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Help! I've Been Taxed and I Can't Get UpBy Jeff Clark Mar 24 2010 4:17PM Like many of you, the passage of the healthcare bill wasn’t met with the popping of champagne in my house. I found myself chanting “Uncle Sam, Uncle Sham” as the day wore on. Higher taxes and other major changes are headed our way. And yet, I think there’s something in the bill that’s even more dastardly. If you’re a supporter of the bill, you’d point to its benefits: Poor adults will get Medicaid. Low-income families will get federal subsidies to buy insurance. Small businesses may...

One of the nation's largest labor unions, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is promoting a plan that will centralize all retirement plans for American workers, including private 401(k) plans, under one new "retirement system" for the United States. In effect, government pensions for everyone, not unlike the European system and regardless of personal choice. The SEIU, which was integral to the election of Barack Obama as president, is working with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI), and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, on SEIU's plan, called "the Retirement USA Initiative." Claiming that the retirement system...

Who will be the buyers of US bonds? Questionable Fed policy to keep economy afloat, liquidity drain to keep pressure on gold and silver, George Soros putting his money in gold companies, upheaval in currency markets, TARP was to pay out the people responsible, difficulties for small and mid-sized banks. We ask, who on earth will now buy our bonds as our multi-trillion dollar Obama-ordained deficits run America into a state of bankruptcy? Certainly not the Chinese, who are no longer buying our "worthless paper." They are now buying Canadian bonds and gold. Certainly not the Russians, because they know...

Rules enhance retirement advice and transparency for workersWASHINGTON, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, at a White House forum hosted by Vice President Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Labor announced two new rules designed to enhance retirement security and transparency for the millions of workers covered by 401(k), pension and other retirement arrangements.  The announcement was part of the White House Middle Class Task Force's year-end report, which the vice president released at this morning's event. During the past year, the Middle Class Task Force has focused on solutions to the challenges facing America's middle class — including retirement security...

Obama Begins His Assault On Your Life Savings Terry Jeffrey says the welfare state and your life savings are two cars heading down a one-lane road in opposite directions.  One must yield, or there will be a crash. For Americans who believe in the old-fashioned virtues of hard work, self reliance and respect for private property, the solution is obvious.  The welfare state must yield.  For politicians who believe in the welfare state and redistributing wealth, the solution is equally obvious. Your savings must yield. Barack Obama is of the latter group.  In the new health care proposal he outlined...

It has been reported by Business Week that the US Labor Department and Treasury Department are asking for public comment on a plan to convert individuals' retirement accounts (IRAs and 401(k)s) into government sponsored annuities featuring US Government bonds. The scheme would start off as voluntary, but only makes sense -- like socialized health care -- if it becomes mandatory and universal. In essence the government is asking if we would mind if they nationalized our money in return for a promise of more money in the future . . . like a Ponzi scheme called Social Security, but even...

You did the responsible thing. You saved in your IRA or 401(k) to support your retirement, when you could have spent that money on another vacation, or an upscale car, or fancier clothes and jewelry. But now Washington is developing plans for your retirement savings. BusinessWeek reports that the Treasury and Labor departments are asking for public comment on "the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams." In plain English, the idea is for the government to take your retirement savings in return for a promise to pay you some monthly benefit...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- There are many reasons why your neighbor might have a much brighter retirement outlook than you, or vice versa. Maybe one of you sets aside more each month, started saving younger, or chose investments that fared better in the downturn. But to what degree does your 401(k) plan itself make a difference? A lot, says Mike Alfred, chief executive of San Diego-based 401(k) rating company BrightScope, which keeps a database of information on some 30,000 retirement plans. For instance, when you compare Google's retirement-plan rank of 84 to, say, the 67 earned by Procter & Gamble's...

You did the responsible thing. You saved in your IRA or 401(k) to support your retirement, when you could have spent that money on another vacation, or an upscale car, or fancier clothes and jewelry. But now Washington is developing plans for your retirement savings. BusinessWeek reports that the Treasury and Labor departments are asking for public comment on "the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams." In plain English, the idea is for the government to take your retirement savings in return for a promise to pay you some monthly benefit...

The company that I work for changed service organizations for payroll. When I got my W-2 I found out that the city I live in taxes ALL tax deferred income which is not what the State of Ohio does. It pissed me off and when I called them, the city, they laughed at me. YES laughed at me! I told them that I was going to move and they laughed harder … So, last Saturday I found an old farm house in a small Ohio – population 3,100 – no city tax! I contacted all government offices (Post Office, IRS,...

Yes, slowly but surely it is happening. In a federal notice filed earlier, the DOL and Treasury are soliciting a response on what has been on many investors' mind, namely the process of converting 401(k)s into annuity-like products. To wit: The Department of Labor and the Department of the Treasury (the "Agencies") are currently reviewing the rules under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the plan qualification rules under the Internal Revenue Code (Code) to determine whether, and, if so, how, the Agencies could or should enhance, by regulation or otherwise, the retirement security of participants in employer-sponsored...

Annuities: The official retirement vehicle of the Obama administration. As slogans go, it’s hardly “Keep Hope Alive,” or even “Change We Can Believe In.” But there were annuities, in a report from the administration’s Middle Class Task Force that came out this week. They are among the tools the administration is promoting as it tries to give Americans a better shot at a more secure retirement. At its simplest, which is how the White House seems to want to keep it, an annuity is something you buy with a large pile of cash in exchange for a monthly check for...

I am 59 years old. (People who know me are truly amazed I made it this far). Anyway, I've been all over the internet trying to find out...when exactly am I am 59 1/2 years old. I know that is the magic number for tapping into the 401(k) and IRA without having to pay a penalty for early withdrawal.The simplest guess would be the six month anniversary of my birthday. Does the IRS consider that the day? Or could it be just six months after my birth month? Could it be the 180th calendar day after my birthday? Or the...

BOSTON — It might increase the amount of money people set aside to pay for their expenses in retirement. Then again, it might have some unintended consequences. Workers saving for retirement just might take on more risk than necessary in hopes of making up for not saving enough. What is it? U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingamaf, D-N.M., Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Herb Kohl, D-Wis., recently introduced a bipartisan bill that would require employers who sponsor 401(k) plans and the like to inform participants of the projected monthly income they could expect at retirement based on their current account balance. So, for...

The buzz in the financial industry right now is about Roth IRA conversions. Starting this year, there is no longer an income cap to convert a traditional individual retirement account or 401(k) into the tax-friendly Roth. Essentially, everyone now has access to a Roth. Congress did this to generate tax revenue. Contributions to a traditional IRA and 401(k) are often made with dollars that haven't been taxed yet. When you convert an account to a Roth, you must pay regular income tax on the amount being converted. Once in the Roth, though, your money and any earnings can be withdrawn...

he next target in Comrade Obama's blitzkrieg against the economic freedom that made America wealthy is our retirement accounts: President Barack Obama is calling for establishing automatic workplace pensions and expanding unemployment insurance as part of his spending plan for the U.S. Labor Department next fiscal year. We liken this to an "Obama 401k Plan." The budget "lays the groundwork for future establishment of a system of automatic workplace pensions, to operate alongside Social Security, that is expected to dramatically increase" retirement and personal savings, Obama's Office of Management and Budget said in its outline, without giving details on the...

The Obama administration appears to have come up with a novel way of financing trillion-dollar budget deficits – demanding IRA and 401(k) holders buy trillions of dollars in Treasury bonds. With the Treasury needing this year to see another $1 trillion in debt to finance the anticipated federal budget deficit, and the Federal Reserve about to discontinue its 2009 program of buying Treasury bonds for the Fed's asset portfolio, the Obama administration is scrambling to find ways to sell government debt without having to raise interest rates. Bloomberg reported Friday that Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi and Deputy Assistant...

The Obama administration appears to have come up with a novel way of financing trillion-dollar budget deficits – demanding IRA and 401(k) holders buy trillions of dollars in Treasury bonds.

As the worst bear market since the Great Depression sent her 401(k) account into a downward spiral, Cathy Coleman would shudder when her quarterly statement arrived. "When I saw it in the mail I used to say, 'Uh-oh,' " said the 58-year-old nurse in Tiburon, Calif. As her nest egg shriveled, along with those of many other Americans, a multitude condemned the 401(k) system as a failure and called for an overhaul to better protect people from the risk of huge losses. But with the stock market's stunning rebound since March, Coleman no longer delays opening her statement, and the...

About a year ago I saw an article about the Argentinean Government proposing a bill that would in effect nationalize all of their 401K/IRA type retirement accounts. Well as of November, 2009 that has now become a reality, over $29 Billion in retirement accounts have now been seized by the Government and they will use that money to pay down debt. As I remember the plan the poor owner of that account would get Government issued bonds that will pay between 2 and 3% to replace those monies the government takes. You can read this article from the London Telegraph...