ComputerHunter.org |
|
|
|||
|
 |
Making Every Penny Count
More and more workers are leaving their jobs and taking their 401 k retirement plan funds with them. While some are rolling their funds over into IRAs or other qualified plans; many are taking their distributions in cash. Once an employee has left the job, any payments of earned vacation, sick or other leave made after leaving the job were not considered for inclusion in deferrals to Solo 401k, 401(k), or 403(b) plans. These plans' definition of compensation excluded any post employment earnings as the IRS excluded it from the definition. As far as these plans' were concerned, it's as if the money was never earned. Since the post employment earnings were not included in 401 k or 403 b compensation, these earnings were not a factor in any non discrimination or top heavy testing, as well as not being available for profit sharing or matching contributions. Depending upon the employers' policy on vacation, sick or other leave accumulation, this exclusion could be a substantial amount. As an example, suppose you are earning $50,000 when you leave your company. You've been working hard, haven't needed a sick day in 3 years and haven't taken a vacation in two years. You have accumulated four weeks of vacation and twelve sick days. The vacation and sick leave represent $6400 in additional income. Had you had been contributing 10% to your plan; $640 extra would have been deposited into your account. That $640 at 7% for 20 years is $2,476.60 for a 400% return. But that 400% return has been left on the table up until now. On May 25, 2005 and retroactive back to January 1, 2005 the IRS has redefined section 415 Compensation to include post severance compensation if it's paid within 2-1/2 months after separation from service. But this is only for payments that would have been paid if the participant had continued in employment or if they are for bona fide sick, vacation and other leave. The leave-related payments can be included only if the employee could have used the leave had employment continued. This new definition will still exclude severance payments due to severance of employment Employers can now amend their 401 k or 403 b plans to accommodate the new definition but may find themselves making additional contributions for compensation paid in the next year. Employees can add more contributions to their accounts. Plan administrators may find that the new definition of Section 415 compensation presents some administrative challenges in tracking the information, separating it from non eligible compensation and performing timely non discrimination testing. Lawrence Groves is the Director of the small business retirement administration services for the Retirement Group with the Solo 401k administration program at http://www.solo-k.com and the special 401(k) "Free for Three" ? administration program. Lawrence comes to his clients with over 25 years as an experienced expert in plan design, administration, and compliance. Lawrence works closely with for profit, non-profit, and government agencies on 401(k), 403(b), 457, Profit Sharing, and Puerto Rican 165(e) small business plans. Lawrence can be reached at Lawrence@solo-k.com or 727.844.7000
Google News - Top Stories
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
The 8 Biggest Mistakes When Designing Portfolios - and How To Avoid Them Are you as good an investor as you think? Do you consider yourself a well-informed investor able to anticipate and avoid nearly all pitfalls associated with investing? Chances are, you are making one of the common errors that could cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars, or worse yet, your financial independence, control and security. Mutual Fund Returns May Not Be As They Seem! Arthur Levitt, during his tenure at the SEC, experienced many cases where the non-indexed mutual fund manager bought shares for their own accounts before the fund bought the shares. The fund's purchases drove up the price of the stocks and the fund manager's made a killing on the deal. This is called "front running," and is illegal under securities laws. The Conflict of Interest Game Disgruntled investors are going after Wall Street once again, this time accusing one of investment bank Morgan-Stanley's high-tech mutual funds of making biased stock picks. Property Investment Just Got Exciting There is an area in Brazil that has lower crime & lower property prices than where your are probably sitting right now! Short Selling for Investors Shorts. Let's see. If there are shorts there must be longs. Which is best? Longs or shorts? Retire Dollar Smart Jim Miller is a registered investment advisor. This means that he is not beholden to a particular brokerage or financial institution. As such, he does not charge monthly fees for "money-managing"; instead, through a consultation fee he is free to give whatever advice will best benefit his clients; he doesn't have to serve them whatever "flavor of the month" the brokerage or financial institution happens to like at that point in time. His investment advice in his book, "Retire Dollar Smart," is clear and filled with common sense. Numismatics are for Collectors, Not Investors As a precious metals investor, you may heard much about numismatic and "semi-numismatic" coins, particularly the St. Gaudens $20 double eagle gold coin. While coin collecting can be an interesting hobby, it is not necessarily related to metals investing. Coins of this type vary in value with the ebb and flow of the collector market and are not strictly tied to metal value. Also, these coins often go for much more over spot price than bullion coins. Trading Systems A trading system consists of a set of rules for viewing markets and making trades. The advantages of trading systems can be hidden when they become associated with trading platforms involving trade order submission and processing. A clarification of their roles can help explain the benefits of using a trading system. This can be done without identifying a particular platform or system. Once the platform infrastructure is isolated, a brief look can be taken at why a trader can benefit from a trading system. Use this Simple Trick its to Buy $100 Bills Direct from your Bank for only $97 Most People just don't understand the power of using their home as a Wealth Creation Tool. How many people do you know who have lived in the same house for 10, 15 or more years and have virtually no mortgage, You know the Type 'House Rich Cash Poor'. There are strategies these homeowners can use to put that House Rich Part to work Building Wealth. How To Start Investing For Financial Independence, Part 1 Today, I am going to start a multi-part series about how to go from being a beginning investor to being "financially independent" in a steady and predictable way. At our website, we get tons of e-mails about how do I start, how do I start with little $'s, etc., etc., etc. If you are asking this question, congratulations because you are ahead of most. All of us have been there at some point. Investing for Retirement - Not an All or Nothing Play In 1519, Hernando Cortes, beached on the shores of unexplored Mexico, made a fateful decision: he would burn the ships he and his men arrived in and attempt to overthrow Montezuma and the mighty Aztec empire. The decision was risky. The Aztecs were meant to possess large numbers of brave warriors while Cortes had only a handful of men. If Cortes had the slightest setback there would be no escape. On the other hand, Cortes had no choice. The powerful Governor of Cuba wanted his head. Cortes had defied the Governor time and time again and his best option for getting out of the situation was to win favor with King Charles by conquering a civilization rich in gold and other treasures. Since Cortes' men might get a little antsy if the going got rough and decide they would prefer going home, Cortes decided it would be best to completely align their incentives with his. He did this by burning the ships. Anything but success would now equal death for Cortes and all of his men. Thus began the famous march from Vera Cruz to Tenochtitlan. Investing & Online Stock & Share Trading- The Stock & Share Markets are Booming But Be Warned I had the pleasure of being invited on a friend's yacht to sail in a race on Sydney Harbour yesterday. On board, as one of our motley crew, I met a top ranking corporate executive from one of Australia's largest banks, who we'll call 'Phil' here for the purpose of this article. After the race ended and after being told of my trading experience, he told me he has a large stock portfolio, many of which are speculative resources stocks. He said that he's excited by all the money he's making and wondering how long this has been going on? Trading For A Living - Part 2 In part 1 of this article I started to look at the financial implications of giving up the day job to instead start trading full time for a living. There are more than just monetary considerations as we will see later, but for now, there are some more costs to ponder. Financial Planners "Financial planners are like dentists: they may occasionally inflict pain, but in the end, you will be better off for following their advice!" Introduction To FOREX The Foreign Exchange Market, better known as FOREX, is a worldwide market for buying and selling currencies. It handles a huge volume of transactions 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Daily exchanges are worth approximately $1.5 trillion (US dollars). In comparison, the United States Treasury Bond market averages $300 billion a day, and American stock markets exchange about $100 billion a day. POOF goes your RRIF ! Some time ago I attended a seminar where participants were told to burn some money; a reasonably-sized amount of money. You should have heard the gnawing and gnashing of teeth in that room! Step right up, folks, and light it on fire. Come on now. It's only money. Day Traders and Swing Traders and Options? Maybe! Typical day traders and swing traders look for stocks with quick, short term movements, and are not in the business of holding positions overnight let alone a week or two. So the use of options has not usually been a component of their trading strategies. Getting Started Investing is Often the Hardest Part There are several reasons people give for not investing their money in things like stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. One reason is that they feel that they don't have enough money to make a serious investment, but a more common reason that many people have absolutely no idea how to go about getting started investing. In fact, if more people understood the basics of investing and had a cohesive plan for getting started investing, more people would do it. Wit and Wisdom on Money, Wall Street and Success - Part #4 Can you concisely summarize your investment philosophy in a few sentences? My experience is that most people can't. The quotes that follow are diamonds that offer a real powerful education in the world of Risk Management. They have had a profound impact in my life. I pass them along hoping they achieve a similar effect on your investments. Enjoy! Investors: Avoid These 5 Common Tax Mistakes For many investors, and even some tax professionals, sorting through the complex IRS rules on investment taxes can be a nightmare. Pitfalls abound, and the penalties for even simple mistakes can be severe. As April 15 rolls around, keep the following five common tax mistakes in mind ? and help keep a little more money in your own pocket.
|
|
|
|
|
