Obama's Government Retirement Plan "MyRA"

[JSt0rm]

this is way better then a low dollar savings account. 3% return and you can get your money as needed?

 

[JEDIYoda]

Sounds like a ponzi scheme to bail out social security, lmao.

SS doesn`t need bailed out!! Just leave it alone and it will be fine!! Keep your hands out of the cookie jar!!

 

[Fern]

Let me just say, that this is a complete and total waste.
-snip-

Yeah. I see no real point to it. It's redundant; just a mini version of what already exists.

Use it as a vehicle to reform Social Security. SS contributions go into the MyRA account so people have ownership of their SS retirement funds, and convert it into a SS annuity upon retirement as is done today. Removes the political risk of SS as the funds in each personal account would be segregated from the general budget, plus people might care more about running bigger deficits and increased debt if it impacts the current value of the Treasury paper assets in their MyRA accounts.

Re: Bold - No. It's nearly identical to SS. Your MyRA account is investing in gov bonds. This is what SS does. Once the money goes into a gov bond, even if segregated from the general budget (as SS is), it requires only an accounting entry to transfer the money over for use in the general budget (as with SS funds).

All I'm seeing here is (another) effort by the fed gov to borrow (more) money directly from the people.

Uncle Sam is rolling out a new bond offering; It's just a marketing ploy to sell gov bonds.

Fern

 

[Fern]

I'm going to go against the tide and say I'm not really seeing the problem here. If and when our government cannot roll over its bond debt, the stock market is likely to crash like never before. Your Warren Beatty types will be fine, having gotten plenty of warning and with the wealth to either leverage their way out of danger or simply ride it out (if not actually get government to pay them their "losses"), but the unsophisticated small savers such as this program would serve are going to be devastated anyway. -snip-

Warren who?

You been watching old movies recently?



Fern

 

[fskimospy]

https://myra.gov/

No, It is literally a Roth IRA with 1 fund and no fees. The fund is the G Fund from the TSP, which is quite good for a government bond fund with super low expense ratio(0.029%). ( https://www.tsp.gov/PDF/formspubs/FundG.pdf ) In addition, the plan stops paying interest at 15K and tells you to transfer into private-sector Roth IRA.

The Plan seems gear for people who don't have the discipline to save, to put their tax refund into it. After a 5 years of the average 2-3K tax refund, the person will have enough cash to avoid minimum fees on a lot of mutual funds in IRAs.

Personally, I would have like to see all the TSP funds opened up. If they did that it would get my money and recommendation, but as it stands with just the G fund ... Meh... just a roth IRA/High interest savings account combo.

I agree that it would be better to open up the TSPs, can you think of a reason why they wouldn't?

This seems fairly innocuous, just an easy way to get people who don't save for their retirement to get in the habit. I agree it's not a particularly good deal for people, but I'm not sure that's the point anyway.

Also, anyone who thinks this is an attempt to get people to buy government bonds is insane. The amounts here are trivial compared to the bond market, and demand for US bonds is sky high anyway.