Pension Plans

If you have a pension plan at work you will want to read this and if you don't you will still want to because it affects your retirement account.

There are two kinds of formal retirement plans that are set in place by employers. The least complicated is the Defined Contribution where you are allowed to make your own contribution and your employer may also make matching contributions of a percentage of what you put in. At retirement you get out what you put in plus all accruals. The more you contribute the more you have for retirement. A professional money manager who tries to get the most return for the amount in the pool manages the money. He is paid an amount usually a percentage of the assets in the pool, not on performance.

Sometimes a large mutual fund such as Fidelity or Janus is the manager and you are allowed to choose from 6 or 8 different mutual funds in which to place your cash. They do not encourage you to switch from fund to fund even if a fund you are in is under performing.

The Defined Benefit pension plan is much better for the employee. It states the amount you will receive monthly upon retirement. Your contribution amount is fixed and the company makes up the difference to be sure that there is enough money in your account so you will be paid the amount specified. The pension manager must use an actuarial table to figure how much money is necessary to be placed in the pool each year.

Recently it has been found that many companies have been using unreal rate-of-return figures for projection of profits. What the company is allowed to do under current law is to add any overage of calculation to their bottom line. Now it seems that those numbers have been far off so instead of your company showing a big profit last year they will be showing a loss. Suppose your manager had figured the plan would grow at 10% and now it has only grown at 5%. This could have disasterous affect on your company's bottom line and certainly on your company's stock prices.

You might want to ask your company Controller or Treasurer for a report on how your pension plan is doing including what assumption they are making for return on investment.

In a long-term bull market mutual funds do well, but in a long-term bear market mutual funds will lose money. No one talks about this, especially the mutual funds, but it is an obvious fact when you step back to look at the overall market performance for the past 75 years.

During a bear market there are only two types of accounts you can have within a 401K or other retirement account to protect yourself from loss ? either a money market account or a fixed income bond mutual fund. Better check it out.

Al Thomas' book, "If It Doesn't Go Up, Don't Buy It!" has helped thousands of people make money and keep their profits with his simple 2-step method. Read the first chapter at http://www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why he's the man that Wall Street does not want you to know.

1-888-345-7870; http://www.mutualfundmagic.com

high-end home cleaning Bannockburn ...

In The News:

Uber teen accounts now feature live video streaming from the driver's camera, but encrypted recordings stay on Uber's servers for up to 14 days.

Router firewalls and software firewalls serve different roles in protecting your home Wi-Fi from unwanted traffic and suspicious connections.

A Chrome extension with 70,000 users and a 4.7-star rating began injecting fake update warnings after a threat actor acquired and weaponized it.

Amazon's Alexa+ rolls out free to Fire TV devices across the U.S., but hands-free microphones and stored voice data raise key privacy questions.

Meta's new teen accounts settlement sets a default two-hour daily limit on Instagram and Facebook, plus night mode and school mode restrictions.

The CareCloud data breach exposed Social Security numbers, banking information and medical records belonging to more than 3.75 million people.

Waymo reveals its custom 5-nanometer chip and dual computing systems designed to take over instantly if the robotaxi's primary computer fails.

Identity theft now includes account takeover, phone hijacking and payment card exposure. Here's what to look for in identity theft protection services.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

The FBI and Justice Department seized domains tied to QScan and QTRouter, tools allegedly used by China-linked hackers to breach NASA and other agencies.

Uber Eats drone delivery launches later this year through a Zipline partnership, starting in Dallas and Houston with a goal of one million daily flights.

Medicare Open Enrollment scams start with data broker targeting months before October. Learn why August is the time to remove your personal info.

The World Humanoid Robot Games' crashes show how far the technology still needs to go to be useful, "Survivor" reality TV star and robotics scientist Christian Hubicki says.

X-Humanoid's TianGong Ultra ran 100 meters in 9.32 seconds at Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games, beating last year's winner by more than half.

A tap-to-pay charity scam is turning small $15 or $20 donations into charges of nearly $5,000, with victims losing thousands before they notice.

Kurt Knutsson shares seven emergency preparedness lessons from surviving Hurricane Katrina inside a New Orleans hotel as conditions turned desperate.

A contractor stored credentials in a Google Doc set to "Anyone with the link," and Google Search autocomplete eventually surfaced the password string.

New Orleans 911 uses Carbyne AI to triage repeat auto crash calls, but strict limits keep human call-takers in control of all other emergencies.

A single card skimmer can generate $1 million in stolen funds, and Secret Service video shows criminals installing them in under two seconds.

ChatGPT, Meta AI and Google now use memory, connected apps and past chats to personalize ads and responses in ways most users overlook today.

MagicalAuth by Glide.id uses cryptographic SIM credentials to verify bank logins without sending SMS OTP codes that scammers can intercept or phish.

A humanoid robot named Lightning Bolt ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, edging Usain Bolt's record.

An AI agent using Claude AI canceled another person's gym booking after finding a security flaw in the reservation system's authorization checks.

Trump signed a memorandum allowing vetted private U.S. companies to conduct cyber operations against foreign criminal organizations under oversight.

Your Social Security number appeared in a breach, but exposure and identity theft are not the same. Here's how identity restoration actually works.

Pension Plans

Stocks & Mutual Fund