Posted on 06/04/2019 7:32:41 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Trump-hating liberal activists know how to cause trouble. With record low unemployment numbers and a thriving economy, we have seen well organized activists interrupting town halls, blocking traffic in major cities, and using violence.
But there is an awful type of activism happening out there, and it affects us all. Even though this activity is underreported, it affects everyone's 401(k) retirement savings.
Shareholder activists are taking direct aim at companies — such as oil companies and gun-manufacturers — by abusing rules that publicly traded companies must follow to promote a far-left agenda. Instead of trying to pass gun control laws through Congress, they are forcing public companies to bend to their will. What they are doing is dangerous.
The most recent example happened to the legendary gun-maker Smith & Wesson. As The Free Beacon reported, an obscure women's group called the Adrian Dominican Sisters has organized its 600 members to become marginal shareholders in gun companies to pass far-left political resolutions. In this case, Smith & Wesson's parent company was forced to do a study about so-called "smart guns." After an expensive process, the report showed that "smart guns" are not viable, and consumers overwhelmingly do not blame gun-manufacturers for crimes committed by criminals with their products. Both results are common sense.
Ultimately, Smith & Wesson emphasized that its reputation for supporting the Second Amendment was much more important than attempting to appease its critics.
Other asset-managers and hedge fund leaders are willing to cave to activists — in the form of "virtue-signaling" — because they fear retribution and take actions not in the shareholders' best interest. For example, Dick's Sporting Goods' CEO, Edward Stack, frequently speaks about how his company is losing money to stop selling guns
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I think you nailed it. That is why I took the money and paid the tax. It’s no longer a vulnerability for me. My main retirement plan was to own my home free and clear in a place with very, VERY low property taxes and no taxes on my SS. It’s why I moved from Seattle to KY.
I made almost the maximum that can be SS taxed for a very long time, and even surpassed the maximum a couple of years. So the payout is significant, and my wife’s payout will be half that (we both turn 66 in a few months). And now I live in a place where my annual property taxes are one month’s payment on a Toyota Corolla. When savings are applied to the payoff of my home and 32 acres, well, we’re looking at living almost for free. Factor in the garden, chickens, cows (if necessary) and it is even better.
Interestingly, the only things we really want to do is enjoy our property, do a lot of road trips around the country, visit with friends and, eventually die. We’re good! And we love where we live like never before in our entire lives. Kentucky is very beautiful and has a great climate - but you need bug spray.
His #### daughter is a liberal.
Did you brother match the money you threw away for 20 years? Just wondering since I'm a Registered Rep/IA. I've never told anyone to not let their employer give them matching funds.
It takes a long time for legislation to make it through and if I saw 401k confiscation, we would PROBABLY be able to quit/rollover to IRA/or cash out as long as legislation isn't retroactive....and then there are the courts. You'd have a HUGE heads up.
You misunderstand. He said that they were great because of the matching funds. But once it doesn’t impact the matching funds, it’s best to get out of it.
If you worked for years for the same company and put all of your savings into this 401K, once you hit retirement age a lot of people are shocked to find out that they are required to take a certain percentage out or pay a hefty fee (20%, I believe). The tax hit can be substantial.
Their end goal is the same regardless of their roads.
They want to take over our retirement savings to spend it on more PC BS for their dumbed down voters.
Thanks for your reply.
I too am a Series 7 among other things, and I tell my clients to take the company match and once that holding period has expired to roll out into other investment vehicles. Most plans are the cheapest the company can get and you are under no obligation to keep all of your money in that account once the match portion has been paid on the eligible funds.
Like Social Security, democrats raided the cookie jar and left IOU’s in their place. They spot money sitting in one place and steal it for their socialist wealth redistribution plans every single time. 401k’s and IRA’s are sitting ducks to these theives in the night....
It won’t be done directly. The tactic will be to further means test SS such that anyone who has saved/invested independently will be deemed to not “need” SS.
I am in same boat. My car is paid off in six months (a nice Audi on a 4 year loan and I drive less than 10k miles/year) and the house is paid off. So our biggest bill is the cable-TV bill. I work till I can get medicare in a couple of more years at a data entry job for $18/hour. I too paid max into Social Security so when I retire that monthly check will equal my current salary. I lit up my pensions from my previous employer. Wife in similar situation w/ Social Security but her drive is more like 25K miles, so that car is about spent. I have the risk exposure w/ 401K funds but I feel that I will be at the legal withdraw age soon before the Govt can hatch this little plan.We stay here in OH which is a moderate tax state because we have some family here to help us we get old, crippled and stupid.
...to help us we get old, crippled and stupid.
Looks like you and I are similar in how we are doing this.
BTW, I didn’t mention precious metals. That is another part of it for me. And I mean stuff I can hold in my hand and keep myself. It’s been very quiet lately. I expect that sort of thing to change whenever Trump is gone.
Hitler’s Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State, by Götz Aly, Jefferson S. Chase (Translator), is an insightful book of what took place during the reign of Hitler.
Why did the German people support Hitler when they knew what was really going on with the death camps and other atrocities? Quite simple, actually. The wealth was confiscated from the industrialists, well to do citizens, and Jews, and that money used to fund the German social programs. Well, the wealth was not, according to the German government, “confiscated.” The government gave back low interest government bonds for those stocks formerly held by the citizens.
Fast forward to the 2008 meltdown. Madame Pelosi advocated putting all IRAs under government control and giving the people, in return for their investments, “government bonds” to protect us all from market “disasters.” That’s right, her plan was lifted directly from Hitler’s playbook from the 1930s and 1940s.
Why did Madame Pelosi want to get control of the IRAs? Think of the trillions of dollars in those IRAs. How much fun could Congress have spending all that money?
Of course there will be higher limits (if any at all) for those who earned their pensions in “public service” jobs as the Commissar class defines it.
“I too am a Series 7 among other things, and I tell my clients to take the company match and once that holding period has expired to roll out into other investment vehicles. Most plans are the cheapest the company can get and you are under no obligation to keep all of your money in that account once the match portion has been paid on the eligible funds.”
The company I retired from used Fidelity as their 401K plan.
They finally, in the my last decade of working, we got some really good choices and allowed us to make the choices including Fido’s excellent choice of funds in different market index funds.
After retirement, the investment choices were pared down, and they limited us to 2 withdrawals per year of your donations/money.
Our CPA at that time favored the Fidelity IRA plans and suggested that we roll my 401 k over a Fido IRA. We did and had great options often with no fee or a minimum fee re index funds.
My wife’s 401 K in spite of excellent matching funds had crappy choices from one of the major companies with 401 k plans. They allowed two withdrawals per year after she turned 70. So we opened a Fido IRA acct for her and rolled over funds from her 401 k, twice a year. She worked until she was 74+, and she had excellent matching contributions.
The day after she retired, we closed what was left in her 401 K and rolled it over to a FIDO IRA.
In spite of mandatory minimum withdrawals, with her FIDO IRA and my FIDO IRA, our balances are $’s over what we had before the minimum withdrawals started.
I’m sure that others have similar stories, and that is why politicians on both sides want to “ObamaCare” our retirement plans.
“Like Social Security, democrats raided the cookie jar and left IOU’s in their place. They spot money sitting in one place and steal it for their socialist wealth redistribution plans every single time. 401k’s and IRA’s are sitting ducks to these thieves in the night..”
One of my wife’s SIL’s is a great money manager of her and her husband’s 401k’s and now IRA’s.
She describes what you warned us about above as “Obama Caring” our IRA’s and 401K’s.
The liberals will welcome it as they can’t do math.
The article has nothing to do with 401(k) plans other than the headline trying to scare people.
It talks about the risks of investing in public companies. What do roll your investments into that avoids these risks?
I didn’t roll it over at all. I cashed it out and took the hit. I had personal reasons for this that I’ll not get into, but just say that “Family court” had something to do with it.
Also, because most of my career I’ve been a contractor, rather than an employee, I didn’t really have all that much in my 401k. It was only five figures. And here’s the fun part: I cashed it out just before the massive stock crash. The timing was perfect. I came out ahead, even with the penalty and taxes.
I have no “retirement investments” as far as the government is concerned. I’m almost living in the 19th century in that way at least. I love it.
Is there a tax liability in doing that or is that only when you access the funds for withdrawal (presumably at retirement)?
It’s not been on my radar for some time, but I understand there are ways to spare the tax liability. The rollover to an IRA was one, IIRC. I believe it was something like a Roth IRA. But laws change pretty regularly...
....Bug Spray.
Okay.
What about ugly?
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