Winning Powerball is Harder than Ever

According to Jo Craven McGinty writing in The Wall Street Journal (1/16/16), in October the Powerball system was revised to reduce the chance of winning from 1 in 175 million to only 1 in 292 million. Rejiggering the system means it takes longer for a winner to appear while the jackpot amount increases. The bigger the jackpot, the more tickets are sold. So... how delusional are you? Replace your lottery dreams with the reality of improved financial security in later life. A much better use of your money is to open a myRA account and add to it weekly what you would spend on lottery tickets. https://myra.gov/

Half of Americans are NOT in a Retirement Plan

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, "just 53 percent of American workers participate in any type of retirement plan at work." Part-time, low-income workers and employees of small businesses are most at risk for not having a plan. Get the details from Steve Vernon: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/half-of-all-american-workers-not-covered-by-a-retirement-plan/
The myRA and Roth IRA plans are options for these workers but many don't earn enough to be able to contribute to a retirement plan. Many of these workers are completely dependent on Social Security when they retire so it is important to strengthen SS NOW and not keep delaying.

New US Treasury bond for myRA Retirement Accounts

For conservative retirement savers/investors, a new savings bond is available only to participants in the myRA retirement savings program. "The bonds are designed to protect the principal contributed while earning interest at a rate previously available only to federal employees invested in the Government Securities Investment Fund (G Fund) of the Thrift Savings Plan." Details at: http://www.planadviser.com/NewsArticle.aspx?id=10737424942&p=1