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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (35605)	8/15/2010 3:08:24 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

Standing at his retirement send-off in the middle of a maze of cubicles, Rick Rubinoff, longtime claims adjuster for Allstate, says he knows he’s a lucky guy, both for the career he’s enjoyed and the pension he’s got coming. His mustachioed smile broadens as his boss rattles off a list of his accomplishments. Coworkers pick at slices of cake as they laugh about pranks they played on him decades ago. Others show pictures from the beginning of the Rubinoff era of agents in the field—in bell-bottoms. The honoree himself, a hulking Russophile, speaks in amazement about the company’s pension, which will let him live comfortably in retirement—even in his pricey Los Angeles suburb. With 31 years at the insurance giant under his belt, Rubinoff has earned a pension worth almost half of his working salary, along with subsidized insurance from the company health plan. He’s not getting the proverbial gold watch, he says, “but, man, they take care of you here.” Still, as generous as the company may be, the mood at this gathering is tinged with anxiety. Some of Rubinoff’s coworkers admit they feel far from sure-footed, financially. “How’d you pull it all off, man?” one of them asks, gripping Rubinoff’s shoulder. And a few weeks after the party, even the guest of honor no longer sounds so sanguine. His first pension check arrived weeks later than he expected. His health benefit is nice, but who’s to say that his premiums won’t go through the roof? Rubinoff now checks the stock market five or six times a day, something he never did before retirement loomed, and he finds it unsettling. “Every time someone in the global economy sneezes,” Rubinoff says, “the stock market tanks!” idiot odumba destroys pension funds .............. To the millions of workers scraping by with a crash-depleted 401(k), having a pension can seem like the next best thing to a lottery ticket—a paycheck for life, often on top of Social Security. But while most of the public stands in awe of these benefits and some argue that 401(k)s should work more like the pension system, many actual pension holders are quietly becoming casualties of the tough economy. The same crises that threaten so many near retirees—soaring health care costs, unexpected unemployment—can eat into their savings and erode the value of their pension income. And they know all too well how easily companies can change their plans. Of the 607 biggest U.S. companies with pension plans, almost a third—190 in all—have frozen them, up from 45 in 2003, capping the paychecks their retirees will eventually receive. “The world is changing,” says Jeff Carbone, a financial adviser in Cornelius, N.C.