Free Republic

Obama's retirement plan proposalsRetirees and workers with 401(k) savings may see changes. By DAVID PITT Associated Press Writer November 09. 2008 6:59AM The election is over and the message is clear — the economy is priority one. The big question now is how some of President-elect Barack Obama's campaign proposals will affect retirees and workers with 401(k) and other retirement accounts. Looking at them a bit closer may reveal some clues. What are some of the ideas Obama has proposed that could impact my retirement planning? One issue Obama has endorsed may get serious consideration before he takes the oath...

A wide range of sweeping changes to the 401(k) system were proposed Tuesday at a hearing on how the market crisis has devastated retirement savings plans. Chief among them was eliminating $80 billion in tax savings for higher-income people enrolled in 401(k) retirement savings plans. This was suggested by the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. “With respect to the 401(k), it appears to be a plan that is not really well-devised for the changes in the market,” Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said.

Stocks face longer bear market as more tap nest eggs Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:46pm EDT By Jennifer Ablan - Analysis NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major U.S. stock indexes, already trapped in bear territory, face a tougher road to recovery, as more Americans crack into their nest eggs to withdraw cash to cope with rising economic pressures. The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500, which have fallen 20 percent or more from their closing highs of last October, qualifying them as bear markets, have taken big hits from the drastic slowdown in housing and credit as...

Series I Savings Bonds To Earn 4.84%, Series EE To Earn 1.40% Fixed Rate, When Bought From May Through October 2008 FOR RELEASE AT 10:00 AM May 1, 2008 The Bureau of the Public Debt today announced an earnings rate of 4.84% for Series I Savings Bonds, and a fixed rate of 1.40% for Series EE bonds, issued from May through October 2008. Earnings rates for I bonds and fixed rates for EE bonds are set each May 1 and November 1. Interest accrues monthly and compounds semiannually. Bonds held less than five years are subject to a three-month interest...

There's an old saying that the best time to fix a roof is when the sun is shining. Well, the storm clouds are on the horizon and time's a-wasting. At least, that's the case according to the findings of the 18th annual Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. U.S. workers and retirees are losing confidence in their ability to afford a comfortable retirement -- and with good reason. Health-care costs are rising, home values are dropping, and savings are modest, according to the report. In fact, fewer than one-in-five workers (18% to be exact) are very confident...

Mr Prasad had saved up for his old age (Pictures: Prashant Ravi) A trader in the Indian state of Bihar has lost his life savings after termites infesting his bank's safe deposit boxes ate them up.Dwarika Prasad had deposited currency notes and investment papers worth hundreds of thousands of rupees in a bank safe in the state capital Patna. The bank says it put up a notice warning customers of the termites. Mr Prasad says he did not see it in time as he did not go to the bank for months after the notice went up. Bank officials...

Lisa Keister has scanned the Bible and found nearly 2,000 verses in the New Testament that touch on the topic of money. It's those very verses that may be keeping many conservative Protestants from building up long-term wealth, she says. Jesus warned his followers not to "store up for yourselves treasures on Earth," and later cautioned that it will be "hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven." Perhaps the best known is the admonition that "the love of money is the root of all evil." According to data analyzed by Keister, a Duke University sociologist, the...

Officials Question Value Of Daylight Savings TimeReport Says Changing The Clock Doesn't Save Energy UPDATED: 1:44 pm MST March 8, 2008 FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- It not only costs most people an hour of sleep, now officials and researchers are questioning the value of daylight savings time. Daylight savings time starts on Sunday at 2 a.m. Remember to set your clocks one hour ahead tonight. The concept was first put forward by Benjamin Franklin, as a satire, during a visit to Paris. He wrote that fewer candles would be used if people got up earlier and went to bed earlier....

The German government's purchase of data stolen from a Liechtenstein bank has reinvigorated longstanding debates about privacy, law enforcement and international relations. Much of the fallout has followed predictable patterns. Some argue that Germany's richest citizens should be brought to justice for failing to comply with the tax laws, while others point out that it is unseemly for a nation to spy on a peaceful neighbor. The conflict between Germany and Liechtenstein also has triggered a broader debate about tax competition and the role of so-called tax havens. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is trying to use...

On February 10th The Devils Advocate Jr. came into the world as a healthy 9lb baby boy, the first child of his proud parents. He has been fortunate enough to have received a few hundred dollars in gifts from his friends and relatives. Now I'm wondering what is the best option for investing his little nest egg to provide the best return in about 18 years. Certainly there's something out there better than a savings account.

The title is an obvious and intentional exaggeration used by Ken Fisher in his book titled Three Questions That Count. Rather than try to summarize and comment on his excellent book I choose to examine those parts that have a public policy connotation. The first of these is the so called “savings rate.” The author points out this is a residual calculation not an actual measure of savings. What the government does take personal income and subtract from it personal consumption. Personal income is after tax income. Again, no one actually measures savings. There are problems with doing this and...

The phrase has long since entered the political lexicon, but it was former House Speaker and Massachusetts Representative Tip O'Neill who first christened Social Security the "third rail of American politics." The reasoning behind his snide dubbing is twofold: the high political mortality rate of those who suggest change to the program, and avoidance of the issue by even Washington's most forthcoming public officials. During the Oct. 9 GOP debate, presidential candidate Fred Thompson threw conventional wisdom to the wind and grabbed the rail. Hard. Thompson called Social Security's current trajectory "unsustainable" and proposed reducing the benefits of recipients to...

Given the options below, what would you recommend to help Americans save for retirement? (related article) Establish more government-run programs to encourage savings Focus on fixing Social Security Allow individuals to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes on their own Eliminate Social Security taxes altogether so individuals can invest that money

"The unifying principle of the Republican Party is that we should tax our citizens less, and as a result have a smaller government. I embrace that principle and have made tax relief one of the cornerstones of my presidential campaign. "Central to my pro-growth economic agenda is a belief that middle-class Americans should not be taxed as they save and invest for the future. We need a middle-class savings plan to provide critical tax relief to American families. We must cut taxes and make more Americans part of the investor class. I have proposed changing the rate of taxation on...

The new numbers on consumer confidence are out. They show American consumers very confident that the economy is going down the tubes. Over in Asia and Europe, stocks plunged on fears that Americans may no longer be able to find the second jobs and recklessly borrow the money needed to buy imported stuff. Economists now freely use the "recession" word following the report that American payrolls fell in August, the first monthly decline in four years. American consumers, in other words, are all dried up. And the discussion has begun on what kind of baloney economy kept them lubricated for...

Lives Well-Lived On the other side of the spectrum, I dined last night with an old friend from the glorious street of my childhood, Harvey Road in Silver Spring, Md. Gene Daumit, who was accompanied by his beautiful wife, DeeDee, is a super-smart guy with a Ph.D. from MIT, a major job at a huge chemicals company, a spouse with a great job in real estate, a home and a vacation condo that are both paid for (or mostly paid for), a substantial pension, and impressive savings. As they told me about their life, especially their wildly successful daughters, I...

If you're having money problems, you probably have good reasons. Maybe you're getting less overtime or your expenses have unexpectedly climbed. Perhaps your ex left you with big debts. Maybe your parents never taught you about money. You might blame the economy for the fix you're in. Then there's the whole credit industry, which hands out credit cards like confetti before slapping you with interest rates that would make a loan shark blush. Or maybe you're just not good with numbers. You may comfort yourself with the idea that your money fix isn't entirely your fault. Here's the thing, though:...

Insurance: A new report shows consumer-directed health care gaining ground, but it's still far from meeting its promise as a serious restraint on medical costs. People still need more choices. Measured against the past couple of years, the latest news on health savings accounts looks pretty good. Measured against expectations, it's not good enough. According to a survey of insurers issued this week by America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry group, 4.5 million Americans were covered under HSA-eligible high-deductible plans as of January. That's up 40% from the 3.2 million covered in the last AHIP survey a year earlier. By...

A Republican lawmaker who co-authored a bill that would give every child born in California a $500 savings account has withdrawn his support following a backlash within his own party. Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, who had promoted the measure as a good investment, announced Friday he no longer supported the bill he had introduced two days before with Democrat Sen. Darrel Steinberg. The surprise move came after fellow Republicans questioned the measure's $285 million cost and inclusion of children of illegal immigrants. In a press release, Dutton said that thousands of Californians had asked him "what I was thinking"...

SACRAMENTO — Every child born in California would get a $500 savings account to start building a nest egg for college or down payment for a home, under a bipartisan bill introduced Wednesday in the state Senate. The proposal would cost taxpayers about $285 million a year. A similar program has increased savings in Great Britain since 2002, but California would be the first state in the nation to enact it, said David Lesher, California program director for the nonprofit New America Foundation, based in Washington, D.C. A national savings program has been pending in Congress since 2005. Under the...