Well, it's not bad... $2500 each year for 40 years at 5% is $340K approx.
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"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Dave" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 21:21:54 -0400, DSK said:
??? AFAIK everybody can save the same amount, $2500 (or did it go up
again already?).

$2,500 saved each year isn't going to go very far toward retirement.
However, the universe of tax deferred retirement savings is considerably
broader and more diverse than that. For example, a self-employed person
with
no employees could save up to 25% of his income through a combination of a
10% money purchase plan and a 15% profit-sharing plan. The percentage
could
go higher if he's older and sets up a target benefit plan. Add an employee
or two, however, and the numbers go down significantly and you need a
lawyer
and an accountant to sort it out.

Larger employer have a dizzying variety of plan types, including those
providing matching contributions in company stock (very bad policy as it
increases the employee's risk of losing both a good chunk of his pension
and
his matching contributions if the employer fails). The cost of jumping
through the tax hoops for these plans is major league, and they are all
circumscribed by complex rules designed to insure that the people who
could
save a lot under them won't be able to. In short, the system is nuts.

If only those darn old people didn't get Alzheimer's and need
professional care... or any of those other geriatric conditions
requiring care that the average person cannot provide. If only people
didn't live so darn long... that'd help the Social Security problem too.

How dare poor and middle-class people live past 65! What gall! Too bad
there isn't a centralized area or state where poor old people live, we
could invade and end this threat!

Hey, careful. I'm getting mighty close to point where I'll be part of the
problem.

Yes. those are valid concerns. But part of the problem is that we've
allowed
programs designed to care for those who truly can't afford care to become
a
universal entitlement available even to a Donald Trump, provided he pays a
lawyer to get the folks' money into his hands three years before he dumps
the folks into the nursing home. The system's sick.