Free Republic

Fewer than half of blacks and Latino workers have retirement plans on the job, leaving the vast majority of them with no savings designated for their golden years, according to a report to be released Tuesday. Americans of all races face the growing prospect of downward mobility in retirement, the report said, but the problem is particularly acute for blacks and Hispanics. More often than not, blacks and Latinos benefit little from the tax breaks and other policy initiatives aimed at bolstering retirement security because they typically have no money to save for retirement in IRAs and other vehicles outside...

In his first term, Obama managed to get his paws on health care, banking, energy, student loans, the auto business, and more. Now he has his sights set on your 401(k). The left has had its eye on retirement savings for years, but so far takeover attempts have been rebuffed. One egregious attempt was the proposal, following the 2010 financial crisis, to "safeguard" retirement savings by requiring that they be rolled over into Treasury bonds. Had this legislation succeeded, it would have appropriated all or part of the retirement savings of millions of Americans. The funds would have been used...

DETROIT — Detroit is eligible to shed billions in debt in the largest public bankruptcy ever in the United States, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, while also finding that the public pensions could be reduced during reorganization despite a provision in Michigan’s Constitution. In ruling that Detroit was eligible to reorganize under federal bankruptcy law, Judge Steven W. Rhodes said the city met every test of insolvency, including failing to pay its debts and being unable to provide a minimum level of basic services to its 680,000 residents. “This once proud and prosperous city can’t pay its debts,” the judge...

LOS ANGELES — After 20 years in the US military, James Cummiskey was divorced and looking for a change. Relenting to his buddy's request, he flew to Medellín, Colombia, for a visit. He looked, he saw, and, by dinner time, he decided to stay. Permanently. "After four to five hours, I was immediately captured by everything I saw," says the ex-marine, who has lived in 35 countries. He spent the next four months selling two homes, three vehicles, two motorcycles, and one airplane. He put the money aside and decided to retire early. Now he lives in a posh section...

The cruise-line industry is a rough business. Every time a passenger ship leaves port with a guest cabin unoccupied, that's money the cruise operators are never going to see. Last week Micky Arison, the longtime chief executive of Carnival Corp., announced that he will be stepping down; revenues at the world's largest cruise-ship line have been falling. Arison will remain as chairman of the firm, but a new CEO will step in. Cruise companies have always had to contend with uncertainties in the economy, which sometimes make travelers cautious about planning leisure trips, and Carnival has faced widespread unpleasant publicity...

Seniors who went back to work after retirement used to do it to keep busy, but the Obama Recession and the uncertainties of the Affordable Care Act have made it an economic necessity for more and more older Americans, according to Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens. “Two recent Gallup surveys show that there are more post-retirement job seekers out there than ever before, mainly because they’ve lost confidence in the economy. The historically destructive recession that started as the president took office and his inability to speed up the recovery have seniors scrambling for ways...

This is the Weekly Investment & Finance Thread (Oct 28 - Nov. 1 edition)----  Trying to focus on the markets for today and each day and the economic news This is where you can exchange some investment opinions and advice; if you see another FR economic thread you like and want to link to it here, please post your favorite economic site links. Your favorite economic blogs and precious metals blogs and sites. Ping list -- on or off let me know here or via freep-mail. If I missed you then Freep-mail me I might ping you to other interesting...

For retirees, it can mean owing tens of thousands of dollars. And with little warning, their pension checks are being slashed to cover their debt. In April 2011, New Jersey resident Carol Montague received a letter from American Water Works Co.'s pension plan saying it had overpaid her for more than five years and wanted its money back -- plus interest. Montague, now 67, was told she owed roughly $45,000.

A majority of Americans with 401(k)-type savings accounts are accumulating debt faster than they are setting aside money for retirement, further undermining the nation’s troubled system for old-age saving, a new report has found. Three in five workers with defined contribution accounts are “debt savers,” according to the report released Thursday, meaning their increasing mortgages, credit card balances and installment loans are outpacing the amount of money they are able to save for retirement.

As bankruptcy hearings continue in Detroit to determine the legality of the city’s historic Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing in July, state workers are hoping to get some clarity on the future of their pension benefits. While bankruptcy and union lawyers continue to battle it out, the city has already announced significant changes to its retiree health benefits program. Effective Jan.1, retired city workers under age 65 will no longer receive full coverage from the state and will instead receive a $125 stipend to shop in Michigan’s health-care exchange under the newly-rolled out Affordable Care Act. Retired city workers already eligible...

This is the Weekly Investment & Finance Thread (Oct 14 - Oct. 18 edition)----  Trying to focus on the markets for today and each day and the economic news   This is where you can exchange some investment opinions and advice If you see another FR economic thread you like and want to link to it here, please doPost your favorite economic site links. Your favorite economic blogs and precious metals blogs and sitesPing list -- on or off let me know here or via freep-mail. If I missed you then Freep-mail me I might ping you to other interesting economic...

The former senior EPA adviser who stole $900,000 from taxpayers while posing as a CIA agent pleaded the Fifth on Tuesday morning — shortly before House members expressed outrage upon learning that he’s still due to get his government pension. John C. Beale invoked his right not to incriminate himself when facing questioning from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, just four days after he pleaded guilty to charges that could bring him three years in prison.“Mr. Beale, do you have a statement?” panel Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) asked during the hearing. “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No I do...

Tom Palome, 77, was once a top marketing executive earning six figures and traveling first class He worked hard to pay off his mortgage and put his kids through college, but like most Americans didn’t save enough Now retired, he works two $10 an hour jobs to supplement his income Palome receives $1,200 from Social Security and a $600 a month pension from his last corporate job. Still, his $1,400 in monthly wages allows him to bolster his savings and provides for some extras. He goes to the theater, pays for plane tickets to visit his children and grandsons and...

Embattled IRS official Lois Lerner is retiring from the agency effective Monday, two congressional aides told POLITICO. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/lois-lerner-retires-irs-97217.html#ixzz2fkIfmJUs Lerner sparked the IRS scandal in May when she acknowledged that the agency wrongly targeted tea party groups applying for a tax exemption. She was placed on administrative leave later that month and is under a subpoena to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

This is the Weekly Investment & Finance Thread (Sept.-23-27 edition)----  Trying to focus on the markets for today and each day and the economic news  This is where you can exchange some investment opinions and advice If you see another FR economic thread you like and want to link to it here, please doPost your favorite economic site links. Your favorite economic blogs and precious metals blogs and sitesPing list -- on or off let me know here or via freep-mail. If I missed you then Freep-mail me I might ping you to other interesting economic threads a few times a...

Americans who dream of a retirement filled with sandy beaches, temperate weather and colorful local life may have another thing coming. That's because a new report from the National Institute on Retirement Security finds that 45 percent of working-age households have no retirement savings at all. The average figure for funds set aside by households nearing the end of their working lives was a meager $12,000. That's not enough to cover a single year. If there is no change in their savings rate, many Americans may wind up living on monthly Social Security benefits alone. Monthly benefits now average just...

I was on the reunion committee for my 50-year high school class reunion a few years back. As we tried to track down classmates, we discovered that many—including a few I had known quite well—had died from lung cancer. These folks would light up a cigarette, joke about cancer sticks, cough, and make fun of their addiction. They ignored their symptoms and the constant warnings from their families and doctors, and they suffered the ugly consequences. Former US Comptroller General David Walker appeared on 60 Minutes back in July 2007. His message? Our country is suffering from a fiscal cancer...

Quietly, as the looming possibility of a U.S. military attack on Syria dominated news internationally, the government of Poland announced a decision to confiscate half of the nation’s pension funds in an attempt to delay an impending government debt crisis. While details remain hazy, Reuters reported Sept. 4 that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a government decision to transfer to ZUS, the government pension system, all bond investments in privately owned pension funds within the state-guaranteed system. For now, private pensions in Poland will be allowed to keep equity investments that in the Polish state-guaranteed pension system tend to...

International Business Machines Corp. plans to move about 110,000 retirees off its company-sponsored health plan and instead give them a payment to buy coverage on a health-insurance exchange, in a sign that even big, well-capitalized employers aren't likely to keep providing the once-common benefits as medical costs continue to rise. The move, which will affect all IBM retirees once they become eligible for Medicare, will relieve the technology company of the responsibility of managing retirement health-care benefits. IBM said the growing cost of care makes its current plan unsustainable without big premium increases. IBM's shift is an indication that health-insurance...

Many of us still active in the profession have not hung up the sweaty gloves to dry these continue to soak in the sweat from our daily grind. For many, it is the need to still build up further the security blanket (assuming things have gone as far as building up the security blanket to start with); for others, it is still the sheer joy of working at a profession that you have grown to love. As they say, if you find pure enjoyment in what you do, it isn’t work at all. It is the latter that makes working...