A.L.T. Money

AGT  THE SAFE MONEY PEOPLE     RETIREMENT PLANS

Link   http://www.AGTthesafemoneypeople.com


Recycled Web Page     October2014

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GIVE ME YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!  WAIT A MINUTE, I'M THINKING ABOUT IT.  JACK BENNY, 39

Are you still working hard for the money?  Are you working double shift all these years?  8, 16 and 25 hours a day?  Careful...it might come to bite you.  Lab techs I asked say they have to work for health insurance for their family.  Forty million of young, baby boomers and senior American citizens don't have health insurance.

Babies born in the next few years will live up to 110 years old.  What does that say with the Social Security System and Medicare?  I just got their letter last December.  Hopefully, with the genius of Bill Gates, the richest man in planet earth, he'll be able to help and contribute something in this century.  How?  I don't know.  He's the one with the computer to analyze the whole thing.  I was watching NBR (Nightly Business Report) last night.  MSN was up at 56.  Steve Case of AOL quit as a chairman.  So he's out.

I took a business quiz a few months back.  I failed miserably.  Is it the test or me?  There are no easy answers but I think it's the lousy test.  No wonder there are a lot of CEOs, COOs, and stinky administrators on the run or indicted.  I was watching my favorite TV channel (FOX News - Fair and Balanced) a few weeks ago.  You can tell I didn't go on vacation to Club Med.  Is it still around?  Anyway, one of the financial experts was being interviewed.  He said, "I work hard for my money."  Blah. Blah. Blah.  It was laughable because the guy gets $1 million per episode of the show from FOX.

Investing in individual company is risky.  There are a lot of bad people out there.  Don't invest on something you don't understand.  Which I break all the time.  You live and learn in this life.  I'm reminded of my vagabond no-nonsense godfather who once told me, "Live your life with no excuses."  This year, I'll try to pay off my mortgage.  Save and put the money in the bank, earn 2% interest than lose 2% interest in the stock market every year.  Put a little investment in gold stocks? Earn 1000% in the course of ten years? Funds that turn over a lot mean higher taxes.  Some say, cut the taxes of the rich and everybody wins.

Are you retiring rich pretty soon or in the near future?  There is no such thing last year according to Ben Stein, a former Nixon speech writer and now a Star Search judge.  He said you can't retire rich unless you're already rich.  A friend of mine is blaming President Bush for not being able to retire early.  This is an asinine excuse.  I didn't tell her that - she's sensitive.  The stock market boom of 1998 went bust in 2000.  I got 18% interest in my 401k that year.   The 401k interest went down in 2002.  The bubble economy of the previous administration was gone with the wind.  Now, Bush just took over.  His presidential seat at the White House was not even warm.  The economic cycle was on the roll but sluggish.

Then 9/11 came.  Everything was attacked.  Humanity.  Freedom.  Peace.  Economy.  President Bush is not God.  But he's the right man to guide us to a half-ass recovery.  Maybe even a full recovery by the end of his term in 2008.  I hate to be rhetorical but even God made the universe in 6 days.


Published   Jan. 2003 ALT MSN Group

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LAB AND MONEY: IT TAKES MONEY TO MAKE MONEY - MARK SLOAN, M.D.

Show me what's in your pocket.  Are you richer today than yesterday or poorer?  Do you think money is bad for your health? Everyone was flying high in the 90s and livin' la vida loca! Then the economic boom went bust by the mid-2000 followed by the attack of September 11 by the terrorists.  The geo-political scene was turned upside down.  Many company scandals with shameless and greedy CEOs getting away for cooking the books.  The airline industry was devastated and had to declare bankruptcy.  Longtime employees were laid off and forced to an early retirement.  You're lucky if you're not included in the 6% who were unemployed.

For the unemployed who's feeling poorer and seniors who lost their nest eggs because of bad investment - be optimistic.  There's nothing but up in a down economy.  The 0% credit card interest, the 3% mortgage interest, the Bush tax relief package and wise spending by you will be a great help.  Why spend $20 when you're earning the minimum wage?  Be like a man who will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs not a woman who will pay $1 for a $2 item she doesn't need.  Get it?

I know I should not be surprised but this is the most amazing thing.  Why would you pay Oprah $185 just to hear her talk? She's a billionaire!!! She even said so herself  for coming to see her.  A lot of folks did, mostly women, because her seminar was sold out.  Don't you have a mind of your own, you women!?! One thing's for sure - these women don't suffer from SARS (Severe Acute Revenue Syndrome).  Now, this is a different view.  The Microsoft billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates gave 40,000 computers to libraries in small town America for teens and seniors to use.  If you can't go to the world, let the world come to you.  I say the have should always give to the have nots.  It's better with the butterfly.

For lab techs, money is not an easy thing to deal with.  We all have the same money folio for we worked together.  I looked at my own conservative portfolio.  I just got my prospectus (half-inch thick) which I don't read.  Uh-oh.  I know I should read.

Published 2003  ALT MSN Group

Web Page: Lab and Money

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Every year,  I
get my annual statement from the Social Security Administration.  All
workers age 25 or older do. www.ssa.gov  I carefully read it and check if
someone has stolen my social security number.  The news is so full of
report about identity theft and that an estimated 5 million people had their
identity stolen.  My message here is not about identity theft but about the
condition of the social security and future retirement. 

Social Security is a national insurance
program managed by the government.  The system's income is taken from
workers payroll taxes (6.2%) and the amount is matched by the employer. 
Another 1.45%  of the slice goes to Medicare.  All workers pay a
lot into the system and right now there's a surplus of $1.5
trillion. The problem is more than 75% goes right back as monthly benefits
to current retirees, disabled persons and the families of deceased
workers.  The well-informed President Bush kept telling us in his
60-city social security seminar that the number of workers paying into the
system is falling - today, 3-to-1 and by 2030, 2-to-1.  The 78 million baby
boomers that will be retiring in the near future will definitely empty the
coffers. Moreover, partial payouts are likely to start as early as 2042 and
without reform the money chest could be empty by 2075. BUSTED
!!!

According to President Bush, retirees,
senior citizens and AARP members should not be afraid of losing their
entitlements.  True, most Americans are living longer and those age 65
today are likely to live well past the age 80.  But they who are enjoying
the measly money they put into the system should not be greedy and should think
of the young workers of today.  There, I've said it!  I'm
criticizing the retirees and senior citizens.  Hate me!  Hate
me!

As a young worker, I was warned by my older
brother that I can't count on my social security to support me on my
retirement.  Those days are ending when 20% of retirees depend on Social
Security as their main source of income and 35% count on it for 90%.  Many
years ago, I did not listen, went on my wild and crazy way of binging and
wasting money - at one time I even had 3 cars.  However, it's not
always too late to change.  I started saving money.  I opened an
investment account then like what President Bush is proposing for  the
young workers of today.  It's a conservative portfolio (I hate to lose
money) and because I'm a lazy procrastinator, it has become stagnant through the
years.  I must confess I don't read the half-inch series fund annual
report.  My investment company even sent me a "Planning For Your
Retirement" CD and a letter informing me that one of the growth funds is
underperforming and that they made a replacement.  Really and truly,
there is no place for lazy people like me.  Thank goodness, very few people
have this extreme bad habit. 

Think this....the inflation rate every year
is 3.5%.  If you like your retirement money to outlive you, not you
outliving your money, you must do some planning to complement your Social
Security income.  Right now, one of the best ways is fixed annuities: your
money will pass immediately to you and your beneficiary will avoid legal fees
and court cost.  Unlike in a "will" no one will contest it.  Another
type is Equity Index Annuity.  This is getting complicated so I suggest you
ask your certified senior advisor how to get market gains without risk, increase
your monthly income, reduce your taxes and never lose money (I only follow the
stock market ups and downs once or twice a year).

Dear lab techs and
friends, we must listen to President Bush. Being the president he has the
inside information about the health and wealth of the social security
system.  He and his experts know what they are talking about than most of
the liberal democrats in Congress.  For sure, Harry " Mr. Social Security
Roulette" Reid and his cabal will have strong and loud debate with the
Conservatives for a period of, let's say, a year?  Congress will be
considering high payroll taxes, increasing the "normal" retirement to 70 and
changing the index used to calculate benefits.  Of course, the
semi-privatization of social security endorsed by money-savvy President
Bush.  Each
person's retirement is different - status, health, financial needs, family
obligations, amount of income from work and other sources.  I've been
asked, "Are you ready for retirement?"

What do you want?  What do you really,
really want?

Don't worry, go for it!

 Money....put it in your pocket,      

Save it for a rainy day.

For A. L. T. Publication

Published 4/29/05  ALT MSN Group

Web Page: A.L.T. Money