Archive for February, 2009

What is a 401K Plan

Friday, February 13th, 2009

The 401K derives its name from the IRC (Internal Revenue Code) of 1978. It is administered by the EBSA (Employee Benefits Security Administration) of the Department of Labor.

The 401K plan has various advantages. First and most important is that the employee can contribute pre-tax money thus minimizing the tax paid in each paycheck. Moreover the company contribution and any increase in the fund does not attract tax till it is withdrawn.

The compounding returns from the fund for a period of 20-30 years are simply astronomical. An employee can play a major role in the direction of the future contributions. When the company contributions kick in, something additional is added over your own money. Unlike pension, all money in the plan can be switched over to another company.

The 401K plan is protected by pension laws because it is a personal investment plan. It includes protection against seizure by creditors but not against domestic cases like child support.

There are some drawbacks of the 401K plan, it is difficult to recover your 401K contributions before 60 years. The 401K is not assured by the PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp). Besides company contributions do not set in till you have completed a fixed years of employment. As per the rules, company-matching contributions must either be a 3-year ‘cliff’ plan (100% after 3 years) or a 6-year ‘graded’ plan.

Employees participating in a 401K plan have various investment choices. In most cases, they are a whole lot listing of mutual funds. The mutual funds normally contain money market fund, treasuries, stock funds and bond funds. Certain plans can include investing in company stock and US Savings Bonds. The employee can decide on how the savings are invested. The employee can also decide at any instant, not to keep on contributing.

Financial advisers are generally of the opinion that the average 401K contributors is non-aggressive in their investment choices. Traditionally, stocks have outperformed other types of investment, and as since the 401K is a long-term investment it can reduce the stock market volatility.

Top 7 Ways To Get Rich

Friday, February 13th, 2009

Everybody wants to become rich and enjoy financial freedom. If you want to become rich these are the surefire strategies to become rich

Inherit it

Today’s old money families earned their wealth by this method. In the 1800’s and initial 1900’s, prior to anti-trust laws, income taxes and political correctness, America’s wealthiest families built empires and collected great wealth in various industries like oil, banking, newspapers, sugar, transportation, land, bootlegging and even prostitution. This original wealth was handed down to later generations. The simplest and quickest method of getting wealth is to inherit it. But only if we all were so lucky to have such ancestry, we would be filthy rich.

Marry it

If you don’t have a rich ancestry, the other thing that you can do is to marry a person who is already rich. If the marriage is successful, you are living in luxury. If not, you can divorce them and get generous compensation. Only remember to get married and divorced in the state whose divorce laws are quite liberal.

Work for it

If the above two options are not possible, then you can work for it. People hardly become rich by holding a job. Instead they build a company and own it. Later on, they make the company public, thus collecting hundreds of millions, or billions, of dollars in the process. Or they can invent something useful and invaluable that can change the life of people like Windows software or mobile.

Win it

Another method is to win it. There are plenty of lotteries, offering multi-million dollar jackpots, and the winner ultimately becomes rich. Unfortunately, your chances of hitting a jackpot are one in a million.

Steal it or deal it

Another method is steal it or deal it. You can become a CEO or chief financial officer for a big cash-rich company, manipulate the accounts, steal lots of money and thus become rich. But this way is not advisable. Moreover dealing is also not advisable. In dealing, you become a drug lord and earn millions of dollars in cash by dealing in harmful drugs. This method too is dangerous and can get you arrested. It is not a legal/moral way to earn money.

Gamble

Gambling can be another method of becoming rich. Many people gamble and some even win millions of dollars. You can see the photos of these winners everywhere, and you may have seen they look like an average person. So you may think your chances are quite good and just pay $3,000-$25,000 per tournament entry fee, or get a backer, join the World Poker Tour, win some games and get rich! However your chances of getting rich in this fashion are minuscule.

Invest and become rich

Investing is another method of becoming rich. The 2 good methods of investing and getting rich are: the real estate market and the stock market.

Historical statistics reveal that real estate rises by an average of 10% annually over time. Hence making money in real estate is a time consuming process. Besides it needs a big down payment. It is difficult to become rich in this manner.

On the contrary, the stock market is an excellent method to become rich. Stocks can increase in value dramatically for a comparatively small amount of time and make you rich. But you must have money to invest and should be able to choose the correct stocks at proper time.