| QUOTES from
the
Masters... |
| On Stewardship |
On Overcoming Failure |
| "The
man says, 'If I had a fortune, I'd take good care of it. But I only
have
a paycheck and I don't know where it all goes.' Wouldn't you love to
have
him running your company?" -– Jim
Rohn
"I
am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but
still
I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can
do."
-- Helen Keller
"Don't
be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every
time
you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little
jobs
well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves." -- Dale
Carnegie
|
"Failure
should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not
defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure
is
something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being
nothing." -- Denis Waitley
"I
am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times
I succeed; and the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to
the number of times I can fail and keep on trying." -- Tom
Hopkins
"No
man ever became great or good except through many and great mistakes."
-- William E. Gladstone
|
|
When You Change
Jobs...
You May Have
an Important Decision to Make!
What to do with your money
in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, such as a 401(k) plan.
Since these funds were originally intended to help provide financial
security
during retirement, you need to carefully evaluate which of the
following
options will best ensure that these assets remain available to
contribute
to a financially-secure retirement.
Take
the Funds: You can withdraw the funds in a lump sum
and
do what you please with them. This is, however, rarely a good
idea
unless you need the funds for an emergency. Consider:
- A mandatory 20% federal
income
tax withholding will be subtracted from the lump sum you receive.
- You may have to pay
additional
federal (and possibly state) income tax on the lump sum distribution,
depending
on your tax bracket (and the distribution may put you in a higher
bracket).
- Unless one of the
exceptions
is met, you may also have to pay a 10% premature distribution tax in
addition
to regular income tax.
- The funds will no longer
benefit
from the tax-deferred growth of a qualified retirement plan.
|
Leave
the Funds: You can leave the funds in your previous
employer's
retirement plan, where they will continue to grow on a tax-deferred
basis.
If you're satisfied with the investment performance/options available,
this may be a good alternative. Leaving the funds temporarily
while
you explore the various options open to you may also be a good
alternative.
(Note: If your vested balance in the retirement plan is
$5,000
or less, you may be required to take a lump-sum distribution.) |
Roll
the Funds Over: You can take the funds from the plan
and
roll them over, either to your new employer's retirement plan (assuming
the plan accepts rollovers) or to a traditional IRA, where you have
more
control over investment decisions. This approach offers the
advantages
of preserving the funds for use in retirement, while enabling them to
continue
to grow on a tax-deferred basis. |
Why Taking a Lump-Sum
Distribution May Be a Bad Idea:
While a lump-sum distribution
can be tempting, it can also cost you thousands of dollars in taxes,
penalties
and lost growth opportunities…money that will not be available
for future
use in retirement.
Let's say that you have $100,000
in a retirement plan with a former employer, you're under age 59-1/2
and
you're in the 28% federal income tax bracket.
|
Taxes and penalties
if you...
|
Roll the $100,000
into an IRA
|
Take a lump-sum
distribution
|
- 20% mandatory withholding
at
the time of distribution
|
$ 0
|
$20,000
|
- 8% additional income tax
due
at filing
|
$ 0
|
$ 8,000
|
- 10% premature
distribution penalty
tax
|
$ 0
|
$10,000
|
|
Ending
Balance:
|
$100,000
|
$62,000
|
|
Cost
to Take the Funds Today:
|
$38,000
|
|
Value of $38,000
in ...
|
5 Years
|
10 Years
|
15 Years
|
20 Years
|
|
5% Return
|
$48,499
|
$61,898
|
$78,999
|
$100,825
|
|
8% Return
|
$55,834
|
$82,039
|
$120,542
|
$177,116
|
|
10% Return
|
$61,199
|
$98,562
|
$158,735
|
$255,645
|
| NOTE:
The above is a hypothetical example for illustration purposes only and
assumes that one of the exceptions to the premature distribution
penalty
tax is not available. In addition to the federal taxes
illustrated
above, state tax may also be payable. This example is not
indicative
of any particular investment or performance and does not reflect the
fees
and expenses associated with any particular investment, which would
reduce
the performance shown above if they were included. |
Please
contact my office if you would
like any additional information on rolling funds over from a previous
employer's
retirement plan.
|
| MESSAGES
from
the Masters... |
IT
IS A CHALLENGE TO SUCCEED by Jim Rohn
It
is a challenge to succeed. If it were not, I'm sure more people would
be
successful, but for every person who is enjoying the fruit from the
tree
of success, many more are examining the roots. They are trying to
figure
it all out. They are mystified and perplexed by what seems to be some
strange,
complex and elusive secret that must be found if ever success is to be
enjoyed. While most people spend most of their lives struggling to earn
a living, a much smaller number seem to have everything going their
way.
Instead of just earning a living, the smaller group is busily engaged
in
designing and enjoying a fortune. Everything just seems to work out for
them. While the much larger group sits in awe at how life can be so
unfair,
complicated and unjust.
"I
am a nice person," the man says to himself. "How come this other guy is
happy and prosperous, and I'm always struggling?" He asks himself, "I
am
a good husband, a good father and a good worker. How come nothing seems
to work out for me? Life just isn't fair. I'm even smarter and willing
to work harder than some of these other people who just seem to have
everything
going their way," he says as he slumps into the sofa to watch another
evening
of television. But you see you've got to be more than a good person and
a good worker. You've got to become a good planner, and a good dreamer.
You've got to see the future finished in advance.
You've
got to put in the long hours and put up with the setbacks and the
disappointments.
You've got to learn to enjoy the process of disciplines and of putting
yourself through the paces of doing the uncomfortable until it becomes
comfortable. You've got to be prepared and willing to attack the
challenges
if you want the success because challenges are part of success. Now
that
may sound like a full menu of activities, but let me assure you that
the
process of going from average to fortune isn't really all that
difficult.
Thinking about it is the difficult part. Anticipating all the
effort
and the changes and the disciplines is far worse in the mind than in
reality.
I can promise you that the challenges you'll meet on the road to
success
are far less difficult to deal with than the struggles and the
disappointments
that come from being average. Confronting and overcoming challenges is
an exhilarating experience. It does something to feed the soul and the
mind. It makes you more than you were before. It strengthens the mental
muscles and enables you to become better prepared for the next
challenge.
I've
often said that to have more, we must first become more, and to become
more, we must begin the process of working harder on ourselves than we
do on anything else. But in addition to gathering new knowledge, new
skills
and new experiences, it is also important to discover new emotions. It
is how we feel about what we know that makes the biggest difference in
how our lives turn out. How we feel about the chances we have and the
choices
we have determines the intensity of our effort. Whether we try or don't
try. Join or don't join. Believe or don't believe.
I'd
like for you to discover some strong feelings about your life and about
what you want to do with that life. You probably have much of the
knowledge
and a lot of the experience and perhaps most of the skills that it
takes
to become successful. What you may be lacking in are the strong
feelings
about what you want and what you want to do. You may be one of those
who
have become so involved in the process of earning a living that you've
forgotten about the choices and the chances you have for designing your
own life.
Let
these strong feelings help you take a second look at your life and
where
you're headed. After all, you've only got one life, at least on this
planet.
So why not make it an adventure in achievement? Why not discover what
all
you can do and what all you can have? Why not discover how many others
you can help and in the process how that can help you?
Why
not now take the Challenge to Succeed!
To
Your Success,
Jim
Rohn
|
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