Supplements, Alternatives Or Replacements for Endangered U.S. SOCIAL SECURITY and vaporizing PENSION AND RETIREMENT PLANS - Possibilities Worth Exploring. Now...Unless you have a great deal of faith in government and your company's money managers to secure your future...

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Supplements, Alternatives Or Replacements for Endangered U.S. SOCIAL SECURITY and vaporizing PENSION AND RETIREMENT PLANS - Possibilities Worth Exploring. Now...Unless you have a great deal of faith in government and your company's money managers to secure your future...

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Article Title:

Supplements, Alternatives Or Replacements for Endangered U.S. SOCIAL SECURITY and vaporizing PENSION AND RETIREMENT PLANS - Possibilities Worth Exploring. Now...Unless you have a great deal of faith in government and your company's money managers to secure your future...
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Note: This article was written by Douglas Castle (http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com), author of THE GLOBAL FUTURIST, THE INTERNATIONALIST PAGE, and BRAINTENANCE. My Castle is also Co-Chairman and CEO of TNNWC Group, LLC, a firm which provides publications, intelligence and uniquely powerful services to entrepreneurs and emerging enterprises. Visit http://www.TNNWCgroup.com and become a Member for free today.

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Article Type:

Open Discussion Forum.

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Fellow Futurists:

There is great concern amongst the aging U.S. population that they will not be receiving their full share (which they have worked hard for, and which has been in the "financial management" of the United States Government and its agencies.

This fund has been raided and is rapidly vaporizing. The Government and legislators are dropping hints (the size of bombs), that they want to raise the Social Security eligibility (i.e., so you run a higher chance of either dying "on the job" before you can collect, or you'll collect less over your "remaining lifetime."

This, of course, will be funded by increased taxes on the U.S. labor force -- but then, that requires employment and wages to tax -- in combination with massive cutbacks in government services.

Corporate pension and other retirement benefits plans are either devalued because of the generalized recession (investments gone sour or south), or because the companies responsible for handling them are changing the rules of the funding vesting and collectibility game -- they are leaving plans unfunded (they have used the capital to sustain operations or to increase senior executive salaries) and going out of business; they are extending the age at which benefits can be accessed or paid out; or they are simply firing people and coming up with a myriad of creative excuses not to pay them any pension beyond a "departure package payment."

Those remaining employed have little or no real security. Don't expect the law to protect you. A legislative or judicial victory to coerce some bureaucrat or administrator to pay you your hard-earned, rightfully-vested, guaranteed retirement funds would, if even possible, be: 1) merely symbolic, if, in fact the funds had already been pilfered, diverted or whittled down to nothing at the time of your "win," and 2) post-mortem, if you are past retirement (i.e., deceased).

My sense of the future is that the federal government in collusion with the Treasury and Congress, can and may dissolve the Social Security Administration's obligation to make payments at will. The same could happen to employers' obligations to segregate and responsibly manage funds and issue payments to retirees.

I don't offer investment, financial, accounting or legal advice...but I can say that we must all look at securing our futures with alternatives, and new approaches. I am merely a Global Futurist with a responsibility to report or foresee emerging trends and advocating reasonable, timely and effective preparedness.

The things that we all (especially U.S. - based Futurists) should all be thinking intensely about follow. And after thinking about them, I would like to ask all of you, my friends and readers, to come up with you strategic ideas and share them with other readers, by posting them to the Comment Box at the end of this Article:

1. How can we gain investment authority over our own funds which are being managed by third-party administrators in 403B, 401K, IRA, and other tax-deferred plans? Alternatively, can we borrow against them, or shut them down (an the minimal possible withdrawal penalty) so that we may gain use of the proceeds? The ultimate effect is to make this money available to us so that we can "self-direct" it.

2. How can we gain investment authority over pension plans, stock option plans, and retirement funds being managed by trustees and administrators chosen by our employers?

3. How can we either tap into or otherwise gain use of Social Security proceeds (even if these are paid out to us early, and in installments) accrued and owing to us?

In summary, the unifed and consolidated question is this: How do we gain access to our money now (why there is still some left) in order to take charge of it ourselves based upon our own investment strategies?

Your participation and your comments are welcome indeed. If you are not reading this on my blog at http://TheGlobalFuturist.blogspot.com, or on the TNNWC Group website (http://www.TNNWCgroup.com), then please post your comments directly to this discussion group as part of an ongoing discussion thread.

I will provide bi-weekly updates on all of the information gathered from all of the respondents to each and every participating group through a downlink. Your responses may remain anonymous if you wish.

The subject heading of your response in any posting thread to any group should be: "THE GLOBAL FUTURIST: Funding Our Futures."

With Great Appreciation,

Douglas Castle

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