Why Obamas myRA Is the Worst Retirement Plan Ever Tara Clarke, Associate Editor, Money Morning, February 7, 2014 In his State of the Union address Jan. 28, U.S. President Barack Obama announced he will direct the Treasury Department to create myRA retirement accounts. myRA accounts will allow people to invest in government savings bonds that guarantee - according to the president - a decent return with no risk of losing what you put in. Dont believe it. Here are four reasons why investing your retirement Reason No. 1 to Avoid Obamas myRA: Youll lose spending power. myRA investors will be buying government vehicles that due to inflation will actually lose money each year. These things are going to pay out at 1% to 1.5% at a time when real inflation is running at 2.5% - and thats only according to official government figures, Money Morning Chief Financial Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald said. myra According to the Obama administration, the myRA accounts would have the same variable interest rate return as the Thrift Savings Plan Government Securities Investment Fund accounts that federal employees enroll in. That fund had low annual return of 1.47% in 2012. This is not a good deal for investors, no matter how the government spins it, Fitz-Gerald said. And thats not even taking into consideration the interest rate risk when rates start to rise a year or two from now. Reason No. 2 to Avoid Obamas myRA: Government ventures mostly bomb. No one wants a money manager with a bad track record. And a bad track record is precisely what the government has. The government thinks Amtrak and the United States Postal Service are viable businesses, Fitz-Gerald said. Do you really want it handling your investments? Since 1971, the federal government has been subsidizing the for-profit Amtrak. In fiscal 2012, Amtrak earned approximately $2.877 billion in revenue but incurred approximately $4.036 billion in expense. Over the past decade, Amtrak lost $833.8 million on food sales alone, leaving taxpayers to make up the difference. The federal government provided Amtrak with $1.8 billion in fiscal 2013. Meanwhile, on Nov. 15, the U.S. Postal Service announced it lost $5 billion across fiscal 2013 - its seventh consecutive year posting a net loss. Reason No. 3 to Avoid Obamas myRA: The government is helping itself, not you. We are presently looking at $17.27 trillion in the national debt, increasing at an average of $2.48 billion per day since Sept. 2012. The U.S. economy relies on that debt being bought. And the Treasury can no longer count countries such as Japan and China to be dependable buyers of U.S. government debt. So the government is changing tactics and targeting the biggest pile of money available as a means of dealing with its fiscal follies - the trillions sitting in U.S. retirement plans. U.S. retirement assets totaled $18.5 trillion as of the end of the second quarter 2012, $3.5 trillion of which was in IRAs, and $5.1 trillion of which was in 401(k) plans. If U.S. citizens start buying out the national deficit via retirement savings, it could start a long, precipitous slide into financial hell. Its the next best thing to monopoly money for the U.S. government, because it effectively securitizes the ongoing deficit spending, Fitz-Gerald commented. Reason No. 4 to Avoid Obamas myRA: No one can truly guarantee zero risk. Risk is an intrinsic part of investing, and not even the president can change that. Government savings bonds are financial vehicles with real financial risks, Fitz-Gerald noted. Not the least of which is the underlying assumption that the government bonds the president is proposing are worth the paper theyre printed on. Just ask Detroit retirees...
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 17:01:40 +0000
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