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The Global Economy: How The Credit-Crippled Europeans Could Sink Your 401k
If the global economy were a hospital patient, you’d definitely find it in the Intensive Care Unit.
It’s not on life support just yet, but it certainly finds itself in an increasingly precarious position, due to the numerous negative factors swirling around the financial world.
One of these factors is something you might not be aware of, given the furor here in the U.S. It’s happening half a world away over in Eastern Europe and is just beginning to get some attention now.
So pack your bags and I’ll fill you in…
Pain In Prague And Poland
In Eastern Europe, the economic problems are two-fold…
1.…
23Feb2009 | Smart Profits Report | 0 comments | ContinuedYour Individual Retirement Account (IRA): Resolutions for Wealth & Happiness in 2009
We look to the New Year and, hopefully, our resolutions for wealth and happiness in 2009. For many, it could be as simple as saving more and contributing to an IRA account. It’s one of the easiest ways to secure a comfortable future.
Unless you’ve just arrived from another country, most of you reading this know IRA stands for an Individual Retirement Account. It’s probably a safe bet that many of you have them and make regular contributions to one, or to a similar workplace retirement account.
Perhaps you have plans to ultimately use the money to fund your retirement, help out…
1Jan2009 | Investment U | 0 comments | ContinuedTax-Managing Your Investment Portfolio: There’s Still Time to Cut Your 2008 Taxes
Investment legend John Templeton insisted that everyone’s long-term investment goal should be the same: maximum total return after taxes.
In my experience, investors spend plenty of time thinking about risk and return, but not enough about taxes. That’s unfortunate. Especially since – unlike the stock market, interest rates or inflation – taxes are controllable.
Yet too many investors are surrendering far more to the taxman than they should. A Vanguard study, for example, found that the typical investor is giving up 2% a year to the IRS.
That’s nearly 20% of the long-term return of the S&P 500. How can you stop this…
4Dec2008 | Investment U | 0 comments | ContinuedCredit Crisis Safety Plays: Banking Ratings Report Can Provide Peace of Mind and Warn You if Your Bank is Weak
When federal banking regulators last week seized the Houston-based Franklin Bank SSB (FBTX), it became the 18th bank failure this year amid the ongoing credit crisis. With total assets of $5.1 billion and total deposits of $3.7 billion, Franklin wasn’t the largest bank failure this year – that honor belongs to IndyMac Bancorp Inc. (OTC: IDMCQ), which had more than $30 billion in estimated assets when it was seized by U.S. banking regulators in July. At the time, IndyMac was also the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history, reaching all the way back to 1934, U.S. News & World Report said…
14Nov2008 | Money Morning | Comments Off | ContinuedDems talking about socialism
I warned you.
Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive.
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, are looking at redirecting those tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute.
A plan by Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic-policy analysis at The New School…
Four Ways to Protect Your Retirement From the Ongoing Financial Crisis
In the depths of a bear market that has carved between $500 billion and $2 trillion from U.S. retirement accounts so far this year, as many as two-thirds of all Americans have stopped contributing to their retirement plans, a new study shows.
And that’s precisely the wrong decision to make at the wrong time. No matter how poorly the financial markets are performing, saving for retirement has to remain a top priority.
“It’s not a time for people to stop contributing,” Diane Young, director of retirement and goal planning at TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (AMTD), the Omaha, Neb.-based brokerage firm that conducted…
29Oct2008 | Money Morning | 1 comment | ContinuedGlobal Investing Roundups
Google Doesn’t Disappoint; Jobless Claims Drop but Remain High; Peabody’s Third Quarter Lights Out; Nucor Profit Doubles; Nokia’s Profit Dip; AMD Narrows Loss; Hershey’s Sweet Surprise; Citi’s Consumer Credit Woes
- Google Inc. (GOOG) said yesterday (Thursday) that profit climbed 26% to $1.35 billion, or $4.24 per share in the third quarter, up from $1.07 billion, or $3.38 per share, at the same time last year. Revenue soared 31% to $5.54 billion.
- Initial claims for unemployment insurance last week fell 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted level of 461,000 the Labor Department reported yesterday (Thursday). However, the four-week average, which is less volatile, increased slightly…
A BETTER USE FOR YOUR 401(K)
John F. Wasik, a Bloomberg News columnist, brings us news that although nobody has any income to support more spending, nobody has any savings to support more spending, and nobody has anything of value (like home equity) to pawn to support more spending, all is not lost!
There is still one, last, pitiful source of money that could be used to support more spending. He writes, “Among the most awful pitches is something that’s being touted as an employee benefit: the 401(k) debit card. This allows you to treat your retirement fund as a cash account to withdraw money.”
If you are…
15Jul2008 | Daily Reckoning | Comments Off | Continued
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