I was able to retire early because of the investments I made under Clinton AND Bush, Star. The market did quite well until the democrats took the senate and congress. Bush was too much of a twit to veto the spending that the dems wanted.Kinda of wish the video worked from mediamatters, I really don't know if it's by design or not, what I got was this. "But-----but in reality...
Fox News falsely claimed California workers would be forced to participate...
But in reality no one will be forced to contribute to California's proposed Secure Choice Retirement Savings Plan. The program would only be for workers whose employers don't already sponsor a pension plan or a 401(k) for their retirement, allowing them to pay into an account that would pay benefits based on account contributions and investment returns. Any workers who don't want to participate can opt out.
Ben Harris, a former senior economist with the President's Council of Economic Advisers, wrote at the Tax Policy Center's TaxVox blog that the program is "entirely voluntary," and the use of automatic enrollment which workers can opt out of has the potential to "bring more than 6 million workers into the retirement saving universe":
And-----and "the plan is reportedly likely to cost the California state government nothing"
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"The video could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported"
So I really don't know how Fox presented it. The OP's site is wrong and there is an opt out option to SB 1234.
I just hope that if this passes that Ca. can invest more wisely with this pension bill than it does with the state employee pensions. It's been a disaster, so.....if it was me, I would take that 3% and invest it myself which which would have a much better chance of making money than the state of Ca.
What disaster are you talking about? After taking a hit (they did better than the market) during the Bush recession (didn't we all?) California pension fund investments have done better than the market.
"Both funds benefited from a year-long runup in global stock prices. They also made strategic investment changes in response to the 2008 market crash; CalPERS, for instance, overhauled its real estate portfolio to create more predictable results.
"These numbers are convincing evidence that CalPERS has the ability to produce good returns on a sustainable basis," said Joe Dear, chief investment officer at the California Public Employees' Retirement System.
Still, each organization is wrestling with major long-term deficits, known officially as unfunded liabilities, that will strain state and local government budgets over the next several decades.
While both funds have plenty of cash to pay claims for the foreseeable future, CalPERS is $100 billion short over the long term and CalSTRS's deficit is $70 billion."
And
"Lets start by assuming you left the Earth on Dec. 31, 2007, returned June 3, 2013, and had no news in the interim five-plus years.
When you left, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 13,264. On your return it was 15,252, up 15 percent. Dividends provided an additional 2 percent each year. Fixed-income investments did even better because interest rates declined while you were away, with AA corporate bonds producing returns bettering 8 percent per annum.
From your perspective, it looks as if investments did just fine during your trip. And for long-term investors, you would be right. For example, the assets reported by the largest U.S. public pension fund, the California Public Employees Retirement System, are greater today than in 2007. So to whom is Sacramento Countys executive referring?
Hes referring to short-term investors who were forced to sell at the wrong time. Handed a newspaper from 2009, you learn that the country suffered a recession while you were away and that at one point the stock market dropped below 7,000. When that happened, short-term or leveraged investors who had borrowed money to buy stocks suffered investment losses when they were forced to sell equities at low prices.
Long-Term Investors
That category of investor doesnt include public pension funds. They dont have short-term liabilities and arent forced to sell at the wrong time. Instead, they are invested for the very long term -- decades -- and are run by professional investors with the expertise to take advantage of market volatility. They are more like Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway Inc., another long-term investor that isnt forced to sell when prices decline and has the resources to take advantage when prices fall."
But
..."public pension liabilities continue to grow faster than assets, Calpers recently announced a 50 percent increase in pension costs for governments, starting in 2015.
Looks to me like California is addressing a future-----future problem - good on them. If only the US House of Representatives could look beyond the next election, but alas...
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Get back to me when the public pensions in Ca. are fully funded, okay?