| QUOTES from the
Masters... |
| On Skills |
On Success |
| "What
one skill, if you developed it, could have the greatest positive impact
on your career? This is the key to your future." -– Brian Tracy
"Learn
to hide your need and show your skill." -- Jim Rohn
"Develop
the art of being exceptional." -– Patricia
Fripp
|
"Average
people look for ways of getting away with it; successful people look
for
ways of getting on with it." -- Jim
Rohn
"Success
is finding and doing to the best of your ability, in each moment of
your
life, what you enjoy most doing, what you can do best, and what has the
greatest possibility of providing the means to live as you would like
to
live in relation to yourself and all persons you value." -–
Nido Qubein
"Success
is that old ABC -- ability, breaks, and courage." -- Charles
Luckman |
|
What Is a
Qualified Retirement Plan?
A qualified retirement
plan is a program implemented and maintained by an employer or
individual
for the primary purpose of providing retirement benefits and which
meets
specific rules spelled out in the Internal Revenue Code. For an
employer-sponsored
qualified retirement plan, these rules include:
- The plan must be
established
by the employer for the exclusive benefit of the employees and their
beneficiaries,
the plan must be in writing and it must be communicated to all company
employees.
- Plan assets
cannot be
used for purposes other than the exclusive benefit of the employees or
their beneficiaries until the plan is terminated and all obligations to
employees and their beneficiaries have been satisfied.
- Plan
contributions or
benefits cannot exceed specified amounts.
- The plan
benefits and/or
contributions cannot discriminate in favor of highly-compensated
employees.
- The plan must
meet certain
eligibility, coverage, vesting and/or minimum funding standards.
- The plan must
provide
for distributions that meet specified distribution requirements.
- The plan must
prohibit
the assignment or alienation of plan benefits.
- Death benefits
may be
included in the plan, but only to the extent that they are
"incidental,"
as defined by law.
| Question: |
Why
do employers
comply with these requirements and establish qualified retirement plans? |
| Answer: |
To
benefit from
the tax advantages offered by qualified retirement plans. |
Qualified
Retirement Plan Tax Advantages:
In order to encourage
saving for retirement, qualified retirement plans offer a variety of
tax
advantages to businesses and their employees. The most
significant
tax breaks offered by all qualified retirement plans are:
- Contributions by
an
employer to a qualified retirement plan are immediately tax deductible
as a business expense, up to specified maximum amounts.
- Employer
contributions
are not taxed to the employee until actually distributed.
- Investment
earnings
and gains on qualified retirement plan contributions grow on a
tax-deferred
basis, meaning that they are not taxed until distributed from the plan.
Depending on the type
of qualified retirement plan used, other tax incentives may also be
available:
- Certain types of
qualified
retirement plans allow employees to defer a portion of their
compensation,
which the employer then contributes to the qualified retirement
plan.
Unless the Roth 401(k) option is selected, these elective employee
deferrals
are not included in the employee's taxable income, meaning that they
are
made with before-tax dollars (see page 13 for information on the Roth
401(k)
option).
- Qualified
retirement
plan distributions may qualify for special tax treatment.
- Depending on the
type
of qualified retirement plan, employees age 50 and over may be able to
make additional "catch-up" contributions.
- Low- and
moderate-income
employees who make contributions to certain qualified retirement plans
may be eligible for a tax credit.
- Small employers
may
be able to claim a tax credit for part of the costs in establishing
certain
types of qualified retirement plans.
The bottomline
is that the primary qualified retirement plan tax advantages -
before-tax
contributions and tax-deferred growth - provide the opportunity to
accumulate
substantially more money for retirement, when compared to saving with
after-tax
contributions, the earnings on which are taxed each year.
|
| MESSAGES
from
the Masters... |
ACCELERATE
YOUR ABILITIES by Chris Widener
In
today's fast-paced life, the wins usually go to those with exceptional
skills and abilities. The old quote is true, "The race is not always
won
by the swift and the strong, but that is the way to bet."
With
this in mind, and with your desire to become increasingly successful,
here
are some ways to accelerate your abilities, thus enabling you to
achieve
greater and greater things.
Become
dissatisfied with your current state. Growth for growth's sake is
good.
Those who will achieve much are those who say to themselves, "I want to
grow. I want to be better. And I am willing to do what it takes to get
there. This current state is not enough!" This dissatisfaction will
create
for you an insatiable drive to do what it takes to get your abilities
to
the next level.
Visualize
the benefits of increased abilities. Put them at the forefront of
your
mind. This will saturate your mind with the motivation that it will
take
for you to do what it takes to increase your abilities. What good will
come out of my increased ability? How will I be better off as well as
the
others around me? The answers to these questions act as the carrot
before
the horse, moving you forward.
Understand
your weaknesses. If you want to improve, one of the best ways is to
start with some area that you aren't particularly good at. This is the
"shoring up method." Sometimes it is easier to improve something you
aren't
good at that something you are. And the gains will still look great for
your overall situation! Take some time to consider what areas you are
weakest
in and focus in on them for a while. The results will obviously be much
more pronounced than getting better at something you have already
somewhat
mastered.
Attempt
greater levels of what you are already good at. Another tact to
take
would be to stretch yourself in an area that you already have some
skill
and ability in. What areas do you excel in? Now understand that when
you
leave the weaker areas weak and make extraordinary gains in one area,
then
you will be moving more toward "specialist" rather than "generalist."
That
is okay, but needs to fit in with your overall goals.
Commit
time each day to improvement. Steady improvement is the way to go.
In fact, you may not see improvement for days or weeks. You may feel
like
you are failing each time. But alas, eventually you will get it and
your
skill will increase to the next level. The key is day in, day out,
spending
time working on improving. Even five minutes a day equals a half hour a
week, 2 hours a month. That adds up! Remember, Practice, practice,
practice.
Seek
out and spend time with someone who has greater ability than you.
One
of the best things to do to increase your ability is hang out with
people
who are already more skilled than you. Watching, them, studying them,
interacting
with them, even competing with them will make you better. As in sports,
to improve, you play with people better than you, not worse. They will
raise you to a new level. Who around you can you get involved with who
will help you with your ability?
Take
a class or hire a coach. Go to school my friend. Take a course at
a
local college or vocational institute. Take a class online. Hire one of
the many coaches available today. Pick a specific skill you would like
to improve upon and find someone who is a specialist in that area. At
the
very least, pick up some audio or videotapes to help you grow.
Be
the tortoise, not the hare. Slow but sure. Take your time, do it
right.
Keep going in the right direction. Learn your craft correctly. Don't
give
up quality for speed. The whole idea of acceleration is this way: Slow
start, work up to high speeds, go the distance. Luckily life isn't a
sprint
but a marathon!
Hope
these ideas help you as you commit to accelerating your abilities!
|
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