Free Republic

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...