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Article: Retirement Planning Programs
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Aging
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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RETIREMENT PLANNING PROGRAMS
For many people, a cornerstone of retirement planning is participation in an employer-sponsored savings program. Ideally, this should start early in one
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s career to maximize the effects of compound interest. Additional retirement programs are available to self-employed persons as well as individual retirement accounts (IRAs) for all workers with earned income.
Most employer retirement programs are qualified plans, meaning they qualify for special tax benefits. For example, a plan must be in writing and cannot discriminate among employees at different salary levels. In return, employers receive a tax deduction for their contributions and employees need ...