiscal cliff, a year-end avalanche of scheduled spending cuts and tax increases. With a combined $10 trillion sitting in IRAs and 401(k) plans, retirement accounts make a juicy target. Some of this money...

NEW YORK – Two years ago, as WND reported, the Obama administration was proceeding with a novel way to finance trillion-dollar budget deficits by forcing IRA and 401(k) holders to buy Treasury bonds by mandating the placement of government-structured annuities in their retirement accounts. Remarkably, those financial professionals specializing in private retirement savings and the U.S. citizens investing in private retirement plans now face the possibility the Obama administration and its allies on the political left will impose rules and regulations that effectively abolish the private retirement savings and investment markets. Recent evidence suggests government officials continue to eye the...

<p>As the debate around tax reform grows more heated, broker-dealers and other companies that service retirement plans offered by employers are increasingly concerned that the tax benefits of 401(k) plans are on the chopping block.</p> <p>An industry group that normally works behind the scenes, the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries, on Monday launched a media campaign intended to educate U.S. employers and workers that the federal government might consider changing the tax benefits of retirement savings accounts.</p>

A recent hearing sponsored by the Treasury and Labor Departments marked the beginning of the Obama Administration’s effort to nationalize the nation’s pension system and to eliminate private retirement accounts including IRA’s and 401k plans, NSC is warning. The hearing, held in the Labor Department’s main auditorium, was monitored by NSC staff and featured a line up of left-wing activists including one representative of the AFL-CIO who advocated for more government regulation over private retirement accounts and even the establishment of government-sponsored annuities that would take the place of 401k plans. “This hearing was set up to explore why Americans...

The Squeeze: An Economic Theory Premise of the book: A western country is running low on funds to keep their economy, with its soon-to-be totally dependent peoples, rolling along. Ruling from the shadows is an evil governing body, let's call them, hmmmm..."The Squeezers," that come up with what they believe to be a brilliant plan. The Plan: They make a law so impossible to follow and difficult to understand that it is always open to interpretation, totally fluid. The Care Institutions are forced to follow the law and in doing so the Squeezed who have been saving, working and watching...

Government Sets Its Sights on Private Retirement Accounts: “Giant Effort to Redistribute the Wealth of America’s Older Citizens” Mac Slavo November 20th, 2012 A new effort by the Obama administration, Congress, the Treasury Department and labor unions aims to fundamentally alter how Americans plan and save for retirement. Warnings have been popping up over the last several years about the possibility of re-appropriating the $3.5 Trillion sitting in private retirement and spreading those funds around to Americans who are deemed less fortunate. This couldn’t possibly happen in America, right? At one time, most Americans also believed heath care mandates that...

Americans hold about $17.9 trillion in retirement assets. These are found in the form of 401(k)s, individual retirement accounts and pension funds.That money is not your own. If it were, you would be able to access it without penalty. But that is not the case. Taxes and onerous fees are tacked on if you take the money when you need it as opposed to when your “benevolent” government masters believe you should have it.Congress established retirement programs like IRAs and 401(k)s in order to prop up the stock markets for the big banksters and make themselves look good. Americans have...

It may be time to take the tax hit and withdraw funds from private retirement accounts before they are forced into long term T-bonds. The Obama administration is reportedly quickly moving on plans to nationalize private 401k and IRA retirement accounts, and replace them with government sponsored annuities(aka Treasury bonds that the Treasury currently can’t sell to anyone but the Fed). National Seniors Council Director Robert Crone warns: “This whole issue is moving forward very quickly. Already there is a bill requiring all businesses to automatically enroll their employees in IRA plans in which part of every employee’s paycheck would...

A recent hearing sponsored by the Treasury and Labor Departments marked the beginning of the Obama Administration’s effort to nationalize the nation’s pension system and to eliminate private retirement accounts including IRA’s and 401k plans, NSC is warning. The hearing, held in the Labor Department’s main auditorium, was monitored by NSC staff and featured a line up of left-wing activists including one representative of the AFL-CIO who advocated for more government regulation over private retirement accounts and even the establishment of government-sponsored annuities that would take the place of 401k plans. "This hearing was set up to explore why Americans...

"Let it crash!" "Give them what they want and they'll see what happens!" "Surely, once the left's programs are implemented and the economy crashes, people will come to their senses." Since the election, many on the right have echoed this meme. They are convinced that widespread poverty and lack of opportunity will bring a resurgence of the America many of them knew growing up. Grandma and Grandpa's America. Perhaps these people forget that Roosevelt was re-elected three times during a depression that he helped prolong -- a depression that featured soup lines and starvation in a population that actually wanted...

So I have a modest nest egg in my 401(k). It's in growth stocks, and I've had almost 13% rate of return this year. I've pretty much made up all I lost in the last big crash. I'm concerned that if Obama is reelected, or if the election is undecided for weeks or months, that the market may tank. If the former, the downturn would likely be somewhat permanent. I can transfer funds between investment types with no fees and do it online. If I did it today, I believe the funds would be transferred by tomorrow. Was thinking of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkTxVqqf25A&feature=g-vrec

It's been a third of a century since benefits consultant Ted Benna helped bring attention to a new but obscure provision of the federal tax code known as 401(k), which was meant to provide a tax break for folks with deferred income. As co-owner of the Johnson Cos., Benna was redesigning the retirement program for Philadelphia-based Cheltenham National Bank when he realized that the provision allowed employers to use salary deductions as tax-deferred contributions to employee retirement plans. To be sure, Benna was not the only one looking at the possibilities afforded by the 401(k). Among other firms, healthcare-products giant...

401k Withdrawal Petition Template Posted by Ann Barnhardt - August 23, AD 2012 7:22 PM MST This was drafted and sent in by a reader, and I think it is a great template for anyone who wants to petition their employer to let them out of their 401k. I would recommend sending it via certified mail - let them know you're dead serious, and try to get as many of your co-workers to do the same as you possibly can. *****MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOU REPLACE THE BRACKETED AREAS WITH INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOU AND YOUR COMPANY. FAILURE TO DO THIS...

In this video I give you a rundown of a portfolio that I think will hold up in any adverse market collapse. The premise boils down to 3 major equity/asset categories: 1)Energy %25 2)Precious Metals %25 3)Defensive (ie Walmart, JNJ, McD,etc) %50 This is a simple, straight-forward approach to protect your capital and wealth in this tulmultuous time. Part 1: Just a recap, here are the companies I give a green thumb to: Energy: 25% of Portfolio 1) Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) 5.5% yield 2) Calumet (CLMT) 10% yield 3) Uranium Participation Corp (URPTF) 0% yield or Cameco Corp (CCJ)...

America is heading into a retirement crisis, an economist says. Most retirees haven't saved enough money to retire and Teresa Ghilarducci blames America's entire system for retiring. It’s been 30 years since the Individual Retirement Account model became the standard way for Americans to save for retirement. But many people who saved for three decades watched a lot of that money disappear during the financial crisis. And now, more than half of American workers have saved less than $25,000 for their golden years, and about 30 percent have saved less than a thousand dollars. Overall, the system is failing, says...

The NFA is collusion with the Banksters, government and judiciary have achieved their goal. The entire concept of "customer segregated funds" is officially, completely, legally dead. Guys, it is OVER. I know that many of you are still cowering in normalcy bias, unable to deal with reality, unable to face the world as it is, but you have GOT to snap out of it. The marketplace is DESTROYED. You CANNOT be in these markets. All legal protections are now officially gone. Do you remember how I told you about the Ponzi scheme that imploded in 2007 called "Sentinel Management Group"...

Two years ago, in January 2010, Zero Hedge wrote "This Is The Government: Your Legal Right To Redeem Your Money Market Account Has Been Denied" which became one of our most read stories of the year. The reason? Perhaps something to do with an implicit attempt at capital controls by the government on one of the primary forms of cash aggregation available: $2.7 trillion in US money market funds. The proximal catalyst back then were new proposed regulations seeking to pull one of these three core pillars (these being no volatility, instantaneous liquidity, and redeemability) from the foundation of the...

Here is some good news from the Center for Disease Control: by 2050, life expectancy in the U.S. will be 87.5 years.  Or at least we thought this was good news. According to a Northwestern Mutual study, it turns out that only 56 percent of American are financially prepared to live to age 75, and even fewer are prepared to live to 85 or 95. Women are expected to live even longer than men but they're even more in danger of outliving their finances. In fact, only 45 percent of those surveyed have any plan regarding their financial life, down from...

Duplicity: More than 30 years ago, lawmakers made a deal with Americans: Set up a retirement nest egg and we'll let you fill it with tax-free money. A financially troubled Washington now plans to break its word. Nothing brought ordinary Americans into the world of investing like 401(k)s. Named after a subsection of the Internal Revenue Code, these retirement savings accounts have become a wildly popular alternative to traditional employer pensions, and are today owned by a sizeable majority of Americans at or near retirement. Through 401(k)s, an employee — not the company he or she works for — decides...

Per Stuart Varney, the "Government" is considering ways to tax some or all of your 401K to raise approximately $462M. This would be a new tax on top of whatever taxes you would already owe. Interesting.

Uncle Sam, in a desperate attempt to fix its $16 trillion-plus deficit, is leering over Americans’ retirement nest egg as its new bailout fund. Capitol Hill politicians are assessing tax changes that could let the Internal Revenue Service lay claim to a portion of the $18 trillion sitting in 401(k) accounts and other tax breaks used by middle-class workers, including cutting the mortgage tax deduction. A commission looking for ways to close the deficit, and, noting the extent of 401(k) tax breaks, recommends an examination of the system as one way to prevent government bankruptcy. Besides 401(k)s, other possibilities include...

Uncle Sam, in a desperate attempt to fix its $16 trillion-plus deficit, is leering over Americans’ retirement nest egg as its new bailout fund. Capitol Hill politicians are assessing tax changes that could let the Internal Revenue Service lay claim to a portion of the $18 trillion sitting in 401(k) accounts and other tax breaks used by middle-class workers, including cutting the mortgage tax deduction.

As growing numbers of baby boomers face retirement with inadequate savings, some state officials are considering a novel proposal to rebuild America’s ailing retirement system — having state pension funds run retirement plans for companies. Because more companies are ditching their own pension plans or not offering retirement benefits at all, the idea would be to give companies a way to offer a firm pension without having to run the plan themselves. On Monday, the labor economist Teresa Ghilarducci, who developed the proposal, held a public forum at the New School for Social Research with New York City’s comptroller, John...