The Construction Chart Book presents the most complete data available on all facets of the U.S. construction industry: economic, demographic, employment/income, education/training, and safety and health issues. The book presents this information in a series of 50 topics, each with a description of the subject matter and corresponding charts and graphs. The contents of The Construction Chart Book are relevant to owners, contractors, unions, workers, and other organizations affiliated with the construction industry, such as health providers and workers compensation insurance companies, as well as researchers, economists, trainers, safety and health professionals, and industry observers.
An essential resource for workers navigating their retirement and pension options, from the labor organizer's perspective. Researching retirement plans should not take the rest of your life, even if deciphering the relevant paperwork seems to have become a full-time job. Deliberately elaborate legalese is obscuring the efforts of financial elites to seize control of workers' collective retirement savings—and The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans is here to translate. Neoliberal retirement reforms have escalated elites' efforts to replace guaranteed workplace retirement plans with weak 401(k)-like savings accounts and risky stock market investment schemes. The result is arguably the largest source of labor value expropriation over the last four decades. In light of all this, what do workers need to know as they assess their future prospects—especially in terms of the security their retirement plans may or may not bring? What should union activists keep in mind as they push for the national and workplace reforms needed to produce greater retirement security? This nuts-and-bolts book provides a much-needed demystification of the retirement system. Even more than that The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans enables us to take charge of our own personal futures, as a first step towards taking back what belongs to us all.
IRAs, 401(k)s & Other Retirement Plans helps you make sense of the rules that govern distributions from retirement plans, and avoid the stiff penalties that lurk in the fine print. It covers the different types of retirement plans -- including 401(k)s and other profit-sharing plans, Keoghs, IRAs and tax-deferred annuities -- and the taxes and penalties that can deplete your nest egg.
The current retirement system is broken. With the demise of pension plans and the uncertainty of Social Security, the 401(k) is essential to the American public's retirement, now more than ever. The problem is, if you are one of the over 70 million people counting on your 401(k) to meet your future financial needs, you are likely in for a shocking discovery.Most of the 401(k) plans are not set up for the participant's benefit, but instead, the financial salespeople, insurance agents, mutual funds, unions, employers and lobbyists gain. While the average American is looking for a practical, uncomplicated retirement plan that will deliver what it promises, what we currently have is a plan loaded with fees and investment products designed to siphon money out of unsuspecting investor's pockets. As Senator Fitzgerald (R-IL) noted in 2003, "The mutual fund industry is now the world's largest skimming operation-a 7 Trillion Dollar trough from which fund managers, brokers, and other insiders are steadily siphoning off an excessive slice of the nation's household, college and retirement savings." But, the great part is, we live in a country where positive change can occur! In this hard-hitting and revealing book, Bryan C. Binkholder and James A. Winkelmann examine what is wrong with the current system, how we got here, the investments that are commonly used to extract money from plan participants and what can be done to radically improve the 401(k) program with a combination of old-school pension plan design coupled with 401(k) rules. The future of the 401(k) will no longer be marked by unscrupulous financial salespeople ravaging worker's retirement accounts with sophisticated investment schemes and participants destroying their own future through their uncontrolled emotional investment behavior. Instead, every member in a company 401(k) plan will have access to the same low-cost investment used by large pension plans, coupled with plan designs that everyone from the bottle washer to the president of the company will participate in. By utilizing the future of 401(k) plans, better known as The Trustee Directed 401(k) Plan, workers and employers will once again be working together to create optimal outcomes and success.
Get the most out of your 401(k) in any economy Filled with sample 401(k) portfolios for every stage of life Invest your 401(k) money wisely and make the most of your retirement Want to know what kind of investment mix you need to make your retirement money grow? Don't know what to do with a 401(k) account from your last job? Worried that your company's 401(k) plan doesn't cut it? Relax! This simple, plain-English guide shows you how to manage your accounts, minimize your risks, and maximize your returns. The Dummies Way * Explanations in plain English * "Get in, get out" information * Icons and other navigational aids * Tear-out cheat sheet * Top ten lists * A dash of humor and fun
Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,0 (A), course: Current Issues In Human Resources Management, language: English, abstract: The purpose of this paper is to review the often overlooked negative side of the 401(k) retirement plan. Several major drawbacks of the 401(k) such as insufficient investing, poor asset allocation and the detrimental effect of market volatility ever more apparent by current economic conditions are discussed. The still developing legal liability of 401(k) plans and those implications for Human Resource professionals is also presented through a legal case study. More and more Americans rely more heavily on 401(k) retirement plans with the worsening Social Security situation, the decline of pension plans and the commonly held belief that 401(k)s are the superior choice for an adequate retirement. However this belief is rarely questioned, and even less so in prosperous economic times when the inherent high risk associated with many types of investments in 401(k) plans produce good results. Some financial advisors, economists and even lawmakers though have begun to scrutinize the nearly always positive image of 401(k)s for investing in retirement. It goes without much contention though that part of this new scrutiny is of course motivated by current worsening economic conditions. Experts point to a myriad of misconceptions and inherent shortcomings in the current 401(k) system. These include unguided and often insufficient investing, hidden and sometimes substantially detrimental plan fees, poor asset allocations on investments, inherent and damaging stock market volatility and more. While most financial planners continue to hold that the 401(k) is an excellent way to invest in one's retirement, some questions are being raised and there is perhaps a growing need for more explanation with that recommendation now. First background information about the 401(k) retirement plan is pres
Are you a retirement plan fiduciary but unsure of what's required of you? Does it scare you to be held personally liable for bad decisions? Do you have a sneaking suspicion that your plan is paying too much in fees but you're not sure how to find out? Are you worried that your employees won't be able to retire? If the answer to any of these questions is "Yes," this book is for you. "Josh Itzoe has a remarkable capacity for seeing through the maze of regulations surrounding qualified plans to the handful of core ideals by which successful plans must operate. This is a great, understandable guide for plan sponsors." -Pete Swisher, CFP, CPC, Vice President and Senior Institutional Consultant, Unified Trust Company, N.A. and author of "401 (k) Fiduciary Governance: An Advisor's Guide" "Fixing the 401(k) is a bold and excellent work. Josh Itzoe reminds us that excellence is desperately needed within our private retirement system. By following the solid principles shared in this book, Itzoe reveals how any employer, large or small, can build and operate an excellent 401(k). The 401(k) is the mechanism that over fifty million people will rely upon to help their retirement dreams become a reality. This book is the starting point for employers who want to understand how to make their 401(k) truly excellent and help secure the common good of society." -Matthew D. Hutcheson, Congressional Expert and Independent Pension Fiduciary
How 401(k)s have gutted retirement security, from charging exorbitant hidden fees to failing to replace the income of traditional pensions Named one of PW's Top 10 for Business & Economics A retirement crisis is looming. In 2008, as the 401(k) fallout rippled across the country, horrified holders watched 25 percent of their funds evaporate overnight. Average 401(k) balances for those approaching retirement are too small to generate more than $4,000 in annual retirement income, and experts predict that nearly half of middle-class workers will be poor or near poor in retirement. But long before the recession, signs were mounting that few people would ever be able to accumulate enough wealth on their own to ensure financial security later in life. This hasn’t always been the case. Each generation of workers since the nineteenth century has had more retirement security than the previous generation. That is, until 1981, when shaky 401(k) plans began replacing traditional pensions. For the last thirty years, we’ve been advised that the best way to build one’s nest egg is to heavily invest in 401(k)-type programs, even though such plans were originally designed to be a supplement to rather than the basis for retirement. This financial experiment, promoted by neoliberals and aggressively peddled by Wall Street, has now come full circle, with tens of millions of Americans discovering that they would have been better off under traditional pension plans long since replaced. As James W. Russell explains, this do-it-yourself retirement system—in which individuals with modest incomes are expected to invest large sums of capital in order to reap the same rewards as high-end money managers—isn’t working. Social Insecurity tells the story of a massive and international retirement robbery—a substantial transfer of wealth from everyday workers to Wall Street financiers via tremendously costly hidden fees. Russell traces what amounts to a perfect swindle, from its ideological origins at Milton Friedman’s infamous Chicago School to its implementation in Chile under Pinochet’s dictatorship and its adoption in America through Reaganomics. Enraging yet hopeful, Russell offers concrete ideas on how individuals and society can arrest this downward spiral.
