Saving For Retirement: It’s Not Too Late For Baby Boomers
By Karen Shapiro-9569
The tax filing deadline may have passed, but many small business owners, professionals, and the self-employed still feel the pain of writing big checks to the IRS. Many of those same people are baby boomers who haven’t saved enough for their retirement, and are wondering how they can catch up.

After tax-season is an ideal time to consider an amazing tax-deferral vehicle -- the very small business pension plan. Surprisingly, this is still a little known way for the self-employed to legally defer taxes on up to 100% of their income when they save it for retirement, paying taxes on it only when the money is withdrawn to use later in life.
The story: A very small business pension plan is a defined benefit plan for 1-5 person companies or individuals with self-employment income (even employed people who earn self-employed income on the side qualify). The amount of money that can be contributed annually is not limited to $50,000, as would be the case with a defined contribution plan like a small business 401(k). Nor is it limited by the amount of your current year earnings (the contribution may not be limited by the earnings, but the tax deduction is limited to current year earnings). Instead, the contribution to a defined benefit plan is determined based on age, years to retirement and the average of the three highest years of earnings.
The result: If you are self-employed, own and run a small company with up to five employees, or have a substantial side income from consulting or director’s fees,
you may be able to contribute - and deduct from income – $180,000 or even more each year! We are talking about truly HUGE tax deferrals - more than enough to start retirement years earlier.
The details: There is no specified limit on your contributions. Instead, the limit is on the allowable benefit, not the contribution. The benefit is the amount your plan will pay out annually in retirement, and that can be up to an average of your three highest years of income up to $180,000 a year. The contribution is what you pay in each plan year. In general, you can contribute up to the amount you need to accumulate the funds to pay you the specified benefit after retirement. So, for example, a 52 year old that plans to retire at age 62 with an annual income of $200,000 can contribute – and deduct from his taxable income each year as much as $169,476 each year for an estimated annual tax savings of $67,790.
And that’s not all. Contributions can be invested in virtually any traditional investment vehicle, from stocks and bonds through mutual funds and annuities. When you retire, you have all the options of any other kind of retirement plan, including rolling the plan’s assets into a Rollover IRA. And, of course, contributions to the plan grow tax-deferred until you take a distribution.
There are no onerous restrictions on you either. You can stop the plan at any age and roll the value of your benefit over to an IRA. Routinely, however, a plan is expected to be maintained at least 3 years and the earliest retirement date is age 55.
Of course, not everyone qualifies. This program is designed for self-employed people age 45 or older, with no more than five employees, and who typically earn at least $75,000 a year from their work. And of course, to get their retirement savings caught up to the amount they will need, they must be willing to make a significant contribution each year for the life of the plan.
The really nice thing is that eligible people don’t have to be pension experts to make this work. A completely packaged program, OnePersonPlus® is available from financial advisors that work with Dedicated Defined Benefit Services, the company that designed and offers the plan. Some of the advisors offering the plan work with The Hartford, Oppenheimer Funds, and Pioneer Funds, but investors with a preferred advisor should ask them to run an illustration at www.onepersonplus.com or call

Buy evidence of my husband's adultery on eBay
CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian woman has taken revenge on her cheating husband by putting a photograph of his lover's underpants up for sale on the auction site eBay. <div class='nifad'><a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301714626"><img src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301714626" border="0"/></a></div>
Cat-loving Pope urged to stop wearing fur
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Italian animal rights campaigners are urging Pope Benedict to stop wearing ermine on his hats and robes, appealing to his reputation as a cat lover. <div class='nifad'><a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301709952"><img src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301709952" border="0"/></a></div>
Missile false alarm goes off
TOKYO (Reuters) - A missile attack warning went off in local government offices in central Japan Wednesday, but officials realized it was a false alarm before disaster teams were mobilized. <div class='nifad'><a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301709951"><img src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301709951" border="0"/></a></div>
Drop tax on my medal, shooter says
BEIJING (Reuters) - Italian police officer Francesco D'Aniello won an Olympic silver medal in double trap shooting Tuesday and appealed to the Italian government for a tax exemption on his reward money. <div class='nifad'><a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301485308"><img src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301485308" border="0"/></a></div>
Mystery torch guard becomes Chinese sex symbol
BEIJING (Reuters) - A handsome but anonymous guardian of the Olympics torch on its troubled world tour has won legions of Chinese female fans -- and plenty of marriage proposals. <div class='nifad'><a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301485307"><img src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301485307" border="0"/></a></div>
FBI seeks owners of stolen art after collector dies
When New York art collector William Kingsland died in 2006, he left behind hundreds of works of art. But some, including works by Pablo Picasso, turned out to have been stolen. <div class='nifad'><a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301485306"><img src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301485306" border="0"/></a></div>
Winnie-the-Pooh held for robbery?
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese police have arrested a 20-year-old man who attacked and robbed two people after they stared at his Winnie-the-Pooh costume, officials said on Tuesday. <div class='nifad'><a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301485305"><img src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301485305" border="0"/></a></div>
Soccer team causes surprise by coming home
FREETOWN (Reuters) - A boys' soccer team from Sierra Leone won silver at a tournament in Sweden, but were hailed as champions in their poor West African homeland -- because they all came home. <div class='nifad'><a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301245086"><img src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301245086" border="0"/></a></div>
Llama fetus ritual to help Bolivia's Morales?
EL ALTO, Bolivia (Reuters) - Muttering incantations at a witches' market above La Paz, Faustino Tinta sets fire to a dried llama fetus and wax trinkets, an offering his client hopes will help Bolivian President Evo Morales survive a recall vote. <div class='nifad'><a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301245085"><img src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301245085" border="0"/></a></div>
Australia's eight hit by new curse
BEIJING (Reuters) - Australian rowers were left questioning their luck in Olympic eight's races Monday after the rudder on the men's boat jammed, forcing the crew to veer at speed out of their lane and almost collide. <div class='nifad'><a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301245084"><img src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?x=a8a276f7a37a42499f8b1c69f9acf191&u=301245084" border="0"/></a></div>

1-866-269-2706 to speak with a defined benefit plan consultant.

This is the right time to learn how to get rid of the after tax-time blues so you can get caught up on your retirement planning in just a few years.

OnePersonPlus (www.onepersonplus.com) co-founder and CEO Karen Shapiro has served as an Internet strategy and marketing consultant to executives at startups and Fortune 500 companies. In her former role as Senior Vice President and Director of Bank of America's Online Channel Management, she was responsible for Internet Strategies, Content, User Experience, and Online Advertising worldwide for the bank's award winning Web sites. Karen holds a Ph.D. in communications research from Stanford University and a BA cum laude in cognitive psychology from Columbia University.