Congress Wants to Save Your Retirement
Andy Snyder|March 31, 2022
We’re up earlier than usual this morning… even before the confused rooster.
It’s lambing season on the farm, and we’ve got a gal giving it her best right outside our window.
Out of all the acres on our pasture… and all the hours in the day… she’s reproducing just 50 feet from our window… at 3 a.m.
We won’t complain. It’s the nature of things.
And besides, it gives us a few free minutes by ourselves to dim the lights and peruse the darker side of the web.
It’s a realm where lust, seduction and cheating rule…
Where money gets you what you want…
And where a camera in your face can lead to big bucks and, if you’re willing to say and do all the right things, quite a lucrative career.
That’s right… We’re perusing the pages of the Congressional minutes – where you truly have to be 18 to join in the fun (but don’t worry, it’s illegal for them to check your ID).
Good News?
Doing a bit of digging, we found the House just did something that found support on both sides of the aisle. In a vote that came with 414 yeas and just five nays, our representatives gave their nod to what’s being called the “Secure Act 2.0.”
You’ll find it in the rosters under its official name… the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022.
That’s a bit of a misnomer.
Nobody can secure a retirement – at least not a retirement anyone would want – for you.
Congress can’t wave its magic spending wand and grant us a relaxing life with our feet up at the beach.
With its only source of revenue coming in the form of taxes and debt, Congress can’t give us anything. It can only take things away.
But perhaps we’re a bit bleary-eyed this morning… because we see some good here.
This new bill – which still needs to get a nod from the divided folks in the Senate – does a few key things.
First, by 2033, it will allow folks to get to the age of 75 before forcing them to pull cash from their 401(k)s.
Remember… the government can only take. So it won’t let you keep your tax-free savings forever. It wants and needs your money.
Right now, once we hit 72, we’ve got to make minimum withdrawals each year.
Bigger, though, the bill will force almost any company with more than just a few employees to auto-enroll them in the company’s retirement plan.
The bill calls for automatically taking 3% of employees’ pay… and increases that amount by 1% each year until it reaches a maximum of 10%.
The worker, of course, can change their contribution. But the government figures complacency and ignorance will help keep most folks enrolled.
In its never-ending need to subsidize everything in sight, Washington would give tax credits of up to $1,000 per employee to companies to help cover costs and contribution matches.
And here’s where things get interesting. It’s where we start to rub our eyes.
This new law would allow employees to get a matching contribution in their retirement account for dollars they use to pay down student loans.
In other words, if Susie cuts a check for $100 to Sallie Mae instead of her 401(k), her employer can still put $100 into her 401(k)… the one she was automatically enrolled in when she signed on.
Susie reduces one burden and gets help with a future one.
It’s a win-win.
Well… sort of.
Forced Savings
Yes, the net result of all this is positive, at least in the short term.
But we’ve been around long enough to know the government should do only three things – protect those who can’t protect themselves, guard our borders and defend our rights.
Doing anything beyond that, history proves, leads to trouble.
Show us a subsidized industry… and we’ll show you one that is broken or soon will be.
We worry about a similar fate for the nation’s retirees.
You know us. We absolutely want as many folks putting as much money away for as long as possible. There’s no better form of security.
But subsidizing saving… warping the incentives… and automatically pushing folks into a government-created program is neither healthy nor, history proves, a great move.
If removing taxes is what gets folks to invest… perhaps it’s not the motivation that’s the problem. Perhaps it’s the tax.
As you’ve probably heard by now, we’re pushing our own plan.
On Monday, we launched The Generational Wealth Summit…
A conversation with famed commentator Buck Sexton, during which we revealed what we’re convinced is a far smarter way to potentially get the cushion you deserve.
It’s been a huge hit… the biggest thing Manward has ever done.
Note: There’s no excuse for failing to take action. We just gave away one of our favorite tickers for FREE and detailed how just $5 could get you into something that has the potential to soon be 10X bigger than Bitcoin. All the subsidy-free details are here.
P.P.S. Our senator invited us out to dinner tonight. Oh boy. We’ll fill you in on that conversation next week.
Andy Snyder
Andy Snyder is an American author, investor and serial entrepreneur. He cut his teeth at an esteemed financial firm with nearly $100 billion in assets under management. Andy and his ideas have been featured on Fox News, on countless radio stations, and in numerous print and online outlets. He’s been a keynote speaker and panelist at events all over the world, from four-star ballrooms to Capitol hearing rooms.
