What is a 401?

Employers provide 401 plans as retirement savings plans for employees. These plans are tax deferred and are one of the defined contribution plans in the Internal Revenue Code. This means that you contribute a certain amount of each paycheck to your savings and your employer matches the contribution. How much of your contribution they match, or if at all, depends on the plan as structured by the company.

The amount you contribute is deducted from your salary before taxes are applied, therefore you pay less income tax. The savings is invested in a cluster of mutual funds, bonds, company stock and money market accounts, which you hand pick. The one condition of the plan is that if you withdraw the money before you are 59.5 years old, you will have to pay taxes and a 10% penalty fine to the IRS. The condition exists because the entire purpose of the plan is to encourage retirement savings.

How it Works for You

Other than the obvious benefit of having a retirement savings plan, the structure of 401(k) plans provides employers with several advantages. For one, the money is deducted from your salary before you receive making the act of saving very easy. Also the amount you contribute is free from Federal and State taxes, as well as any earnings the investment makes. Experts do the actual investing so the burden of choosing the right combination of stocks and bonds is taken off your shoulders. Under certain circumstances, your 401(K) saving is available to you if you are in a time of need. Depending on your situation you can take loans or hardship withdrawals from your account.

When you can begin to invest and how much you contribute is stipulated by your employer’s policy. New employees are typically required to serve their company for six months to a year before they can start participating in the program. Your contribution can typically range from 1-20% of your salary. The law and inflation rates determine the maximum pre-tax dollar amount.

If You Leave Your Job or Your Job Leaves You

Whether it be because you found better opportunities elsewhere, or your company’s downsizing left you out in the cloud, there are procedures for transferring your 401(K) should you leave or lose your job. If you are under the plan’s normal retirement age and have at least $5000 in your account, you may keep your savings in your former employer’s 401(K). Otherwise, you may be forced to take a distribution. Another option is rolling the money over into a new 401(K), however there is no grace period for this. To avoid being charged income tax and the 10% penalty fine, make sure that the check is written out directly to the new account. Withdrawing your money is also an option, but even if you are of the retiring age you will have to pay income taxes. In the event that your employer goes bankrupt, you are insured. The retirement savings you have accumulated is in trust by an independent custodian and the money remains yours.

Joseph Devine

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With the nationwide interest in the proposed AIG bailout, it should be a time you consider speaking up to your Congressman and Senators. If you are at a loss as to exactly what needs to be covered, you might consider the following:

We urge you to reject the administration’s bailout program for financial institutions. The current crisis is not a true economic crisis, but rather a crisis generated by bad accounting, which has then spread to the economic system. Specifically, the crisis has been caused by artificial fair value accounting, which has applied fire sale rules to assets that are temporarily illiquid rather than permanently impaired.

In the past, fair market value, at least implicitly, has meant the present value of cash flows of assets. Fire sale value was only applied to permanent impairments. However, the SEC and FASB have mandated the fire sale approach to all illiquid assets, with disastrous results to the balance sheets and retained earnings of financial institutions.

Therefore, I urge you to do the following:

1. Mandate that the SEC redefine fair value accounting as present value of cash flows, except for permanent impairments. Fire sale values can be disclosed, but not used to determine balance sheets or retained earnings.

2. Continue the alternative House plan for financial institutions to join in a federal insurance program for these assets, aimed at restoring confidence.

On a related point, the insurance companies under the AIG holding company are all solvent as far as I can tell. None of their assets appear to mandate the fire sale accounting approach, even if it were valid. The illiquid assets that caused the AIG crisis appear to be all in the holding company.

State regulators control the insurance companies and they have properly kept them from paying upstream cash dividends to bail out the holding company. State insurance regulation has done its job. Proper fair value accounting at the holding company level, as I’ve described above, should solve the latter problem.

Paulson is an incredible albatross around the neck of the Republican Party. In any event, his bailout proposal should be rejected.

Norman E. Hill, FSA, MAAA, CPA has over 45 years of experience with insurance companies and as a partner with 2 of the big 4 accounting firms. He is a frequent speaker and writer in the industry. Norm has recently authored, “Winner & Final Chairman,” about a corporate power struggle in which a visionary business plan is gradually undercut through infighting, politics, conflicts, abuse, and ultimate indifference, with negative results for almost everyone. Available on http://www.booksbyhills.com

We chopped up the Golden Goose that layed the Golden Eggs. Why did we let it happen? Who said we had to compete in a global economic arena? The Marshall Plan helped restored local value added economies in Europe and Asia after World War 2. It was based on the awesome indusrial might of the USA that won World War 2. We gave the Golden Eggs from our Golden Goose economy for others to share. We did not send the Golden Goose itself. Now we have chopped up the Golden Goose and sent the pieces around the world. Now we have to defend our interests worldwide with wars.

What is this thing called Free Trade? It is not trade. It is based on moving production and factories from place to place based on the cheapest labor markets of the world down to the levels of wage slave and even child labor. Workers are the real commodities of Free Trade. They are put on a world trading block to compete with one another for the same jobs. They really have no voice in the process of Globalization which is driven by elite groupings inside and outside goverment.

Teddy Roosevelt said his worst fear for America was big government getting in bed with big business. This is what Free Trade is all about. Franklin Roosevelt said economic diseases are highly communicable. Today they are an epidemic out of control.

The value of stocks are now based on people getting fired instead of hired. There was a time, when companies were awarded more stock value by how many people they could employ while still making a decent profit for the investors. After all, labor is the core of any society. Labor is the key to a good society socially and economically. If a society falters, everyone loses. Free Trade has degraded labor and made it something sinister. A working poor class has been created in the USA and an impoverished working class outside of the USA. No wonder most of South America is radically protesting Globalization. Subsistent living workers are losing their jobs, farms and small businesses due to Free Trade.

Even if everyone in the world was provided a good education, high tech skills and a computer, it would be senseless if everyone has to compete for the same jobs. It is also nonsensical to have tax payers fund research and development if the manufacturing process goes outside the country. In the end, Tax payers pay their way out of their jobs.

Productivity is a good thing but when it is based on the deflation of wages, nothing good happens.
In the USA, we have scrambled the common good till there is nothing left of it.

We have put individual libertarianism before the welfare of our society in an anything goes economic arena. The Free Traders keep saying this is a good thing. Why have we let them take over.
A new “ism” has quietly taken over in the form of Globalism. This new “ism” fuses with all other “isms” for the sake of power and money for a few. It makes a mockery out of the free enterprise system and workers dignity.

I worked at four different factories while attending college in the 1950s. I made the eqivalent of $15 to $20 an hour. The jobs were plentiful. If these jobs were available today, thousands would be standing in line to get them. The industrial revolution is not over. We still use the products. The only difference is these products are made outside the USA.

Later, I served super markets city wide. There were many. I traveled in all parts of the city without a problem. However, in the course of about eight years about five store owners were killed during the course of robberies but the worst had just begun.

During the Clinton years, about 20 were killed with only a fraction of the stores left. Now, as I travel all these areas not much is left. There are miles of empty stores throughout the city.
I experienced the Hough riots in Cleveland first hand and saw blocks of stores burn now but nothing compares to what I see now with miles of streets looking like a third world country. Hurricane Katrina exposed the Silent Depression after it hit New Orleans. It exposed a vast underclass not only residing in New Orleans but across our land.

I traveled across town to go to college. There are more highways now but the fastest way to go is through the center of the city now bypassing all the highways. It was almost impossible to do this during the 1950s. These streets were full of life and busy activity. Emptiness has replaced all this activity. Recently, I did travel in a area near downtown Cleveland. To my surprise everything, everything seemed to be cleaner. There were two policemen riding their bikes patrolling the area.
Everything seemed to be better until I realized something was missing. There were no people on the streets during the day where once these streets were full of life and business activity.

South of this area, I had a business appointment and could not find the place. I wondered if I should walk down the streets to locate the place. I did not feel safe so I went to nearest large big box store and asked the guard at the door if it was safe enough to walk down a certain street. He said he would not do it.

We had a small factory in the inner city too. I worked out of the factory for years and at the end of the block, I ate lunch at a little restaurant bar. Just a few years later the whole area rapidly changed with most of the factories empty and the restaurant closed. The owner was shot to death in a robbery.

What follows all this. First of all, the unemployment rate is fabricated when compared to the past. Only about 38% of all workers qualify for unemployment insurance in America. The Bureau of Unemployment changed their reporting methods to adjust to this fact. Since 1985 the growth industries were in temporary work offices, contract and day workers agencies, pay day loan stores, credit card industry with usuary rates up to 30% or more and the food banks feeding the hungry.
The prison population keeps breaking records. Reportedly, the USA has more people in prisons than any other country based on total population. Prisons have become one of our major industries.

Getting America Working Forum reports that 50% of human resources in the USA are not being used.
Millions are missing in action and not part of any kind of reporting.

There are over 40 million Americans in need of food with about one third being children. About the same number of people having no medical insurance. We have a top TV American Idol program doing a charity drive relating to this. Many of the homeless are working families who do not make enough money to pay for shelter. Reportedly, Walmart and other type employers tell their workers to seek government assistance. The largest employers in most major cities are governments and then medical with both depending on a tax base which is dwindling. At the same time the public workers make much more than the people they serve. How can anyone expect this to work.

Why did we chop up the Golden Goose like this? Who led the way? The U.S. Government itself sponsored the moving of factories outside the USA starting in 1956 and this program never ended. The American workers have lost World War 2 more than fifty years later. We need to bring back local production for local consumption. The new working poor class in the USA is finding it difficult to even afford the cheaper imports while the workers outside the USA do not make enough to buy the very things they make let alone have anthing left over to buy what the USA has left to sell. The money spent at retail does not stay in place to grow local value added economies but it quickly fans out to the places where the products are made.

For more information see http://tapsearch.com/tapartnews/

Resources include http://tapsearch.com/flatworld or search under tapsearcher, tapart news, tapsearch com, arkline art, Ray Tapajna, Clinton Tapajna, Flat World Tapsearch, Clinton Years American Dream Reversed ( Gigablast Com has a good indexing under this phrase ) - for many more references. See thought provoking editorial topical art gallery at http://arklineart.fotopages.com/ ( Also see popular ezine article below - Lend Lease was real Free Trade and not chopped liver as in the Globalist world. )

Tom Harkin’s comments directed at John McCain are offensive and unacceptable. Harkin feels military men, with their military backgrounds, are dangerous for this country. Many of us disagree. We think these courageous men make our country safe.

Are five big men walking late at night the target of thieves? Or is the lone elderly man the target? Is it the big kid towering over everybody in the school yard who is bullied? We have laws, local, national, international. But for those who are so inclined, the laws don’t matter. We need more.

People in the military have long served this country and its people well. They have preserved our values, made it a haven for men and women from across the globe. Where would we be without these men of courage and strength, Washington, Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson? These were men who believed in the values that set our country apart from the rest of the world, who felt responsible for protecting the values, men whose ultimate goals included peace, but not at any price?

If it were not for Ulysses F. Grant, what would have been the possible scenarios. Would it have been a divided America, the south with slavery, the north, free? Then what would have happened? What about the Revolutionary War. without General Washington to lead the struggling troops under unbearable conditions to victory? For how much longer would the British aristocracy controlled this vast country of ours, bowing to the Queen, bowing to her offspring, and deferring to people with the titles of Lord and Lady?

Could we envision Europe and the United states if we had not won the second world War? Ethnic and religious minorities plus people with physical impairments would have been systematically exterminated. The criteria Hitler used, after ethnic cleansing, had to do with color of eyes, color of hair, color of skin, height, and other physical characteristic. Brown eyes, dark hair, short, meant sterilization or worse.

Why did Hitler invade Poland, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands? Not because he perceived their strength. The list of courageous men is available for all to see, and I’ve selected a few for this article. (However, the list is much longer. See your favorite encyclopedia.)

• General George Washington, combat, the Revolutionary War
• General Andrew Jackson, combat, the Revolutionary War
• General Ulysses S. Grant, combat, Civil War
• Major Harry Truman, combat, field artillery, WWI
• General Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, WWII
• Lieutenant John F, Kennedy, combat WWII, Purple Heart
• Commander Lyndon Johnson, USNavy, combat WWII
• Lt. Junior Grade George H.W. Bush, combat WWII, youngest pilot in US Navy during WWII (age 19) Distinguished Service Cross

Some reading of history is needed by Harkin to substantiate his remarks. Can he show us that these military men created fertile ground for wars? Absolutely not. The contrary is true. The perception of your enemies is what matters. Easy targets become targets. The vulnerable are the targets, always, whether it’s bullying in the classroom, grabbing your wallet, theft from individuals, homes, ships, or countries. Do the current pirates attack a warship?

If you appear to be weak, alone, vulnerable, unable to defend yourself, you are a target. Someone will take advantage of you in some way. It’s true of people and it’s true of countries. We need our military men with their courage and their commitment.

Ruth Graham administers http://www.americanmadeyes.com where you will find information on babies, dogs, cars, furniture, jewelry, plus links of where to buy from elegant and practical shops across our great country. You can also register to start your collection of “awesome” signed and numbered photographs of New England Outdoor Magic, a limited edition.

Most companies and organisations give out business gifts that are suitable for both male and female recipients and while this is normal practice everywhere there are some that make use of gender specific gifts.

Because these types of business gifts are geared towards a particular gender, they give the impression that the company is putting some extra thought into the process and showing a degree of consideration for the people who are to receive them.

Some of the business corporate gifts that you can give to women include personalized pocket mirrors and personalized jewelry boxes. There are also slightly more expensive leather items that are intended specifically for female recipients, such as purses and jewelry cases. The most popular business promotional gifts of all that women receive are personalized handbags, cosmetic bags and picture frames or photo albums. Other unique items that can be given include pastel colored wine flasks and decorative pewter coin banks.

Business gifts specifically for men might include sports related items or male hobby items. You can give male clients business promotional gifts like personalized golf balls, baseball bats and sports apparel such as polo shirts and t-shirts. Other great gift ideas that are perfect for targeting men include cigar and wine related accessories. You might also consider including masculine office related items in this list. Leather desk sets and desk clocks are just a couple of gifts that fit this description. You can also use male grooming kits for this purpose, which might come in leather personalized presentation cases.

Gareth Parkin is the co-founder of Ideasbynet, the UK’s leading online business gifts company based in the north of England. Established in 2001, he has taken the UK corporate gifts market by storm by the application of modern business thinking and the latest search engine marketing techniques. For more details visit our promotional items blog.