By Kristi Hawthorne
​Small businesses across the country are experiencing a devastating economic disruption due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. When Frontwave Credit Union, headquartered in Oceanside, heard from its members as well as the business community that there was a great need for Small Business Administration (SBA) loans they went into action.

 by Lori Lawson, 
 
I have worked part time with the Orange County Public Library system for over ten years and really enjoy it.  In July 2015, I received a two-page notification that my personal data had been compromised when attackers successfully penetrated the employee network database.  Here’s the list of information they said was a part of the breach:  my name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, Driver’s license number, payroll information, dental, vision, life and disability enrollment information, retirement status, dependent information, usernames and passwords.  According to their records, the attack had been underway for about two months.  Due to the breach, the county offered identity theft coverage for one year for anyone involved.  I have my own robust coverage, but why not have a little more, right?  So I enrolled. 
 
Less than two weeks ago, I received another letter from the same employee organization stating that they had been experiencing “several electronic attempts by unknown third parties” to access employee accounts without authorization.  Since I was not notified directly, but only by a general letter, my account was not in the sweep this time. 

​California Proposal for State-run Retirement Plan for Private-sector Workers Moves Forward

The proposed California Secure Choice Retirement Plan essentially would be a 401(k) plan operated by the state and open to private-sector workers whose employers don’t offer a retirement savings plan.

California has taken a step closer to becoming the first state to make retirement savings accounts a near-universal benefit for workers with a plan that lawmakers hope will help ease an expected massive shortfall in retirement savings.
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A state board Monday sent a set of recommendations to the Legislature calling for the creation of the California Secure Choice Retirement Plan — essentially a 401(k) plan operated by the state and open to private-sector workers whose employers don't offer a retirement savings plan.

In our last episode I introduced you to the seven retirement killers: Taxes, inflation, market losses, major medical illness, a late start to saving, college for your kids, and the death of a breadwinner.  In this issue, I’m going to focus on taxes.  
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If your retirement money is taxable, you can’t possibly know how much money you will have in retirement.  That’s because you have no idea how high taxes will be when you retire.  Which means, you don’t know how much of your money the government is going to let you keep.