MONEY: withdraw roughly 4 percent of my retirement savings each year

Thursday, August 16, 2007

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/13/pf/expert/expert.moneymag/index.htm

Retirement: The 4 percent solution
Many retirees are confused about how much of their savings to take out each year. Money Magazine’s Walter Updegrave explains the 4 percent rule.
Money Magazine
By Walter Updegrave, Money Magazine senior editor
August 14 2007: 10:32 AM EDT

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NEW YORK (Money) — Question: I’ve read that if I withdraw roughly 4 percent of my retirement savings each year to live on, my money will last virtually forever. But does this 4 percent include the money my portfolio already kicks off in dividends and interest? Or is the 4 percent withdrawal on top of that? – Doug Martin, Syracuse, New York

Answer: First, let me say you’re not the only person mystified by the workings of the 4 percent withdrawal rule. I get questions about it all the time, so I’m happy to clear up the confusion.

Money Magazine’s Walter Updegrave gives his advice on the best way to maximize your retirement savings when you are just starting out.

And while I’m doing that, I’d also like to point out that, like any rule of thumb, this one is really only a general guideline. It’s not as if the Retirement Gods have decreed that everyone must use a 4 percent initial withdrawal rate, or that doing so guarantees the best retirement.

But before I get into some of the subtleties about this oft-quoted rule, let me explain how it works. Many people think that the 4 percent rule means that you simply withdraw 4 percent of retirement savings each year. But that’s not right. In fact, the 4 percent figure applies only to the percentage of your savings that you withdrawal the first year of retirement.

You then increase the dollar amount of that initial withdrawal for inflation each year.

***End Quote***

Rules of thumb are great. Even if they made the mistake and took 4% each year, they wouldn’t be far wrong. And, if else fails, one COULD — not recommended — buy a low cost annuity and take all the guess work out of it.

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Posted by reinkefj

GUNS: RKBA what it means to be an American

Thursday, August 16, 2007

http://washingtontimes.com/article/20070813/EDITORIAL/108130006/1013

Bearing arms
Scott McPherson
August 13, 2007

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Scott McPherson of the Future of Freedom Foundation writes: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms is an important and integral part of what it means to be an American. In fact, it could be said to represent the most important and integral part of being an American. When our ancestors followed the example of half the state governments and included a “right to arms” provision in the Federal Bill of Rights, they unapologetically and irrefutably established a nation of free and autonomous individuals.”

***End Quote***

Hopefully, we can get control of the government without using the final “check” in the Constitution’s “Checks and Balances”. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem unavoidable.

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Leave a Comment » | LIBERTY | Permalink
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LIBERTY: it’s nice for somebody to cut a ribbon for a new structure

Thursday, August 16, 2007

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/13/commentary/lashinsky_atlas.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2007081406url

Why is America falling apart? Ask Ayn Rand
Collapsing bridges, flooded subways, trapped miners: our recent disasters recall a novel from a half century ago. Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky explores the nation’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ moment.
FORTUNE Magazine
By Adam Lashinsky, Fortune senior writer
August 14 2007: 6:16 AM EDT

***Begin Quote***

As for the political leadership, infrastructure spending is one of those rare instances where President Bush’s take is spot-on correct, though his words likely won’t be heeded because he is so unpopular and divisive. (The immigration debate, where the president has been pragmatic and right from the beginning, also comes to mind.) Asked if gasoline taxes should be raised to pay for infrastructure improvements, the president chastised Congress for favoring attention-getting new projects over boring maintenance needs.

He’s right. Liberals like Chuck Schumer agree. “Routine but important things like maintenance always get shortchanged because it’s nice for somebody to cut a ribbon for a new structure,” Schumer recently told the New York Times.

Today’s Randians, of course, have an answer to our woes: Privatize everything. No way a bridge falls if a profit-seeking company, properly incentivized, had been charged with maintaining it, goes the argument. That, however, is dangerous thinking. There are certain things the market just can’t be trusted to handle. Imagine that bridge-maintenance company having to cut expenses this quarter by delaying work for just a few days. Imagine how the CEO might feel if the stock would drop if he couldn’t make the quarter.

***End Quote***

Of course, the CEO of the bridge maintenance company might delay maintenance for a profit. But, I’ll bet a dollar that the insurance company and the Board of Directors, and their insurance companies, will be all over his ass!

If there is a one thing that insurance companies know, it that collecting premiums is much more profitable than paying claims.

And, auditors usually report directly to the Audit Committee of the BoD. All they have to do is whisper that there is a problem and everyone is running around like their shorts are on fire to solve it.

So, I’d suggest that we would all be far safer if the gooferment got out of planning, operating, and maintaining anything.

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1 Comment | LIBERTY | Permalink
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RANT: Voting on stuff that is never read

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

From the DownSizeDC gang

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All in all, the House passed 48 bills in the last week before the August recess, and the Senate passed 32. We normally tell you the total number of pages of legislation Congress passed, but this week, we just don’t have the time to add it all up. And we don’t think that is needed to prove the point: members of Congress can’t possibly have time to read and understand the bills they pass.

*** end quote ***

It’s amazing that they can vote to approve stuff that has never been read.

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PRODUCTIVITY: NIH

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

http://www.populistamerica.com/ripple_and_ripley_effects

Ripple and Ripley Effects
August 7, 2007
by Clay Barham

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The Ripley effect, however, is a syndrome related to incompetence. The night nurse making her rounds illustrates incompetence. She wakes the patient at 2 AM to give him his sleeping pill. Thought never enters into the situation. It is that kind of thinking that pervades the halls of government, if you can call it thinking. It is associated with government because thinking is actually frowned upon and dangerous for the one who might do the thinking. It is always better to stick with instructions and the already established practice. Even better, avoid all thought and action by delays or further investigations and hearings.

This brings me to General James Ripley, Chief of Ordnance under Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. President Lincoln did not suffer from a condition of normal bureaucratic mental constipation, as has always been the dominant thinking process for civil servants and political appointees. When confronted by a builder of hot air balloons, one equipped to soar above a battlefield for observation, Lincoln ordered General Winfield Scott to try it. Reluctantly, Scott used one at the Battle of Manassas. The information provided by the observers helped the outnumbered Union forces win that battle. The Ripley Effect set in, however, and General Scott refused to use it again, though it proved useful. After all, it was NIH, not invented here, but by Lincoln.

***End Quote***

On display everywhere!

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RANT: the Southern Baptists were anti-war

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance117.html

What Happened to the Southern Baptists?
by Laurence M. Vance

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“We can see no just ground for the enormous military and naval establishment now being built up and maintained by our government.”
~ Southern Baptist Convention, 1936

“We express pride and strong support for our American military.”
~ Southern Baptist Convention, 2004

What happened to the Southern Baptists?

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. The annual meeting of the SBC was held this year in San Antonio, Texas, on June 12 and 13. President Bush addressed the crowd of thousands of messengers via satellite with a nine-minute speech on the closing day “to multiple lengthy applauses and standing ovations,” according to Baptist Press, the official news agency of the SBC.

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In http://tinyurl.com/2nfnrc, I blogged about the “interesting” fact that “Balancing Church and State” has led to the State taking over religion in the new Amerika.

The serfs can no longer use the Church (i.e., encompassing all religious denominations including the Atheists and Wiccans) as a counter-balance to the oppressive State. When opposing the intrusions of Gooferment into religion, the Atheists and Wiccans are “the enemy of my enemy”.

The Gooferment took over the functions of the Catholic Church and allowed the scandals to diminish its influence. So to, it subverted the Southern Baptist from their anti-war stance into a pro-Gooferment entity.

Seems straight line to me, opposed the gooferment and you will get “converted” by hook, crook, or force.

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TECH SOFTWARE: a collection of portable apps

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

http://portableapps.com/suite

PortableApps.com Suite
your computer, without the computer™

***Begin Quote***

PortableApps.com Suite™ is a collection of portable apps including a web browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, antivirus, sudoku game, backup utility and integrated menu, all preconfigured to work portably. Just drop it on your portable device and you’re ready to go.

***End Quote***

Interesting. Your USB fob is all you need for any strange machine. Great idea. Even my personal machine is strange!

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RANT: FTC surprise “fast food restaurants try to sell food to kids”

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

http://www.cecsearch.com/WordPress/2007/08/13/welcome-to-the-nanny-states-of-america

Welcome to the nanny states of America.
August 13th, 2007 by Chief Executive Restaurant Recruiter

*** begin quote ***

Hey FTC surprise, fast food restaurants try to sell food to kids. In a a move that seems completely motivated by the meddlesome, nanny-wannabe attitude of our government officials, the FTC decides that they should investigate the marketing practices of 5 restaurant company giants.

***and***

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of the government telling me “what’s best for me” and trying to legislate my “perfect life.”

***and***

Can we not find better things to do with our tax dollars than fund ridiculous investigations of the fast food industry and whether or not they are trying to sell more hamburgers to kids.

*** end quote ***

Welcome to the war that us libertarians of all stripes (i.e., Big L, Little L, Free Marketeer, Small Government. and other flavors) have been fighting for decades. Perhaps you might now consider that the gooferment can’t do ANYTHING right. Let alone do something in an efficient or effective manner.

It was the gooferment that labeled “butter bad; margarine good” in some world war or another. Seems like we are always at “war”! It is the gooferment that now tells us that “transfats are bad”. (Isn’t that just like margarine?) And, don’t smoke, drink, or forget to wear your seat belts. (Recently they surmised a woman and her children drowned when she could NOT free the children from their gooferment mandated child seats. Some of us can remember cars without the optional seat belts.) (P.S.: New Hampshire without a seat belt law has a high rate of seat belt use than Taxachusetts where it’s mandatory!) And, you don’t need any of them there vitamins or supplements says the FDA. (Guess because they are cheap insurance and none of their buddies — I mean “regulated” drug companies — can profit from them, you can’t have them.) And since the gooferment regulate food and drug, the gooferment is allowed to tell you what you can or can’t put in your body. Like Thalidomide. But, the geese will be safe no that patty faux grasss has been added to the banned list.

Never mind that medical cost and drug costs are thru the roof due to regulation. I have to go the gooferment approved doc to get a gooferment approved Rx that I can take to the gooferment approved “drug” store built to gooferment standards and staffed with gooferment approved druggists following gooferment approved procedures who will sell me gooferment regulated drug manufactured in gooferment approved facilities built to gooferment standards. And you wonder why costs are high. time to market for new drugs are long, and mistakes are made all the time?

Taxes are theft. Regulation and Inflation are just taxes in a different guise. Wouldn’t we all be better off if they would slim back down to Constitutional size.

Just wait, you have seen anything yet. The gooferment is like the Blob and absorbs everything. Now where is my pitchfork and torch. The townsfolk are assembling to burn City Hall and I don’t want to be late. Or was it Frankenstein’s castle?

Argh! Thanks for getting me aggravated!

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FUN: UNSTOPPABLE

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

UNSTOPPABLE

1 Comment | FUN | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

INTERESTING: publicity-seeking politician eager to sacrifice “us”

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

http://www.smartmoney.com/tradecraft/index.cfm?story=20070813

Government Shouldn’t Bail Out Failing Homeowners
By Jonathan Hoenig
Published: August 13, 2007

***Begin Quote***

The more the government gets involved in mortgages and banking, the tighter credit will become. But beyond the impractical reality of collectivist economics, a bailout of homeowners facing foreclosure would be an immoral violation of the property rights of the millions of citizens who live within their means and pay their bills on time. The responsibility of paying back subprime mortgage rests with those who took them, not the publicity-seeking politician eager to sacrifice the individual for the “public good.”

***End Quote***

Here’s an interesting take on how the gooferment creates the problem and then rushes in to “save us”!

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Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

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