Free Republic

According to financial research firm ICI, total retirement assets in the Land of the Free now exceed $23 trillion. $7.3 trillion of that is held in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). That’s an appetizing figure, especially for a government that just passed $19 trillion in debt and is in pressing need of new funding sources. Even when you account for all federal assets (like national parks and aircraft carriers), the government’s "net financial position" according to its own accounting is negative $17.7 trillion. And that number doesn’t include unfunded Social Security entitlements, which the government estimates is another $42 trillion. The...

U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) announced late Saturday he will not seek re-election. The former roofing contractor from Neenah issued a statement saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Tuesday, the White House unveiled a plan to overhaul retirement savings that is eerily similar to ObamaCare in at least three fundamental ways. Introduced as a “Fact Sheet” on WhiteHouse.gov, Pres. Obama’s plan to revamp retirement savings mimics his controversial healthcare law: Individual participation is required, not optional, There’s an employer mandate, State-run marketplaces are created The employer mandate would require employers to “automatically enroll their workers in an IRA” – with, or without, their consent – making employee participation compulsory:

Only weeks after the White House made headlines with a directive urging prosecutors to get tougher on corporate crime, the Obama administration has moved to protect a convicted financial firm from punishment. The bank, Credit Suisse, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to President Barack Obama’s political campaigns. It also employs the Podesta Group, a lobbying firm with family connections to the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. In 2014, Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to criminal charges for operating “an illegal cross-border banking business that knowingly and willfully aided and assisted thousands of U.S. clients in opening and...

Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) says the demands of fundraising helped drive him to retirement, and he is pushing for campaign finance reform. Israel, a prominent House Democrat who once headed up the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, announced earlier this month that he will not run for reelection. ...

Preposterous. They’re nothing alike. Sanders is an unorthodox Democrat who supports universal health care and trade protectionism but also tighter borders and stronger gun rights than most liberals do. Trump, on the other hand, is … wait a sec. Hmmm. Where was I going with this again? The strangest thing: I've met a number of Trump rally attendees who say their top two are Trump and Sanders. Seriously. Or in reverse.— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) December 28, 2015 We’re in a weird place when Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz are both competing to be the second choice of another guy’s base,...

Retiring abroad may sound idyllic. But those who fall short on financial planning can pay a big price. For the 380,000 retirees who live abroad, according to the Social Security Administration—up from 307,000 in 2008—the potential missteps are numerous. Amid a U.S. crackdown on money laundering, tax evasion and non-compliance with tax-reporting obligations, some expats are being cut off by their banks and brokerage firms. Others are running afoul of the Internal Revenue Service. Many are discovering that tax treaties don't always fully protect them from double taxation. "People rarely understand the complexity of cross-border moves," says Jonathan Lachowitz, founder...

Tony James and Teresa Ghilarducci are unlikely allies. He is president of Blackstone, the giant private equity firm; she’s a labor economist who has long advocated replacing 401(k)’s with a universal, federally managed saving plan.But the two have teamed up to push what they are calling Guaranteed Retirement Accounts, a government-sponsored plan that would require participation and contributions from any employer without its own 401(k). They both view the 401(k) defined contribution retirement system as a faulty experiment that covers too few workers, generates inadequate savings and replaces too little income in retirement.

BERLIN—As his convoy sliced lights flashing through the busy streets of Berlin on a recent morning, Gen. Martin Dempsey could see a good part of his own career. He could see through the tinted windows of his limousine the bombed out ruins of the World War II-era Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, and the Brandenburg Gate where the Iron Curtain once placed Germany on the front lines of the Cold War—and where as a young Army lieutenant Dempsey helped guard the border against massed Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces. Soon the convoy would arrive at the German Ministry of Defense where...

Only a small percentage of Americans are positioning themselves for a smooth transition to retirement. Based on the composition of the financial media, one may imagine that the bulk of American households are consumed with avoiding psychological investing traps and choosing between the various forms of smart beta. Unfortunately, however, these “challenges” are only applicable to a small segment of the population that has meaningful financial assets (or a realistic plan to acquire them). Below are eight statistics that better illustrate the status of American retirement savings, pulled from multiple recent studies.33.7: Percentage of U.S. Households with an IRA According...

The secretive head of the agency’s National Clandestine Service is retiring amid reports of infighting over a reorganization of the intelligence service. The director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, the storied home of the agency’s most secretive intelligence operations, has announced that he plans to retire, The Daily Beast has learned. CIA spokesman Dean Boyd confirmed that the director announced his retirement “after a long and distinguished career at CIA. We thank him for this profound and lasting contributions to both CIA and to our nation’s security.”

Hello, FReepers! Hubs is getting ready to retire from the military and we're having some trouble getting straight answers on the TriCare Prime for retirees situation. Specifically, the family coverage. (I need it) Cost is the big one. I'm seeing everything from $555 a year to more than $960 a month. It's very frustrating because we're trying to figure out our post-retirement budget.

By now, Illinois' budget problems are no secret. Back in May, after the State Supreme Court struck down a pension reform bid, Moody's move to downgrade the city of Chicago thrust the state's financial woes into the national spotlight. Since then, the situation hasn't gotten any better and despite hiring an "all star" budget guru (for $30,000 a month no less), Bruce Rauner was unable to pass a budget in a timely fashion leading directly to all types of absurdities including everything from the possibility of shortened school years to lottery winners being paid in IOUs. Now, as Bloomberg reports,...

The Insured Retirement Institute has concluded, baby boomers "face a dangerous combination of being under-saved and long-lived." The IRI found four in 10 baby boomers have nothing saved for retirement, and 37% of those who do have savings have less than $100,000 put away. This spells trouble for the average 65-year old male and female who have a 50% chance of living until at least 87 and 89, respectively. The IRI says someone who retires at the age of 65 today will need more than $1 million for retirement while someone who waits until age 70 to retire will need...

Aesop would have had a straightforward explanation for why some people just can’t manage to save up for retirement: Some people are born ants—industrious and in possession of great willpower—while others are grasshoppers, living only for today. Millennia later, sorting workers into personality-specific boxes is still the preferred way of thinking about how to get people to put more money into savings. An otherwise thoughtful survey of over 1,000 individuals and interviews with 50 people by the MetLife Mature Markets Institute identifies no fewer than 10 different variations on the grasshopper: There are “Snoozers,” “Oversleepers,” “Stewers,” “Brewers.” And then there...

Rep. John Fleming, R-La., said Wednesday morning that Tea Party favorite Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., won't run for a fourth term, and instead plans to retire at the end of the current Congress to return to his home state. "Trey wants to go back to South Carolina, and God bless him for that," Fleming said on C-SPAN. When asked if that's what Gowdy has told other Republicans, Fleming confirmed it. "At the end of his term, yes," he said. "He plans to go back home, and he wants to finish his work on the Benghazi special committee. But he loves...

While hardly as dramatic as Bill Gross' last letter in which he urged readers to "go to cash" as a result of the "Frankenstein creation" that ZIRP has created, his latest letter "Saved by Zero" takes a calmer stance and taking a page out of Paul Marshall's FT Op-Ed profiled yesterday, urges central banks to "get off zero" as the "developed world is beginning to run on empty because investments discounted at near zero over the intermediate future cannot provide cash flow or necessary capital gains to pay for past promises in an aging society. And don’t think that...

Prepare to be “nudged” by Obama's new “behavioral science” squads — for your own good, of course. Under the guise of better “serving” the American people through government, Obama signed an executive order this week calling for federal agencies and departments to deploy emerging “behavioral science” techniques against the public.Among other goals, the expansion of federal mind manipulation is supposed to help more Americans access government welfare programs, take their “recommended” vaccines, supply more information about themselves to the federal government, and accelerate the transition toward what Obama called “a low-carbon economy.” The controversial decree, signed on September 15, explicitly...

Floyd Mayweather announced his retirement from the ring, as he promised, after a one-sided victory over Andre Berto in Las Vegas, but whether it really is the last time he boxes will only be shown over time. The American retained his WBC and WBA welterweight title with a unanimous points victory that was short on highlights to claim his 49th successive victory, equalling the unbeaten record of Rocky Marciano, the former world heavyweight champion. Marciano was 32 when he was last in the ring in 1955, having boxed in only seven world title bouts, although his exciting no-nonsense style ensured

Actress Eva Longoria is offering her advice to President Barack Obama on what he should do after leaving office in January 2017. According to the New York Times, the Mexican-American actress is part of a select group of high-profile people who are advising the president during midnight meetings at the White House.