It’s your money?

When I first started my career as a young man, I was fortunate to have found employment with the county of Kern. It was a good professional level job with a decent salary, in fact, very good when you considered the overtime bonus with the use of a county vehicle for crime scene response, which was often greater than anticipated, but I digress.

Upon being hired, I was directed to put part of my salary into the county’s 457 plan. There were many options available. I was told that there would be a sizable nest egg when I retired. A 457 plan is similar to a 401(k) except they are specific for federal, state and municipal employees; 401(k)s are offered by private employers. It is considered one leg of the retirement stool, the other two being the pension and Social Security.

Now that I am of age to collect from this fund, I am amazed at what has changed over the four decades since I first enrolled. During Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, and Bush 2, I would see gains to my long-term investment. Then came Obama, where I saw the balance lose close to 80 percent. Then miraculously under Trump, my fund achieved great gains, producing a generous nest egg that would allow my wife and I to pursue and achieve all the things that I was told would happen if I saved wisely. The prognosticators were correct.

Now, nearly 18 months after the election of Joe Biden, I watched as 20 percent-plus of my savings have evaporated. So, I began the process of withdrawing from the fund so that we could pursue our dreams only to find I am subject to 32 percent tax. Now consider inflation at nearly 8 percent, the cost of certain groceries (staples) almost doubling, the price of gasoline nearing $7 a gallon with the highest gas tax in the nation, a Democrat governor and supermajority Democrat-run legislature sitting on a $100 billion dollar surplus that by law they must return a portion to the taxpayer.

Now they are caught in a dilemma; what special interests or protected classes must first receive a cut of that pie and how big should that slice be? Now, it is proposed that California state residents may have to foot the bill for providing abortions to include lodging to residents of other states seeking the procedure. One wonders which is worse, corporate greed of government greed? I know the answer.