>>>>You have to look a little deeper in to how these plans are run. The article I referenced doesn't really go into how the investments are made. Like I said earlier the "dot com" bubble nor the "great recession" had almost no effect on these plans. They do not deal in equities although there are some allowances for individuals to put small percentages of their personal accounts in Mutual funds/ETFs- at their own risk/reward. The fund itself goes for safety and a 31/2 - 4% annual return.
>>>
>>>31/2=15,5 over here.
>>The keyboard I'm using doesn't have a numeric pad so I would have to type in the 3 then use numlocks and to type in ALT+171 and then take the numlock off or I guess I could use Word, type 3 1/2 and copy and paste after Word converts it 3 ½ . I'm just a little lazy in my old age and after all I am retired.
>
>Ha - retired would be nice. Based upon my mathematical calculations I should be able to retire at the young age of 648 years old.

Retirement is not what it's cracked up to be.
I now work only about 60 hours a week. When I lost my "day job" I decided to buy a few cows just to have something to do. Well, I now have about 120 cows. The man that takes care of the cows is on vacation so I have to do the work myself. I just got through putting out 6 tons of hay in the cold rain. Yesterday I had to drive to Columbus, GA to close on a house sale. Only one more set of apartments and I'll be out of the rental business for the first time in almost 50 years. But, I did get great news today. I got a letter from the IRS that they had completely reviewed my case and I didn't owe them any money. This all started in June when they sent me a letter saying I owed them $580 penalties and then in August I owed another $9600 in penalties. I called and wrote and sent documentation. I got letters from Austin, TX - do this and from Cincinnati - do this send us ..., and from Memphis don't do that do this and finally from Ogden, UT
" Don't do anything any other IRS tells you. We have blocked all correspondence to
you from the IRS. If you receive anything from the IRS that did not originate from this office call this number. I did and I did. It took over an hour on the phone but the lady I talked to was on her computer and she kept saying "Give me just a minute" and then
"OK, that's taken care of let's see what's next" and finally "That should do it". My response was "so where do I stand?". Her answer " I have removed all the penalties,
you should get a confirmation letter within 2 weeks, you will get the $580 back that you paid while this matter was being reviewed in 4-6 weeks. If you get anything from any office other than this one disregard it. If you have any questions call this number. Have a happy holiday.

Moral of the story "If you ever get sideways with the IRS computers - you're toast.

I would add that the several people I talked to on the phone were very courteous and professional. The IRS computer system could use some help.