A blog devoted to making these choices accurately.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Welcome
3 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Having seen this post at http://llnl-the-corporate-story.blogspot.com/2007/07/cut-paste-i-still-have-question.html
I am concerned that it will tend to make people believe that TCP-1 is solvent and all should immediately transition to this plan taking their hard earned years of service and pension plan and once more put it in the hands of those who were responsible for the collapse of UCRP, having total disregard for the people or the outcome of this transition.
My question still is after reading both blogs and all of the questions at the www.llnsllc.com website is, will there be employee contributions on the order of 5% to 16% over the course of time in order to keep TCP_1 afloat?
My gut feeling is , yes and for that reason along with not wanting to take a cut in pay, I feel that TCP-2 is the way for me to go. The plan is to accept my job on Oct 1st, 2007 with LLNS and then retire from UCRP on Oct 2nd, 2007 whereby I am going to start taking my UC pension and sheltering the $20,500 a year into LLNS 401k whereby for now I will get 6% matching and who know what else, unless the new Ben-Val dictates a lower contribution for both labs to come. It is my hopes to do this for at least five to six more years if the salary realignment and out-sourcing doesn't get me first.
So the question is, out of the two choices is doing what I have planned the best avenue and why. Please state the pro and cons and then the final conclusion so that everyone who reads this understands the logic and the sum of the final outcome.
As a new visitor to your blog, the information at this URL http://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/07/pensionfreeze.asp tends to make me believe that the hopes and dreams of acquiring a decent return on my LLNS 401K are going to be next to impossible, especially if you are not an investor that likes to take risk. The article also indicates that a new Ben-Val may allow NNSA to come back with even lower percentages than the original 6% matching with a 2.5% on top of that . Either way it seems the employees of LLNL have two choices. They can go TCP_2 and fork it all over to LLNS/ NNSA who promise they will be there, or they can decide that enough is enough and make their own 401K disregarding the matching funds, and just assume that no matter what, having money in the bank that is tangible at any time is better than a promise that may be renege at any time; simply because they can. This is exactly what has happened to all of those who thought they had a secure UCRP pension plan, only to wake up Oct 1st, 2007 and find it to be gone.
There are many people who feel they can't fend for themselves and will after having been slapped very hard put their heads back into the lion's mouth. It's my hopes that you can convincingly show them it's not an idealistic move, nor is it necessary; and for their own good they should move onto a path that'll get them where they need to go. Independence from those who've gasp them by their testicle and are still squeezing very hard in order to retain Congressional and Senate approval for the havoc they have caused and the results yet to be seen.
Again I will resort to referencing a song in order to give you a visual and maybe inspire some thought it was a song written by Led Zeppelin entitled, Squeeze My Lemons. You know the rest, Ouch !
Of course for those who seek your help they must understand that since you don't have a crystal ball and neither does NNSA / DOE or LLNS, you can't predict the future, but with the data currently available you may be able to show them another way to a life after LLNL before 65.
It should be evident to all of those who've just been reamed, that promise were made to be broken and more so now than ever before. The people of LLNL need to understand one very important fact if they haven't already, loyalty to the government hasn't saved them from this catastrophe; nor will promises from those who caused it. It's just more of the same, so why endure more pain. It's time to face the facts and move forward.
A first meaning might be the pessimistic one that nothing can be done.
The second meaning, which I like better, is that within the facts there are choices to be made. Some of these choices work out well; some do not.
For instance, the average LLNL employee should be able to resist losing money by making good choices. There will be some money lost but about $10,000 a year for life will be saved.
The cost (in time for a person) of learning enough to get the savings is going to be 10 hours of work in the next few months and about 45 minutes a month after that.
So, the return on time spent is likely to be $500 an hour. Not bad.
I am using these blogs as places for discussion about high end science-neuroscience, cosmology,molecular biology and renewable energy. I am also using them as a source for resources.
I can be reached at (505)662-3115.
As a scientist, I am working on human memory and pattern recognition and on production of energy cheaply. Both projects are out of research and in commercial development.
3 comments:
Having seen this post at http://llnl-the-corporate-story.blogspot.com/2007/07/cut-paste-i-still-have-question.html
I am concerned that it will tend to make people believe that TCP-1 is solvent and all should immediately transition to this plan taking their hard earned years of service and pension plan and once more put it in the hands of those who were responsible for the collapse of UCRP, having total disregard for the people or the outcome of this transition.
My question still is after reading both blogs and all of the questions at the www.llnsllc.com website is, will there be employee contributions on the order of 5% to 16% over the course of time in order to keep TCP_1 afloat?
My gut feeling is , yes and for that reason along with not wanting to take a cut in pay, I feel that TCP-2 is the way for me to go. The plan is to accept my job on Oct 1st, 2007 with LLNS and then retire from UCRP on Oct 2nd, 2007 whereby I am going to start taking my UC pension and sheltering the $20,500 a year into LLNS 401k whereby for now I will get 6% matching and who know what else, unless the new Ben-Val dictates a lower contribution for both labs to come. It is my hopes to do this for at least five to six more years if the salary realignment and out-sourcing doesn't get me first.
So the question is, out of the two choices is doing what I have planned the best avenue and why. Please state the pro and cons and then the final conclusion so that everyone who reads this understands the logic and the sum of the final outcome.
Thanks
As a new visitor to your blog, the information at this URL
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/07/pensionfreeze.asp tends to make me believe that the hopes and dreams of acquiring a decent return on my LLNS 401K are going to be next to impossible, especially if you are not an investor that likes to take risk. The article also indicates that a new Ben-Val may allow NNSA to come back with even lower percentages than the original 6% matching with a 2.5% on top of that . Either way it seems the employees of LLNL have two choices. They can go TCP_2 and fork it all over to LLNS/ NNSA who promise they will be there, or they can decide that enough is enough and make their own 401K disregarding the matching funds, and just assume that no matter what, having money in the bank that is tangible at any time is better than a promise that may be renege at any time; simply because they can. This is exactly what has happened to all of those who thought they had a secure UCRP pension plan, only to wake up Oct 1st, 2007 and find it to be gone.
There are many people who feel they can't fend for themselves and will after having been slapped very hard put their heads back into the lion's mouth. It's my hopes that you can convincingly show them it's not an idealistic move, nor is it necessary; and for their own good they should move onto a path that'll get them where they need to go. Independence from those who've gasp them by their testicle and are still squeezing very hard in order to retain Congressional and Senate approval for the havoc they have caused and the results yet to be seen.
Again I will resort to referencing a song in order to give you a visual and maybe inspire some thought it was a song written by Led Zeppelin entitled, Squeeze My Lemons. You know the rest, Ouch !
Of course for those who seek your help they must understand that since you don't have a crystal ball and neither does NNSA / DOE or LLNS, you can't predict the future, but with the data currently available you may be able to show them another way to a life after LLNL before 65.
It should be evident to all of those who've just been reamed, that promise were made to be broken and more so now than ever before. The people of LLNL need to understand one very important fact if they haven't already, loyalty to the government hasn't saved them from this catastrophe; nor will promises from those who caused it. It's just more of the same, so why endure more pain. It's time to face the facts and move forward.
Facing the facts has multiple meanings.
A first meaning might be the pessimistic one that nothing can be done.
The second meaning, which I like better, is that within the facts there are choices to be made. Some of these choices work out well; some do not.
For instance, the average LLNL employee should be able to resist losing money by making good choices. There will be some money lost but about $10,000 a year for life will be saved.
The cost (in time for a person) of learning enough to get the savings is going to be 10 hours of work in the next few months and about 45 minutes a month after that.
So, the return on time spent is likely to be $500 an hour. Not bad.
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