On 18/04/2010 9:49 AM, hk wrote:
On 4/18/10 11:40 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 18 Apr 2010 08:19:19 -0400, wrote:
On Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:10:22 -0400, wrote:
On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 22:46:39 -0400, wrote:
americans are the hardest working people in the western world. we work
200 hours more than europeans and japanese.
Yet the Europeans save about 3 times as much as Americans
You said you were working 60 hour weeks. That is 175% of your base
salary and you didn't think you should be saving some of that?
i'm salaried. i dont overtime
and you have the density of a black hole. i've been saving in my 401K
since congress created it 30 years ago.
it's now worth what it was 10 years ago. i should have spent it on
whores and booze like john paulson did when he looted goldman sachs
for a billion
yet in your mind he's a hero because he's rich, and i'm an idiot
because i'm a hard working middle class guy
shows what moral values the right has
You probably make more money than I ever did. You just spend a higher
percentage of it.
A 401k is not savings, it is, at best, a substitute pension plan, at
worst a Ponzi scheme. I predict that when the boomers start drawing
down their 401ks the market will crash again. (and I seem to be pretty
good at predicting market crashes, certainly better than your 401k
manager)
It's best to have available a variety of pensions and pension saving
devices.
Maybe. But always good to keep any eye on them and take them with you.
In my case, I left NorTel in 1995. I could smell the company changing
and I didn't like what I saw. I was underpaid and looked at
alternatives and quit. When I quit, I had to decide to leave the
pension moneys in the plan, or roll them over into my own account. I
chose the later. Today I am not close to retirement yet the yeild is
more than they predicted it would be when I did retire. Bonus, if I die
my wife and estate get 100% of the value. And I didn't eat the NorTel
pension write downs and dilutions.
I did it again in 2008. Actually lightly suggested I get laid off.
Thinking this is a good time to roll over the pensions. Was in cash
when the market crunched. And they too have since devlaued their
payouts while I was buying stock on the cheap.
There are a long list of companies that messed up pensions, Enron,
NorTel, GM, Chrysler, Delco...
I only count on what is in my name in my account. And will quit at the
appropriate times to roll it over into my control. That is, many
employers have plans that I would at some point view as a liability to
staying too long. You can't determine the benefits in 10, 20 or 30
years, they screw with it too much.
--
Time to ask, is our government serving us or are we serving the government?