Welcome to your group plan Enrollment Meeting!

This Enrollment Meeting provides a quick overview of important issues affecting your long-term financial goals and your participation in this group plan. More extensive information is provided in the Employee Education Center together with calculators and other planning tools that will help you determine how much you may need to save and how to invest your contributions.

The Enrollment Meeting should take no more than 30 minutes. When completed you will have everything you need to sign-up and begin saving for your retirement.
Agenda

> How Retirement Plans Work

> Benefits of Participating

> Fundamentals of Investing

> Deciding to Participate
A retirement plan is one of the most important benefits your employer can offer.

An employer sponsored plan allows you to contribute pre-tax dollars to build up tax-deferred retirement income. Contributions and earnings are not taxed until you receive distributions, usually at retirement.

Convenient payroll contributions give you a systematic savings plan and immediate tax break allowing you to keep more of what you earn.

If you decide to participate, you'll have an individually held account in your name that represents a combination of your regular pre-tax savings contributions and annual contributions from your employer, if any.

Participating in your employer’s plan is your opportunity to save for retirement now and pay taxes later- when you withdraw your money. This deferred tax break is the government's way of encouraging you to save as much as you can today, so that you benefit over the long term.
Benefits of Participating

Whatever your age, it's crucial to organize your plans for retirement now and to put them into action without delay. Consider this:

Just to maintain your same standard of living during retirement, you'll need as much as 80% of your final annual income for every year you're retired. And, to be on the safe side when you plan, it would be wise to count less on Social Security and other government support and rely more on your own efforts for financial security in retirement.

Salary deferrals are your opportunity to save for retirement now and pay taxes later- when you withdraw your money. As the example below shows, because your contributions are made on a pre-tax basis, the impact on your take-home pay is minimal.

As you can see, you're only out-of-pocket $43.20 to save $60.00!

To see how a $60 weekly contribution would add up over the years, consider the following. In just 20 years, savings in a tax-deferred plan will outpace a taxable savings account by 30%!

As you can see, the funds in your account would total $153,930 compared to over $110,830 in the taxable account.**



** This example assumes a hypothetical 8% compound rate of return before inflation with all capital gains and dividends reinvested. It also assumes a 28% tax rate on savings.
This calculator helps you to understand how much money you can accumulate by making monthly contributions to a tax-deferred account. Simply enter your current salary, the percentage you want to contribute to your account each month, and the expected return rate.
ARE YOU SAVING ENOUGH FOR RETIREMENT?
How much will I have?
How much do I need to save?
Your Current Age  
Expected Retirement Age  
Expected Rate of Return %  
Current Retirement Savings $  
Savings Amount $  
<Calculate  

Retirement Savings Forecast

$ 

Your Current Age  
Expected Retirement Age  
Expected Rate of Return %
Current Retirement Savings $  
Savings Goal $  
<Calculate  

Savings Estimate
 
$ 

 
(NOTE: The calculations are based on a contribution. Your contribution frequency may be different. This is a projected savings based on your expected return on investment. Your actual results may vary.)

The next step in enrolling in the plan is to create your investment plan.

When building an investment plan, it's important to have some guidelines to keep you on track with long-term investing. To help you with this we have outlined four ground rules for long-term investing:

     1. Know your Investment Style.

     2. Develop a Diversified Portfolio.

     3. Stay on Track.

     4. Take a Long-Term View.
1. Know your Investment Style.


Have an understanding of your feelings and tolerance for risk. Make sure you choose investments that you're comfortable with and appropriate for your retirement savings goals.

2. Develop a Diversified Portfolio.


Choose an appropriate allocation of assets when deciding your investments. Be sure to diversify, both among asset classes (stocks, bonds, and cash-equivalents), and within each class. Doing so can spread risk over a variety of investments and may provide more consistent and reliable outcomes.

3. Stay on Track.


Review your portfolio at least once a year, and whenever personal circumstances change. You'll need to evaluate the performance of your investments against relevant benchmarks, and, when necessary, rebalance your portfolio to stay on track with your retirement savings plan.

4. Take a long-term view.


Maintain the discipline to hold onto or add to appropriate investments through down markets as well as up markets.

Fundamentals of Investing

If you're a new investor, it pays to gather as much information as you can. Read up on investing and money management techniques. Make a periodic review. Even if you're an experienced investor, it's important to review, and possibly adjust your plan periodically to make sure it's still appropriate. You'll want to review these areas on at least an annual basis:

  • Investment Results.
  • Life Changes, such as Employment Housing or Health.
  • Your Financial Situation.
  • Your Objectives & Portfolio Allocation.
Fundamentals of Investing

Types of Investments

Investments can be categorized into three major classes:

  • Stocks
  • Bonds
  • Cash
Fundamentals of Investing

Types of Investments

Stocks:

  • Represent units of ownership or shares in a company
  • Proportional stake in the corporation's assets and profits
  • Dividends
Fundamentals of Investing

Types of Investments

Bonds:

  • IOUs issued by corporations or governments in exchange for a loan of money
  • Repay the principal amount of the bond itself on a specific maturity date
Fundamentals of Investing

Types of Investments

Cash:

  • Money Market - Provides income and liquidity by investing in short-term, high quality debt instruments
Fundamentals of Investing

Types of Investments

Mutual Funds:

Your plan offers a number of investment choices. Typically, these are mutual funds that are designed to make choosing your investment easier. Mutual funds pool your money with that of many other people who have similar investment goals. Mutual fund managers use this pool of money to buy combinations of different securities (stocks/bonds/cash).

Advantages:
  • Target a Specific Investment Objective Over Time.
  • Diversification.
  • Professionally Managed.
Now that you understand the features, benefits and savings advantages of a retirement plan you are ready to make your decision:


•Yes  I wish to enroll as a participant in the plan.


•No  I do not wish to enroll as a participant in the plan.