Free Republic

Early in your career, start by saving what you can, with the ultimate goal of putting away 15% of your salary. That 15% will put you on track to have the equivalent of your salary saved by 30, which is the milestone retirement-plan provider Fidelity recommends aiming for in order to retire comfortably.And if your employer offers a 401(k) match, try to contribute enough to qualify for the full amount, which is essentially free money.That means if you earn $50,000 a year, you should aim to have $50,000 in retirement savings by the time you are 30. If your annual...

Newly-inaugurated President Biden is likely to take office and push for a flurry of new legislation. Yet while all eyes will be on Biden’s proposals for COVID-19 relief, healthcare policy, and undoing the 2017 tax reform law, two other dangerous ideas are flying under the radar. The first of these is a proposal to implement a so-called “mark-to-market” regime for taxing unrealized capital gains. Currently, taxpayers pay tax only on “realized” capital gains — in other words, when the asset is sold and you bank a profit. Though its on-paper value might fluctuate during ownership, only when an asset like...

Today, U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio (OR-04) introduced the Wall Street Tax Act, legislation to create a new tax on financial transactions that would generate billions in revenue, while reducing speculative trading and volatility in the market. “High-frequency traders front-run the market and drive up prices for individuals, pension funds and other value investors,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio. “Some days high-frequency traders trade billions of shares that they sometimes hold for only seconds or less. They reap enormous financial benefits for themselves and their privileged elite investors but add no value to our economy. Congress needs to rein in excessive speculative...

Fidelity, the largest 401(k) provider in the US, has just released its third-quarter analysis titled "Building Financial Futures" that outlines the number of 401(k) millionaires hit a new high during the pandemic, reported WaPo. Fidelity said client balances of more than one million dollars for 401(k) accounts increased to 262,000, up 17% from the previous quarter. The number of IRA millionaires also increased to 234,000, up 15% in the quarter. Both breached the highs recorded in4Q19 when Fidelity reported 233,000 401(k) millionaires and 208,000 IRA millionaires.Market performance was primarily the reason for increases in 401(k) account balances in 3Q20. Despite...

Moved my 401Ks from Stock Index Funds to Bond Index Funds To Protect From China Joe.

If you own stocks, hope for a come-from-behind win for sitting president Donald J. Trump on Election Day.Or so says the number crunchers at LPL Financial.Since 1950, the S&P 500 has added an average of 9.6% in the year after a president wins re-election. For instance, LPL Financial points to the re-elections of presidents Ronald Regan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as being particularly bullish for equities — stocks after each re-election rose close to 30%.The opposite has tended to happen when someone new enters the Oval Office.LPL Financial data shows the S&P 500 added only 4.8% the following year...

Round about a month ago, I took a closer look at Joe Biden’s retirement-related policy proposals, or, more specifically, those of the “Unity Task Force,” which had just released its final document. One of the items in that document and on the Biden campaign website is a promise to “equalize the network of retirement saving tax breaks” — a proposal that generally translates to eliminating the tax advantages currently enjoyed by retirement savings accounts and replacing them with a “credit” or “match.” The idea is that the tax advantages, or “tax expenditures,” as they’re called, disproportionately accrue to relatively higher...

To equally incentivize savers regardless of what they earn, Biden proposes a credit of approximately 26% to replace the deduction savers get for putting money in a 401(k) plan, according to the Tax Policy Center’s analysis. “The biggest thing that stands out to me, by contrast to other proposals, is that it limits the benefit for the highest earners and gives the benefit to the lowest earners,” said Jeffrey Levine, CPA and director of advanced planning at Buckingham Wealth Partners in Long Island, New York. “It’s a true redistribution of wealth proposal,” he said.

Round about a month ago, I took a closer look at Joe Biden’s retirement-related policy proposals, or, more specifically, those of the “Unity Task Force,” which had just released its final document. One of the items in that document and on the Biden campaign website is a promise to “equalize the network of retirement saving tax breaks” — a proposal that generally translates to eliminating the tax advantages currently enjoyed by retirement savings accounts and replacing them with a “credit” or “match.” The idea is that the tax advantages, or “tax expenditures,” as they’re called, disproportionately accrue to relatively higher...

More people will be eligible to take a $100,000 coronavirus-related distribution from their retirement account. The IRS released guidance on Friday which details new rules for individuals affected by Covid-19 to take a withdrawal from a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account. The CARES Act allows savers to take coronavirus-related distributions – emergency withdrawals – of up to $100,000 from their retirement plans and IRAs. And those who are under age 59½ can access the money without the usual 10% early withdrawal penalty.

If you withdraw money from a traditional IRA or a 401(k) before age 59.5, you not only pay income taxes on the gains but a 10% early withdrawal penalty. This year, Half of Americans took from retirement savings or plan to amid pandemic, survey finds. That number will increase during 2020. The early withdrawal penalty exists to discourage raiding retirement accounts, but this year, tens of millions of people have been thrown out of work due to government-imposed shutdowns. Some of those people need to access any savings they have to pay for necessities. President Trump and congressional Republicans should...

Instead of blaming a significant domestic terrorist takeover of a major city for a stock market collapse Thursday, the pundits and analysts are continuing their three-month-long talking points about COVID-19 to scare the public. They say we are worried about a second surge. The terrorist takeover of Seattle, a city with many large corporate headquarters, is hardly covered at all. That's a far more major reason. The market fell more than 6% overall but Boeing, a huge company with major activities in Seattle, fell 12%. Think there was no connection? Radio/television host Hugh Hewitt asked NBC's puppet Chuck Todd what...

Key Points Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is coming out in favor of boosting Social Security and creating new ways for American workers to save for retirement. The plans mark the latest addition to the former New York City mayor’s campaign platform, and puts him in line with other Democratic candidates who have called for shoring up Social Security benefits and the program’s long-term solvency. Bloomberg’s proposals also aim to help improve retirees’ lives, from giving low-income workers access to government-provided retirement savings plans to helping to ensure seniors get better access to health care and housing. ===================================================================== Mike Bloomberg...

WASHINGTON - As part of a forthcoming package of proposed tax cuts, the White House is considering ways to incentivize U.S. households to invest in the stock market, according to four senior administration officials familiar with the discussions. The proposal, one of many new tax cuts under consideration, would see a portion of household income treated as tax-free for the purposes of investing outside a traditional 401(k). Under one scenario, a household earning up to $200,000 could invest $10,000 tax-free, although officials noted these numbers are fluid. "Nothing's ruled out," said one senior administration official. "Nothing's been ruled in, either."...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy will grow at a “solid” rate of 2.2% this year, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office forecast on Tuesday, but with federal budget deficits hitting $1.015 trillion. While the economy will be on good footing during this presidential election year, CBO also noted that conditions will lead to “higher inflation and interest rates after a decade in which both remained low, on average.” The inflation and interest rate rises will be noticed this year and continue through 2022 before settling down beginning in 2023, under the forecast. In its updated budget and economic outlook spanning the...

President Trump signed the SECURE Act this week (January 8, 2020) as part of the government’s spending bill and it will inevitably affect most retirement savers, for better or worse. The SECURE legislation — which stands for “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement” — puts into place numerous provisions intended to strengthen retirement security across the country. Part of the bill addresses the grim outlook for many workers who don’t have access to workplace retirement accounts. It offers small businesses tax incentives to set up automatic enrollment in retirement plans for its workers, or allows them to join multiple...

I remember seeing a couple of sites/articles on how if one were to pay the same amount into a private retirement fund or annuity investment how much more one would get in return than they would from social security. Can someone help locate such a site/article? Thanks.

[Buttigieg's plan would] • Expand Social Security with “a new special minimum benefit of 125 percent of the federal poverty line for any senior who has worked at least 30 years.” Unpaid caregivers of any “child, elderly, or disabled dependent” would be “awarded credit toward Social Security benefits” as if working for pay—applied in some cases “retroactively by five years.” Mr. Buttigieg doesn’t say what these additions would cost, but Social Security is on track to go broke as it is. The program is expected to pay more in benefits than it raises in taxes next year, and this funding...

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, released Monday a new proposal for a public 401(k) option as a companion to his health care proposals. Buttigieg “is proposing to create a government-run 401(k) plan that would be attached to Social Security,” said Brian Graff, president and CEO of the American Retirement Association in Washington. “Similar to his health insurance proposal, employers with existing defined benefit plans would be able to keep those plans,” Graff explained. “Employers with existing defined contribution plans would be able to keep their plans as long as they met minimum requirements including...

div class="single-post-content post-content drop-cap"> Congratulations! Your retirement planning paid off. You built a $1 million retirement nest egg. But how long will $1 million last in retirement? Retirement Planning To Make Your $1 Million Last Let's say you're 65 years old and earn $115,000 a year. That's a decent annual income, but it's no king's ransom. It's enough to let you sock away good chunks of money each year. But it's not so high that it trips over income limits when it comes to saving in a retirement plan such as a 401(k).The simple arithmetic answer to the how-long-will-it-last retirement...