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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Amy J who wrote (212820)	12/7/2004 7:24:46 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 1572884

Amy, re: Social Security reform: A guide When we discussed this several months ago, I said "the devil is in the details". re: Why is it capped at $1,000 savings per year? The # should be $3,600 allowable savings, not just $1,000. That's a pittance. Assuming someone works 30 +/- years, we are only talking $30K. Say you turn that into $90K by the time you retire, with inflation it's still not going to mean much. re: They need to give people the freedom to invest in individual securities. Good grief. That would be inviting disaster, and will NEVER become law. Think Enron (or any of a 100 Internet busts). Remember the ultimate goal; to safely keep seniors with food and shelter for the rest of their lives. And who decides what investments are proper? There is a huge economic benefit to the selected "small number of diversified portfolios", huge. Essentially, the government is steering capitol to one investment instrument or sector to the penalty of another. What percentage goes towards technology companies vs. energy companies or bonds? Who decides what's "balanced"? There WILL BE winners and losers. The other part that you should look at is the back end; how do you get your money out of the system? Is it lump sum (with all the danger that represents) on retirement, or incremental payments? What if there is an emergency and you need cash, before or after retirement? Are the funds protected from bankruptcy courts (as your SS benefits are)? It's not a program you just slap together... it's very, very complex and very, very important that you get it exactly right. That, and you have to figure out how to pay for it. John

To: Amy J who wrote (212820)	12/7/2004 10:10:53 AM
From: RetiredNow	Respond to of 1572884

Agreed, but remember the Democrats are using the scare tactic that if the common man was allowed to invest for themselves, they'd end up with no retirement because the common man is a moron who doesn't know how to invest properly. Bush's plan is a baby step. They will limit the amount you can divert and they will limit the investments you can make to safer investments like index funds or horizon funds like the Fidelity Freedom funds. That's actually not a bad idea at all, because it does protect people from themselves. But really, I'd rather see complete freedom. I personally think people are better off when the gov't doesn't make decisions for them wrt their own finances.