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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...