Free Republic

AOL Inc. blamed President Barack Obama’s health-care law for its plan to reduce its spending on contributions to employees’ 401(k) retirement plans. AOL, owner of websites such as the Huffington Post, will still match employee contributions to retirement plans up to 3 percent of their paychecks, Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong said. Under the new policy, it will make the matching payments in a lump sum at the end of the year, forcing employees who leave before then to forfeit the benefit, he said in an interview today on CNBC. “Obamacare is an additional $7.1 million expense for us as...

**SNIP** The biggest change will be a new emphasis on retirement readiness, rather than simply getting workers to join a plan and contribute. The idea is to focus on actual retirement outcomes, and it reflects apprehension about the large number of Americans who are approaching retirement unprepared. If that's something you're worried about, it turns out your boss shares your concern. The 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) found that just 13 percent of workers are very confident they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement. And a 401k benchmarking survey released last...

A conservative Southern California group has launched a public pension database that includes retirees’ names, their annual pension payments, years of service, last employer and year of retirement. ---SNIP-- A center press release announcing the database notes that nearly 100 former government employees received a quarter-million dollars or more in annual pension payments in 2012, that more than 1,700 CalPERS pensioners received at least $150,000 from the fund and that California’s two university systems paid 27,115 retired public employees pensions of $100,000 or more. “It’s indefensible,” Bucher said.

Last week in his State of the Union address, the President of the United States laid the groundwork for a new government program he calls “MyRA”. As he explained to the American people, this program will allow US taxpayers the ability to loan their retirement savings to the federal government (which, according to POTUS, carries ZERO risk). Given that US Treasury yields fall far below the rate of inflation, this is a big win for the government, and a big loser for the poor suckers who loan them the money. The President then hit the road, touting his one-of-a-kind program....

Simply put, the new myRA program put forward by Obama is at best a sucker's deal… or worse, it's a first step toward the nationalization of private retirement savings. (Note: If you haven't yet heard of myRA, I'd strongly suggest you read this excellent overview by my colleague Dan Steinhart.)Even before the new myRA program was announced, there had been whispers about the need for the US government to assume some risk for US retirement accounts. That's code for forced conversion of private retirement assets into government bonds.With foreigners not buying as many Treasuries and the Fed tapering, the US...

The president’s annual state of the union address is another example of how dysfunctional our government in Washington has become. Article 2, section 3 of the US Constitution says that the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union….” The president is the chief executive of our government. As chief executive, it makes sense that he report periodically about the state of affairs to the body responsible for passing laws, the Congress, so they have a sense of what needs to be done. If handled correctly, the State of the Union...

Real life isn’t always a “Field of Dreams,” where “if you build it, they will come.” Instead, there are times when you build it, and they go “Ho-hum,” and mostly ignore you. So while any effort to encourage increased retirement savings among workers deserves to be applauded — arguing against increased savings is like disputing the value of parenthood and apple pie — it’s hard to see President Obama’s myRA program achieving most of its goals, because once you get past what he described during the State of the Union address, it appears to be a lot of wishful thinking....

I spend a lot of time browsing FR, and have noticed a lot of FReepers have a lot of knowledge/opinions pertaining to finances. There also appears to be a good number of Freepers who are about retirement age with a good conservative viewpoint. Taking into consideration current events and the steady devaluation of the dollar, my question to the experienced Freepers out there is this: Let's say you're 25, are debt free, make no car payments, earn O-2 pay and are unmarried. You don't have any retirement accounts but are apprehensive of starting an IRA or contributing to a Thrift...

With California facing a massive teacher pension shortfall, Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, D-Los Angeles, unveiled an effort Wednesday he hopes would fully fund the system. An influx of revenue has allowed California to emerge from years of yawning deficits and protracted budget fights, and the pressure is mounting for the state to do something about an avalanche of liabilities that runs into the hundreds of billions.

RUSH: Well, now, that's fascinating you mention that, because that's the next item up in my Stack of Stuff and I talked about this weeks ago, maybe even months ago when Tom "Dung Heap" Harken proposed this. Now, before you condition Alicia, let me refer to what she's talking about. It's Mark Hemingway in the Washington Examiner: " Will the government outlaw your 401(k) plan? It seems like an absurd possibility, yet earlier this month two Democratic senators, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., held a hearing on Capitol Hill exploring the possibility of doing exactly that....

January 30, 2014 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Proposed legislation from Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) would expand access to privately run, portable retirement plans for all workers. Harkin, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, began scouting the idea of an auto-enrolled plan for all workers in 2012 to address the country’s growing retirement crisis "The plan would be shaped as a lifetime stream of income,” Harkin said in a press conference. Unlike 401(k) plans, there would be no lump sums and no borrowing. The assets would be annuitized at retirement age.

You didn't think the US could at first slowly, and then all of a sudden, expropriate retirement accounts and invest them in the "no risk, guaranteed return" MyRA Ponzi scheme introduced by Obama during the State of the Union address without lots of behavior-modifying indoctrination in the "friendly press" first now did you? Sure enough, here is the first major propaganda salvo, coming from none other than the US Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, which will be published tomorrow across the McClatchy media empire. * * * Just out from the US Treasury Department, "In an op-ed to be published in...

".......... After the tour and speech, he signed an executive order directing Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew to establish the savings bonds. Named and modeled after existing Individual Retirement Accounts or IRAs, the bonds offer tax benefits that regular savings accounts do not, don't lose value and can be withdrawn tax-free any time. “It's safe. These balances will never go down in value,” Obama said. Lew, whose agency will set up the bonds, accompanied the president, whose directive is one in a series of executive orders Obama said he's using to circumvent a divided Congress that's on pace to be the...

President Obama on Tuesday offered up a new kind of "starter" retirement accounts aimed at employees of companies that don't offer such plans. Obama is calling them the "MyRA" and said he would, by executive order, direct the Treasury Department to create them. Details were scarce Tuesday night, but employees will be able to contribute part of their wages to the savings accounts, which would be backed by the U.S. government.

WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The Obama administration is scheduled on Wednesday to launch a retirement savings vehicle called "myRA," aimed at enrolling more Americans in a government-backed investment option. In details provided by the White House on Wednesday, the retirement savings proposal would be similar to a Roth Individual Retirement Account, but with holdings backed by the U.S. government like savings bonds. "MyRA guarantees a decent return with no risk of losing what you put in," President Barack Obama said in introducing the program on Tuesday night in his State of the Union Speech.

Earlier today we hinted at what was coming in "Obama To Unveil Treasury IRAs." Well, here it is, and it even has a catchy name. Presenting: the MyRA, and since it offers "guaranteed return and no risk" we now know where all the Fed's bond trades will go to work once QE ends. From the president: Let’s do more to help Americans save for retirement. Today, most workers don’t have a pension. A Social Security check often isn’t enough on its own. And while the stock market has doubled over the last five years, that doesn’t help folks who don’t...

Cancer-stricken Sen. Tom Coburn revealed Tuesday that his health insurance under Obamacare doesn’t cover his oncologist, but said he still is receiving excellent care. “I’m doing well from a health standpoint, got great docs,” Coburn said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday when asked about his health. “Fortunately — even though my new coverage won’t cover my specialist — I’m going to have great care and I have a great prognosis.” The Oklahoma Republican’s spokesman confirmed to POLITICO that since the senator enrolled in his health insurance plan under Obamacare, his coverage has been reduced and he lost coverage for...

Struggling to generate second-term momentum, President Obama will use Tuesday’s State of the Union address to announce new executive actions on job training and retirement security, while prodding a divided Congress to work harder on expanding economic mobility for middle class Americans

(RNS) Tony Campolo, a progressive evangelical leader who counseled President Bill Clinton through the Monica Lewinsky scandal, announced Tuesday (Jan. 14) that the organization he founded nearly 40 years ago will close on June 30. Campolo, 78, plans to retire with the closure of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, but he will continue to write and speak, with nearly 200 engagements scheduled for 2014. He said his health is fine and he wants to write one more book on how Christianity fits with the social sciences.

. It might seem fun to move to a new place in retirement that has nice weather, more leisure activities or a significantly lower cost of living. But there are also many drawbacks of moving away from your friends, family and support system. Most people don't relocate in retirement, and those who do tend to move only very short distances. Just 6 percent of those age 60 and older changed residences between 2008 and 2012, and more than half of the people who traded places stayed within the same county, according to Census Bureau data. Here's why you may not...