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Beware, The Disappearing Retirement Fund
Submitted by Jeff Thomas via Doug Casey's InternationalMan.com,
As a general principle, I’ve always tended to avoid entrusting others with my money. I’ve avoided funds, as they are often based upon investments that are peaking or close to peaking. I’ve avoided pension funds, as they’re often structured in a similar manner.
And whenever by law I’ve been required to be invested in such funds, they’ve rarely been successful over the long term. In the end, I would invariably have made more money by pursuing those investments that had great promise but at the time were unpopular (and therefore underpriced).
As dubious as I tend to be of conventional investment schemes (and those who broker them), I am doubly dubious of any government-run scheme. Governments, historically, have proved to be poor money managers, and politicians tend to place more value on big promises that garner votes than on delivering on those promises.
And so, I’m predictably biased as to the likelihood of any form of fund that any government may be involved in. Even if it’s structured well, which it may well not be, governments, if they have the power to do so, will tap into the fund, draining it of the intended recipient’s contributions, leaving the fund exposed, should a crisis occur.
And, periodically, crises do occur. Presently, the First World is facing an economic crisis of unprecedented proportions.
As someone who advises on internationalisation (the practice of spreading one’s self both physically and economically over several jurisdictions in order to avoid being victimised by any one jurisdiction), I’m regularly asked what the optimum level of diversification might be for an individual in a given situation.
Whilst many of these individuals can unquestionably benefit from such diversification, there are quite a large number of people who are in the age sixty-and-over category who state that they’re hoping to get by solely on their Social Security and their pension. (If the investor is an American citizen, this often means a 401(k) or similar fund.)
For these individuals, I’m afraid it’s difficult to provide encouraging advice, as their retirement is rooted in what I consider to be dead-end investments that will diminish drastically, or disappear, long before the individual reaches his own demise.
Social Security
The Social Security fund of virtually every country that has one is woefully underfunded. Typically, these funds have relied on the next generation’s contributions to pay for the benefits to those presently retired or retiring.
Unfortunately, the original premise, back when Social Security was introduced, was that the population would always increase. During the baby-boomer years, benefits were ramped up dramatically, as there were so many younger workers per retiree.
But now, that relationship has reversed. The baby-boom generation lasted for 18 years, so each year, for 18 years, the ratio of working people will diminish against those who have retired.
Ergo, each year, those working will need to be taxed more heavily if the system is to continue. Unfortunately, at some point, we reach the tipping point and the concept itself is no longer viable. After that point, benefits will be reduced and, possibly, eliminated altogether.
When retirees first hear this, their reaction is usually, “But that’s not fair. I paid in, all my life. They can’t do this to me.” Unfortunately, it is not a question of “fair”. It’s a question of arithmetic. The promised benefits will decline. As a result, those who are counting on Social Security to sustain them in their retirement will find themselves short.
Pension
Similarly, pensions are at risk. Most pensions are invested, to a greater or lesser degree, in the stock market. Most funds pride themselves on being “diversified”, by which they mean that they are invested in a variety of stocks.
Unfortunately, when a stock market crashes, good stocks often head south along with failing stocks, as brokers seek to save their skin by unloading portfolios. (This does not mean that some potentially solid stocks will not experience a recovery in time, but few will ride out a crash unaffected.)
At present, the stock market is being propped up artificially and is overdue for a crash. Although it would be impossible to predict a date, a crash, if it occurs, would have a major and permanent effect on a pension scheme.
But, wait… there’s more.
As if these threats to planned retirement were not enough, there’s a further threat. As previously stated, many governments are financially on the ropes, and historically, when governments find themselves on the verge of insolvency, they invariably react the same way: go back to the cash cow for a final milking. Each of the jurisdictions that is in trouble at present, has, in its playbook, the same collection of milking techniques.
One of those will have a major impact on pensions: the requirement that pension plans must contain a percentage of government Treasuries.
Political leaders have already announced that there’s uncertainty in the economic system and pensioners may be at risk. Therefore, whatever else happens to their plans, it’s essential that a portion of them be guaranteed against failure. Therefore, legislation will be created to ensure that a percentage be in Treasuries, which are “guaranteed”.
Sounds good. And people will be grateful. Unfortunately, the body that is providing the guarantee is the same body that has created the economic crisis. And if the government is insolvent, the “guarantee” will become just one more empty promise.
Recently, the US Supreme Court ruled that employers have a duty to protect workers invested in their 401(k) plans from mutual funds that perform poorly or are too expensive. By passing this ruling, the US government has the power to seize private pension funds “to protect pensioners”. It also has the authority to dictate how funds may be invested.
The way is now paved for the requirement that 401(k)s be invested heavily in US Treasuries. (Some are already voluntarily invested, as much as 80%.)
Game Over
And so, those who hope to fund their retirements primarily with Social Security and 401(k)s, may well find themselves virtually without retirement income.
The question is whether this means “Game Over” for millions of Americans (and since similar developments are taking place in many other countries in the world, millions more in the EU, Canada, etc.)
And, yes, it does mean “Game Over” for many, unless they choose to exit a system that is set to collapse like an old mine shaft, trapping its occupants.
Still, there remains a brief window of opportunity, and that opportunity is to pay the penalty for exiting the system and internationalising whatever level of wealth can be salvaged.
Ideally, this means physically moving to a jurisdiction where such conditions do not exist, but a more limited escape may be created by removing as much money as possible from the retirement fund, moving it to a less risky jurisdiction and converting it to those forms of wealth storage that are least likely to be targeted by rapacious governments and corrupt banks.
Accepting the realization that the piggy bank will be less full is a painful one but is far less painful than to face the day when the piggy bank is all but empty.
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I guess they haven't gotten the memo. My company's 401k vendor keeps sending me emails that I am not in the right investments. Apparently they don't like the low fee index funds I'm in.
My mattress sound better and better every day.
How about we all NOT lump 401k plans in with SS and Pensions.
401k plans are VOLUNTARY. If you don't like it, don't use it. Take the money, pay the taxes and invest it how you see fit. (Some 401k's I run across are so lousy you might be better off avoiding them completely).
Like the idea of a 401k but hate the lousy funds offered? Have your employer give me a call. That can be fixed. Don't want anybody putting you in a plan with limited investment choices? Check to see if the plan offers a "brokerage window" where you can go play Warren Buffet in your own separate brokerage account- buy and sell any security you like as long as it can be offered inside a US-based trust. Your plan doesn't offer one? Refer to my previous suggestion.
The only real downfall of a 401k plan, which no employer can change, no matter how well they manage them is that they only exist because the government allows them to exist. The draconian administrative overhead can make them costly to run and drags on returns (but still cheaper than most retail brokerage accounts). And, of course, when the government decides they're going to take that money THEY WILL TAKE THAT MONEY. And that will be all she wrote.
Word.
I cashed out my IRA a few years back and took the hit, quit contributing to the 401k though I do use it to lift scalps occasionally. The funny thing about most 401k's is they're setup just like the Chi-Com mawkit, its against "the rules" to short. Apparently it's unpatriotic to short the CEO's & board members stawk options ;-)
Good
Exactly! At least you have the chance to protect it yourself. These 401ks and retirement accounts will be stolen. Get out while you can!
As long that mattress feels worse every day too, then you are doing it exactly right.
The majority of "folks" who get a pension these days vork for zeee government.
Let em have it.
In today's world I feel safer in things that DON'T have stern, sober promises attached to them. A "promised" lifetime check from a radically underfunded pension (or government!) is not very appealing when you realize they're lying to your face.
Snake oil salesmen have always been notorious liars ;-)
The Thimblerigger always leaves you penniless.
http://www.tragedyandhope.com/meet-william-rockefeller-snake-oil-salesman/
Yeah, what's a pension? Plus why confiscate a 401k when you can simply use inflation to make it worthless. In any case, the middle class loses. Unless one finds other creative ways to hang on to wealth harder to steal. Besides, there will be plenty of others to feed upon if it all goes to hell.
Miffed;-)
I hear the homes in Beverly Hills and Northern Virginia have well stocked liquor cabinets and pantries ;-)
Yeah, and I bet they have some top shelf stuff way out of my financial range. Wouldn't it be nice to pour some and take in the view? I could strike off one bucket list fantasy.
Miffed;-)
Buffet has a real estate operation. Look where he's planting seeds and you will know all you need to know about real estate trends. Don't even imagine you can do what his hive does.
The Warrens summered here for decades. She would walk to the supermarket. We (working at the store) knew who she was. Nobody else did. We weren't going to tell anybody because thats cool. Niggers are not cool. Mrs. Warren treasured her privacy as much as we do ours. That was the fair trade. We didn't snitch to the msm, the Warrens didn't profiteer off our corner of heaven.
Follow Buffet. Follow Gross. I was here first, before Buffet. I am not a libtard. Dr. Leary found here the shelter the Buffets enjoyed.
When Buffet came here this was a community of veterans. Respect and honor. Your word? Good enough. Not anymore. Since his wife died Buffet has turned coat and sold the place, sold us out. Deal Off. Benedict Arnold gives combat vets the finger, retiring to said community of combat veterans.
I'm a silverback. I train hard daily. I set mines everywhere I go. Oh, contracts. If I don't make it back, you're going to eat mine in ways you cannot imagine. Real DFENS. Real creative genius. Burn your chit to the ground.
There are some things you can't take with you.
It would actually be quite a bit more difficult to confiscate a 401k than bank accounts. No, not for legal reasons (rule of law is, obviously, long dead) but for LOGISTICAL reasons.
Let me run a scenario past you:
Government "confiscates" 100% of all 401k plans for the "common good of the nation". Sounds nice in the telling but what did the government get? A bunch of stocks, corp bonds, and a pile of their own Treasuries, all held in mutual funds or ETFs (did I mention, above, that you can use low-cost ETFs in a 401k plan? Well, you can and I do). What does the government do with all those securities? Sell them, of course! Now imagine dumping about $5 Trillion dollars worth of securities into the low-liquidity "markets" we have today. Yeah, it would get ugly real fast. The possibilities of front-running for large banks and hedge funds would be MONUMENTAL. "Best execution price" wouldn't even enter the equation.
So, the government would have to settle for pennies on the dollar vs. what it was worth the day before the confiscation. Or they would have to sell them over such a long period of time it would be like spitting into the ocean once a day until sea level rises. No way this would be a "quick cash infusion" for the government. They could steal it, but like any thief, the would have to pawn it for a tiny fraction of its value.
It would be FAR simpler to just keep issuing Treasuries and have the Fed instantly buy them (pretty much what they did with QE1, 2, 3, and upcoming 4, 5, 6 and... 42).
Second best solution is to simply take away the tax advantages of 401k accounts/IRAs. Nobody would ever use them after that, but it would be a nice one-time tax revenue enhancement for the government.
Least good option for them would be an outright confiscation.
The only reason to outright confiscate 401k money would be because they want to LITERALLY OWN A CONTROLLING INTEREST IN ALMOST THE ENTIRE PRIVATE SECTOR. Can you imagine the voting leverage if you owned trillions of shares of stock in every public company in the US (and beyond)? Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't put this option past them, because they would definitely do it. But this would not be a solution that comes under the heading of "plugging a gaping hole in the federal budget". Plus you'd be throwing a bunch more people directly onto increased demand for government assistance in their retirement. Not that they give a shit, but when you steal from savers, they become dependants just the same as those who never set anything aside for themselves.
I'm just trying to point out that stealing people's stocks and bonds is a slightly different animal than stealing their bank accounts.
Yes, there is certainly more issues with that approach. I think the MyRA was a half baked attempt to get people to volunteer handing their money over but no one with any serious cash would ever partake. Certainly the bank acct confiscation is the easiest especially when the bank charter considers bank accounts as loans.
When the IRS confiscated $30k from mr Miffed's grandmother's savings account, they finally admitted their error. It still was many months before the money was returned and, of course, no interest paid. Certainly woke her up to the power of the government and the banks. The bank didn't even give her a notification when the IRS demanded it.
Miffed
Great commentary, NoDebt.
I agree. But I think that stealing people's stocks and bonds is still a valid a concern, albeit a different animal.
Scenario: Government steps in to fight against wealth inequality or destroy evil capitalism and usher in a new socialist utopia. Theft of all 401k's is applauded by the free shit army. Controlled demolition of the system given a positive spin as we merrily transition into a new system in which the general population are slaves.
Other Scenario (doomer's wet dream): Uncontrolled collapse of the system when TPTB lose control, in which 401k's suddenly become worthless. (For extra wetness) Gold and silver become the de facto bartering currency.
Posted 8:30 pm. If I was a betting man, I'd bet China is much higher after the first hour. The Chineses gov't will throw everything in to support it tonight. Whether it holds or not is a different bet.
We'll see but I think you're right on target.
Oops! Down 4 or 5% at the open.
Seems like the Chi-Coms have lost the ability to command the stock market to rise.
11: 20 pm - Took them about 2 hours to jack it up but they did it. They must be throwing everything including the kitchen sink at it tonight. Those crooked short sellers will pay.
At some point in time, the government will either have to lean on the Fed print moar or it will have to steal pensions. Why pensions? For the same reason that bank robbers used to rob banks. That's where the money was, and Uncle Sam is fundamentally insolvent.
We forced a whole bunch of folks to hold the bag on our UST Ponzi scheme.
CALPERS
http://m.pionline.com/article/20150727/PRINT/307279985/calpers-looks-to-...
I hear they really want the olympics in LA
It was on the radio today, AM 640 in Los Angeles. "Olympics coming to L.A." the radio idiots were heralding...
Sweet, the FED finally found their new buyer of last resort! The markets are saved and normal price discovery can resume! /sarc
We should all know by now that contracts are only worth what you can afford to defend them with. We were to be a nations of laws that primarily protected our property rights, the ownership of what we earn and the enforcements of legal contracts. That is leaving or already left. We own what we can defend...that is all. Property rights are null and void if it comes to a contest.
Social Security recipients need to understand this, that their rights to the promises are null and void, and if we press the point, we will lose far more.
As the baby boomer generation peaks and begins to decline, that's when SS will start getting scaled back. Votes are the only thing the "me" generation has to defend what they were "promised" by the government they themselves installed. As their influcence declines, because they are dying off or being committed to homes for the infirmed, younger voters will finally start to outnumber them and they WILL vote to break promises to the elderly in order to keep their generation from being taxed to oblivion.
And the more boomers press the point, the sooner and worse it will be.
Strap in blow up, my patriotic seniors.
The death of Rule of Law was declared during the GM bail out when senior bondholders were shafted to benefit the fucking unions.
That is precisely the point in time when contracts became worthless and by extension so have bonds.
cmon man, the rule of law died much longer ago than that....that's what I'd expect to hear from my crothety ol fox news watching pops
You're right.
The Paper Rule, adjunct to the Golden Rule:
"If you don't have it, you don't got it."
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
I live around pensioners.
They cut their grass 2-3 times a week.
They fuss and growl about EVERYTHING.
Screw 'em.
The only thing that's certain is death
Two of my neighbors cut their grass like twice a summer. Weeds 7 feet high, I put up a fence.
Count your blessings.
I NEVER cut my grass!
I ain't got none, and I clear off the tumbleweeds as they show.
"Get off my lawn!"
"Get off my dust!"
I retired from a corporation that has reported every year they have funded over 120% of the payouts. How many government or union funded pensions have this level of funding?
They'll grab the underfunded AND the overfunded pensions.
Catching on yet?
It's the overfunded pensions they really want. THOSE have money.
All your 401's are belong to us
yah yah yah... so Doug Casey wants all your money now... for his retirement.
how do i explain this to my wife? no matter what I say, ZH i show her, she religously takes my money and dumps it into an
IRA. big mistake but you try and tell her
how do you explain this to your wife???
"Sorry honey, we've got some issues with how you're investing our hard earned efforts, and I'm going to have to assume these duties..."
What retirement fund? I've had to cash that thing out to survive since 2011.
Fuck you to Hell and back FED, .gov, and your bankster masters on Wall Street!
Well,I wouldn’t say that the pay-as-you-go benefits are insecure,in the sense that there’s nothing to prevent the federal government from creating as much money as it wants and paying it to somebody.The question is,how do you set up a system which assures that the real assets are created which those benefits are employed to purchase
I come from the Rock & Roll generation. I hope I die before I get old.
Freedom 55 can be achieved with rope, razor blade, tall building, antagonism of PIGS, gun, or by falling on your sword, but it sure as hell can't be achieved by smart investments with a broker.
The elapsed time between when you are on good speaking terms with your neighbors and the moment that they're willing to kill you over a stale package of ramen noodles is relative.
Let the global economic collapse commence.
They will be saying, "MyRa ate my retirement"
Dear Doug, Jeff
Your message here is lacking an action plan. I hope you are not assuming the readers, here, are incapable of actionable thought!
I am reposting what I wrote several years ago.
I hope hundreds of your readers yell at you for not giving them these investment ideas! ______________________
Malcom Forbes published the IRA/ 401k to Roth conversion method around 2011!
________________________________________________________________________________
There's an easy way to legally avoid future double taxation on retirement savings.
.http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidmarotta/2012/02/20/roth-ira-conversion-...
Start transferring your 401-k money to a Roth-Ira.
If you're not working, you'd be surprised how much can be transferred each year.
Conversion Taxes get consumed by Deductibles & other stuff.
Just take last year's Turbo-tax and add a Roth Transfer of x dollars.
Move the conversion amount up and down until you aren't paying more in taxes, or the increase is acceptable.
If you're not working, your deductibles will allow sizable transfers at no cost.
FORBES may have been first to describe this technique.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidmarotta/2012/02/20/roth-ira-conversion-...
I've been transferring 7,000 to 10,000 each year. You have to figure what amount works for you.
The IRS has NEVER questioned, or disallowed, the amounts that I transferred. That's because I used and respected their rules!
Then there's the question of how to invest the money. I move between Long and Inverse ETFs. When the market goes down the Inverse ETF rises in value. These positions will run for months.
Currently, the market is trending down and the Inverse ETFs are rising in value. Take a look at Energy(ERX is long, ERY is short) or Financials(FAS long and FAZ short).
May 1 was a good time to go long on ERY.
Being long in FAS since 2009 has worked nicely. Now, I'm leaning to FAZ.
Withdrawals after age 59.5 are not taxable at all.
Keep in mind there is a 5 year rule on starting withdrawals, so get that ROTH account started!
oh man, you were doing great up until......
'...That's because I used and respected their rules!...'
this is my exit, have a good one.
Exactly ..he lost me there..cooperating with outlaws is no good thing. I respect an Ann Barnhardt crazy as she may sound ..cooperate only when they have a gun to your head ..amazing a good tax attorney can cost a lot less than folloeing """the rules"" all the time. Govt breaks its own damn rules, cost us trillons squandered away our future and that of our children, they will takev15 percent out of a social security check for some long forgotten tax debt they say you owe, they do not give a damn if you and yours starve to death but they will put millions of thirfbworlders on our dime here and abroad..as far as I am concerned govt of USSA lost its right to ask anything from me decades ago..When SHTF, I hopebpissed off Chinese Tongs and old families hunt them down and off them one by one
Pensioners will vote the Millennials into labor camps to keep their sacred pensions afloat.
Generational warfare.
Stop watching FoxNews and start thinking!
???
So if I start watching MSNBC, I will finally get into MENSA?
You know that voting only counts if it fits the agenda. They have already distributed the bulk of the earned wealth, and are well into the future, yet to be earned wealth. Old people have no future to steal.
Arithmetic? Social Security will cost under $800 billion this year, much less than the useless $1 trillion-plus military-industrial complex. The public are fools if they buy in to this right-wing propaganda.
"Social Security will cost under $800 billion this year, much less than the useless $1 trillion-plus military-industrial complex."
Social Security is only one of a multitude of entitlement programs in the U.S.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare and other benefit programs, and interest on the debt made up almost two-thirds of federal spending in 2014.
http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/budget-entitlement-programs
And you can look all over the place and you will readily determine the mass of people who haven't saved a fucking dime in their whole goddamn life and now they are retiring after working for 40 to 55 or so... years.
Millions of people with absolutely no savings and nothing but Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
So what're we gonna do?
Do we feed'em or kill'em all?
Just checking what I got.
2014 DoD & National Security Estimate = $1 Trillion
2014 Medicare/Medicaid Services = $1.187 Trillion
2014 Social Security Admin = $908.76 Billion
2014 State & Federal Education = $1.1 Trillion
2014 Interest on Public Debt = $429.568 Billion
2014 Dept Veterans Affairs = $154.05 Billion
2014 SNAP, Child Nutrition, & WIC = $102 Billion
2014 Tennessee Valley Authority = $46.6 Billion
2014 HUD Outlays = $42.04 Billion
2014 Dept Labor Outlays = $62.98 Billion
2014 IRS, Payment where earned income credit exceeds liability for tax Outlays = $60.09 Billion
2014 IRS, Payment Where Child Tax Credit Exceeds Liability for Tax Outlays = $21,49 Billion
Revenue:
Corporate Income Taxes Receipts 2014 = $ 320.7 Billion
Individual Income Taxes Receipts 2014 = $1.395 Trillion
Seems like the big ones except I don't have the Revenue from Medicare, Unemployment, Disability, and Social Security...
So corporations pay way less taxes than the citizens; the corporate CEO's hold what???... 90 percent of the wealth in the country; and they all pay an effective federal income tax rate less than their employees do.
That is perfectly fair, and equitable.
Yeah, pretty much. It is politics. The Threat is there that they will invest in other states, other countries, other tax jurisdictions, or off-shore, set up off-shore production, off-shore jurisdiction... Enlist others to fight the same tax jurisdiction issues or for similar tax subsidies and rebates.
Sorry I'm drinking. That is what comes to mind.
I calculated 14% Corporate Income tax, but they say the actual is 12% or a little hire.
Tax is a wide broad Subject.
- Vat or Sales Tax
- Property and Wealth Tax, Window Tax, Pool Tax, Entering house to assess them for tax as a subcontractor
- Income Tax... 90% in early 20th Century
- Flat Income Tax
- Fair Income Tax
- Progressive or Flat or Regressive... no tax outside of jurisdiction
- Poor Tax, Lottery Type Gaming
- Traffic Light, Speeding Tax
- Excise Tax, Sales Tax, Gasoline Tax
- Obama Tax
- Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment, Disability Taxes
But, yeah they want to scheme to increase property tax just like they want to increase banking fees... add line items to your utility bill, cable bill, telephone bill, electric, sewer, plumbing, city water, blah blah
How about all the smart ones out of the market and into money market in their 401? Check and see if you MM fund isn't already in Treasuries!
I know, but I'm losing less per month, over the last couple months, than any of the other plan options. Base of 4% with plan cost of 4.79% means I'm losing .79%. All other plans begin with 3% losses. Not one winner in the bunch for the last three months.
Comment on SMAs from the post 2 hours ago?
I don't really know about them, but had a buddy that was into a similar Insurance (Life) Annuity, once he was vested in he was pulling 7% out I think... and it was like a term or 20 years.
Kind of cumbersome I guess.
But he never said SMAs or this secret of the rich who invest in 700 series insurance for an Annuity.
P.S. I'm drinking, but maybe I sound anti-social... sorry about that. I should start with a greeting, some kind of hook like humor, and then ask the question.
I think I'm drinking too slow...
I finally got around to cashing in my private IRA last year only because it took a couple of years to unwind it in a way, using a self-directed IRA LLC, to cut the taxes and penalties in half. I wasn't going to take the ass-pounding by cashing in early without at least trying to be creative.
Glad it's done before time ran out. Sad that it's come to this.
Dependence on money is a dependence on slavery. We seem to think that money is natural. It is not. It is a construct that enslaves us to those who create money.
Over the course of the last two years I used the funds in my 401(k) to purchase secondary market annuities (SMA's). These things are great!
You've seen the commercials on TV ... JG Wentworth! Get cash NOW!??
Well, I'm one of the guys who is giving these people the cash! The people who are trading in all their future payments for a discounted lump sum payment!
Haven't done to bad...
I'm retiring in July, 2016. In the meantime I'm making 7.01 percent on these funds - and then they'll start to pay out in July next year for the next 20 years or so, give or take - returning 7.01 percent per year as the funds are liquidated.
Kind of like having a 20 year mortgage at a 7.01 percent interest a year, except I'm getting the principal plus the interest... not paying it.
Ya, sure you traders can do better, or you won't, but me? I'm goin fer the guarantees.
The thing thats the most important to me is I won't have to wake up at 3 AM and see whats going on in the futures markets, etc. I can just get my freeking checks every month and sleep every night... unless my kids or grandkids come crying to me because they need to live in my basement.
Oh I forgot one last thing... very important!!!
The INTEREST INCOME is TAX FREE because of the nature of Secondary Market Annuities.
Payees of Secondary Market Annuities NEVER receive a 1099 for reporting income to the IRS.
But then again... You can voluntarily report the interest income if you choose to contribute.
SMAs? Are they available at discount brokers? I guess would need a symbol or to sober up and do a web-search for SMAs.
Yes, most would be happy with 7%, but what do you mean the principal is paid back... sounds like your principal is on the line big time...
- Never invest in a small cap fund or instrument which can be attacked by raiders
The real issue will ultimately be Gov.K. You will be given the opportunity to turn over your 401(k) for a guaranteed version that will never earn less than t-bills but will be invested in a phantom fund based on your age. These new Gov.k funds will be managed by the top banksters just like healthcare. You can keep your current version if you like...for now. This will be a huge windfall to the Treasury. The best way to get this promise funded will be the next huge crash. They will be willing to make you whole back to your high water mark. The sheeple will flock in droves to give their money to Gov.k.
But as Arthur Schopenhauer points out, there are many markets and so there are other investments.
Stopped reading at the Social Security Block... He never mentioned one word about how it was massively over funded and the government crooks stole the monies for Wars and Welfare.
He tells half the story and leaves out the most important part.
All your IRA's is ours.
Only the Federal Government would steal your pension and say they are protecting you.
When you realize that there is a huge $100T Treasury Bond bubble backstopping as collateral over $700T in interest rate derivatives acting as fraudulent insurance
policies that can easily default like in 2008, you’re in jeopardy of losing 80-90% of you pension the government is pretending to be ‘safe’.
As usual in the United States of Deception, from pensions to vaccines, GMOs and fluoride – the opposite is true.