All about IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts)

or a financial advisor for the most up-to-date information.

Benefits of IRAs:

Tax Advantages: Contributing to IRAs offers significant tax advantages, such as tax-deferred growth and potentially tax-deductible contributions for specific types of IRAs. Traditional IRAs offer tax-deferred growth, while Roth IRAs provide tax-free withdrawals during retirement.

Flexibility: IRAs provide more control over investment options compared to many employer-sponsored retirement plans such as 401 (k) plans.

Diversification: IRAs offer a wide array of investment options to suit various risk tolerances and financial goals, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, index funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and even real estate or precious metals in some cases.

Estate Planning: IRAs offer various options to pass on assets to beneficiaries, facilitating efficient estate planning and potential tax advantages.

High Contribution Limits: IRAs enable individuals to contribute significant amounts towards their retirement savings, allowing for faster wealth accumulation.

Considerations and Important Factors:

Retirement Goals: Assess your retirement goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance to determine the most suitable type of IRA.

Eligibility: Check income limits and eligibility requirements to ensure you qualify for specific types of IRAs. Investment Choices:

Research and choose investments that align with your risk tolerance and long-term objectives.

Withdrawal Rules: Understand the withdrawal rules and potential penalties associated with early withdrawals. Before utilizing IRAs, take full advantage of em- ployer sponsored plans with matching contributions. Understanding Individual Retirement Accounts is essential for anyone planning for a financially secure retirement. IRAs provide a powerful means for individuals to save for retirement while enjoying tax advantages and investment flexibility. Whether you opt for a traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or SEP IRA, it is important to consider your personal financial situation, retirement goals, and investment preferences.

By understanding the various types of IRAs, contribution limits, and associated benefits, you can take control of your retirement savings and work towards a financially secure future. Start early, contribute regularly, and seek professional advice to make the most of your IRA and achieve your retirement goals.

Consultation with a financial advisor can provide tailored guidance to maximize the benefits of IRAs based on individual circumstances and goals. Start planning early to secure a comfortable retirement with the assistance of IRAs.

What if…?

What if everything you believe turns out to be untrue? As part of the human family, most people have come in contact at one time or another with ideas that are hard to believe. One thing that could benefit us all would be having the ability to tell truth from fiction. This is particularly true in an age when false information is circulating at phenomenal rates.

Wise men and women have left sacred writings providing guideposts for us to use in navigating our lives on Earth. In essence, our experience on this planet is filled with a lot of things which are unknown. In this sense, we welcome additional help in understanding life by minimizing the elements of deception that exist around us.

Why is it important to seek the truth of all that we encounter? The answer is that understanding truth can enhance our quality of life. Truth helps us make the right decisions when confronted with important choices.

Actually, there have been many reliable tools that can help us make sound decisions, and most people are familiar with them. These tools are usually referred to as “myths and legends.” And the granddaddy (or grand mommy of the purveyors of this truth) are found in what we call “religion.”

There are myriads of religions connected with myriads of “truths.” This generates a problematic state of affairs wherein a lot of people who have accepted belief in a particular religion often tend to be short-sighted or selfish when it comes to allowing others to have their own beliefs. Usually, because of this, “never the twain shall meet.” But if and when it does, chaos usually reigns.

What needs to be done is that each and every one of us should examine the roots of our beliefs. If we are reluctant to broaden our scope, we will probably end up uninformed or misinformed, thereby missing out on a lot of valuable experiences outside of our comfort zones.

Today, many Americans are now in the throes of being hoodwinked by one of our political parties. This has resulted in a breakdown in understanding how to discern truth.

A large swatch of dwellers in the U.S. are unable to tell the difference between an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, and enthusiastic “tourists.” It is unreal that almost half of voting Republicans believe that the last presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. Ultimately, the state of the collective American belief system is so jaundiced that it would take almost a miracle to get people to see truth, and most importantly, develop enough trust to ensure the survival of our democracy.

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making things even more convoluted. It is the ultimate of deceptive tools…it can visually mimic you, copy your voice, write scholarly articles, create artistic masterpieces, and much more. A mathematician, the late Alan Turing, developed a test when administered would see if a computer could imitate a human to the point that a person couldn’t tell the difference. AI has now passed the Turing Test, so it’s only a matter of time before the capacity for widespread deception will increase exponentially.

With the foregoing said, the most important barometer to use to reveal truth is YOU! To discover your own truth, do the following:

1. Examine the source of your beliefs; 2. When the source of your beliefs is identified, question whether or not the conclusion has the capacity to help or hurt others; and 3. Ask yourself if you’re being objective and then act accordingly.

Of course, there will always be those who tend to act out of selfishness. As we mature spiritually; however, it becomes apparent that the idea of Karma, i.e., “what goes around comes around,” does carry weight. This idea alone can help a positive, conscious person understand that our lives are, indeed, shaped by our beliefs and actions. This reason alone should motivate us to seek truth as much as possible of every situation that presents itself to us.

What if we then discover that we meet ourselves wherever we go and the world that we experience is crafted by our beliefs? What if we find that the world is a direct reflection of our behavior? The answer is that we will always know the truth, because it is what we embrace after sincere self-examination, and our opposition, therefore, must represent an opposite truth. Consider this as serious food for thought! A Luta Continua.

(Reprinted from the Chicago Crusader)

(TriceEdneyWire.com)—Elections always have consequences and this week we experienced Part Two of the Pro-Republican/Pro-Conservative Supreme Court. When we connect the dots, we realize the connection between Trump and three of the six Justices who voted to terminate Rowe AND eliminate Affirmative Action in college admissions. When folks surrender, the consequences are usually unpleasant. When they surrender their right to vote, the consequences can be disastrous. Failing to vote when one can is the ultimate surrender!

I join the legion of those who will analyze and critique this latest act of social violence by the Supreme Court. Much of what I write will echo what you have already seen on television or read online or in a publication. For that I apologize, but the truth of this matter is voluminous and must be told and listened to.

Using the language of the 14th Amendment which was written to remedy the injuries of enslavement and bring a full measure of citizenship to formerly enslaved persons, the majority dismissed the history and continuing injury of systemic racism. In their dissent against this travesty, Justices Brown Jackson and Sotomayor gave the nation a complete and concise primer on the beneficial impact of Affirmative Action and the short-sightedness demonstrated by orchestrating its demise.

Sonia Sotomayor, one of the three liberal justices on the Supreme Court, said in her dissenting opinion, “Today,

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

Commentary

this court stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress,” she added that this decision “subverts the constitutional guarantee of equal protection by further entrenching racial inequality in education, the very foundation of our democratic government and pluralistic society.” Sotomayor argued that the race neutrality envisioned by the majority “will entrench racial segregation in higher education because racial inequality will persist so long as it is ignored.”

In a blistering rebuke of her colleagues in the majority, Brown Jackson stated that “six unelected members of today’s majority upend the status quo based on their policy preferences about what race in America should be like, but is not, and their preferences for a veneer of colorblindness in a society where race has always mattered and continues to matter in fact and in law.”

Brown Jackson added, “Our country has never been colorblind. Given the lengthy history of state-sponsored race-based preferences in America, to say that anyone is now victimized if a college considers whether that legacy of discrimination has unequally advantaged its applicants fails to acknowledge the well documented

“intergenerational transmission of inequality” that still plagues our citizenry.” She asserts, “History speaks.” I have heard repeatedly from observers, “We knew this decision was likely and coming, but is no less a gut-punch.” Trump asked Black folks, “What do you have to lose?” The Trump Supreme Court gave us the answer!

Since its adoption, Affirmative Action has been labelled by those who oppose it as a crutch for the unqualified and unworthy. The acceptance of this label is the stated reason for its pathological rejection by Clarence Thomas. My experience in the Federal sector has shown me that the removal of artificial impediments by Affirmative Action has produced a level of competition which is unacceptable to many Whites who have grown accustomed to a lack of substantive professional opposition. The “guilt” of watching Black civil rights youth being brutalized is long gone. Instead of encouraging reconciliation, ignoring the physical and psychological brutality inflicted upon Blacks and other persons of color has replaced it.

When allowed to occur, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion have been shown to benefit all who participate and a remedy to all who understand its purpose. Instead, the Court has opened the ‘back door’ to our past social ills and pre-civil rights status quo.

(H.E. Ambassador Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq. (Ret) is President of thedickgregorysociety. org and author of “Wake Up and Stay Woke”-a tribute to Dick Gregory)