Posted on 11/07/2008 5:33:43 AM PST by FocusNexus
There is no proposal in Congress to take away your 401(k) savings account. In any case, the stock market has already done a pretty good job of wiping out several trillion dollars worth of 401(k) savings without any help from Congress.
At that hearing, one of the witnesses, Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at The New School for Social Research, made an interesting observation. By her calculations, the government spends as much as $80 billion a year in tax breaks to subsidize 401(k) savings plans. In her opinion, that money could be better spent offering a tax credit for a revised retirement plan that would guarantee a minimum income stream to people who saved for retirement. You'd give up some of your tax savings in return for a guaranteed return for life.
But there's a lot wrong with the 401(k) program. For starters, these retirement accounts have dramatically shifted two huge risks from employers to individuals.
Individually managed 401(k) plans also come with a much bigger investment risk.
We're all now learning - the hard way - that 401(k) accounts are an imperfect program for guaranteeing economic security in retirement. The Social Security system we now rely on was created in the wake of a financial upheaval not unlike what we're now experiencing.
So maybe it's not such a bad idea to start listening to new ideas.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
urban legend my bu** why have hearings then. . . why want to raid those accounts? it is my money and I will pull it all out then and ship to cds and annuities. not putting in another cent
Rush Limbaugh apparently got a hot tip on how they'll do it, and explained it yesterday.
They'll offer to restore your portfolio to its pre-"Win The Election For Obama" condition - provided you sign your life away.
Many will fall for this.
Wouldn’t this qualify as an an ex post facto law?
You cannot have a system which says the money is THEIR and THEN pass a law which confiscates the money. How many people would have been adding to it in the first place?
I wish the idiot dems and their minions in the press would correctly say these are not “tax breaks” but “deferred taxes”. Taxes will be paid —but the dems are too greedy to wait a few years until the boomers start retiring.
But the press won’t go for the truth —they didn’t during the Obama campaign and election, why would they start now? Let’s start with their 401(k)s and pensions first!
Shariah financing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ5LHI7m3tw
“I tell my acquaintances that the Dems are doing this and they don’t believe me. These people are blind sheeple”
Have them read this article:
Dems Target Private Retirement Accounts. Democratic leaders in the U.S. House discuss confiscating 401(k)s, IRAs
http://www.carolinajournal.com/articles/display_story.html?id=5081
And you can go to the link of the hearing:
Full Committee Hearing: “The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Workers’ Retirement Security”
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
http://edlabor.house.gov/hearings/fc-2008-10-07.shtml
On that page, you can click on Dr. Teresa Ghilarducci’s testimony and read it.
Direct link to her testimony in pdf:
http://edlabor.house.gov/testimony/2008-10-07-TeresaGhilarducci.pdf
They want to use people’s anxiety to scare/force them into giving up their hard earned savings for government promises.
Apparently, in the thief's mind, failure to steal is the equivalent of spending.
It is Bush that will be doing this don’t you know. Just as the Vietnam War was, according to the media a/k/a Democrats,was Nixon’s War nevermind the fact that there were two Democrat Presidents before him. Every screw up from this point on will be Bush’s fault.
The fact is that the idiots believe the former and will believe the latter.
Another fact is that most people who call themselves no longer have the desire to live as free people.
It’s not just a raid on people’s piggybanks. The government wants to increase the number of people who are dependent of the government’s largesse. It’s about increasing the size of the dependent class.
Shariah financing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ5LHI7m3tw
............How Guaranteed Retirement Accounts work
Structure. Guaranteed Retirement Accounts are like universal 401(k) plans except that the government, as befits a large and enduring institution, will invest and manage the pooled savings.
Participation. Participation in the program is mandatory except for workers participating in equivalent or better employer defined-benefit plans where contributions are at least 5% of earnings and benefits take the form of life annuities.
Contributions. Contributions equal to 5% of earnings are deducted along with payroll taxes and credited to individual accounts administered by the Social Security Administration. The cost of contributions is split equally between employer and employee. Mandatory contributions are deducted only on earnings up to the Social Security earnings cap,2 and workers and employers have the option of making additional contributions with post-tax dollars. The contributions of husbands and wives are combined and divided equally between their individual accounts.............
In what upside down $hitweasel DemoKrat universe does not taking your income equal government spending?
Since the market has been crashing over the last couple of weeks. And has been almost non-existant since Obama got elected. Well I started thinking that I am jsut dumping money into an empty bucket so I stopped my 401K contributions at work yesterday. I would rather just save my money then watch it disappear every quarter.
Why? No one gave a toss about SS or pensions. 401ks were never intended to replace those.
401ks are supposed to be a supplement to SS and pensions.
I'm just playing devils advocate here. There was no Civil war when companys started reneging on their pensions.
Baloney! Corporations manage 401K plans, not individuals. In most cases, individuals have but a few choices.
Some of the choices are cash and other "safe" investments. Further, stocks are risky, but provide a much greater reward. Every company that I have ever put money into a 401K has provided education and suggested age appropriate investment models.
Most people have not been taken to the cleaners. Rather, dems want an excuse to get their hands on more wealth.
I checked every bill in my wallet. I don’t see my name on any of them so I guess they don’t belong to me. Oh, well.
They are not the ones that are stupid,those that elect them fit that category. The Democrats stole untold wealth with Fannie/Freddie now they are going after what is left. Most of them have their money in of shore accounts like the Kennedy’s.
My gold & silver are up. My ‘contrarian’ fund that shorts the S&P has garnered 50K in the past 8 months. I pay little in taxes each year due to doing everything legal that I can to keep Government mitts off my hard-earned cash. Aside from a little debt that I’m paying off due to starting up another business, I live below my means. Alway have. I’ll have an Army retirement should I live so long. I’ll have a spot in a Vet hospital if need be, but I’m not counting on that, so when I get a little older, I’ll carry an insurance policy for a nursing facility.
If you ever for one MINUTE have been paying more in taxes than you have to, and if you ever for one MINUTE haven’t been educating yourself about your investment funds and investing all of your eggs in one basket...you are your own worst enemy and you will lose a lot of money, or have it taken from you via Big Government.
I’m sorry people are losing their money, but I’m a middle aged white woman who is doing just fine, financially. Since I was a young woman, I vowed to never go into Old Age without TONS of cash. I’ve watched other women suffer needlessly and it breaks my heart. Husbands leave you and husbands die. Children can be troublesome, expensive or will desert you when you need them most. Women really only have themselves to rely on, when it comes right down to it. (I’m married and have three boys that love me dearly, but I don’t want to be stuck living with any of them, LOL!)
But then, nobody ever listens to me because I’m pretty ‘invisible’ as a segment of society. You think White Men are invisible? White women are only looked at during election time and as marketing tools for consumer products.
I keep my head down, do my job and laugh all the way to the bank. :)
Assuming that the Democrats won’t actually take the money already in your 401k:
You can still contribute to your 401K and get the tax break, you can just direct that your money go into cash, instead of mutual funds. Check the investment options for your 401K - they may not have “cash” as option, but they will have at least one money market fund, which is not subject to market variations.
You can also move your investments around inside of the 401K, without incurring tax consequences.
Also, you might consider that putting small amounts of new money lets you buy stocks at the current very low prices and in 10-15 years they will have gone up significantly.
Call your 401K administrators and check with them about what I said above.
tax breaks vs. deferred taxes
I see your point. Good one!
The Dems also want the mandatory 5% deduction from our paychecks to spend as they like, just like they did with the so-called SS Trust Fund.
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