What, Exactly, Constitutes An Affair? (Dear Margo)

Dear Margo - DEAR MARGO: I'm in an unusual (or perhaps not) situation.

Thinking about retirement planning you have a choice of options or plans from which you can choose, one of those is the Individual Retirement Arrangement plan (IRA).

What is IRA

An Individual Retirement Arrangement plan, I will be saying IRA plan from now on, which allows people to save money for their retirement and also delay paying taxes on the income that goes in to the plan. All savings in this plan can be invested in all sorts of different ways to make the money grow until the retirement age is reached. For example, the savings could be invested in funds or stocks just to name a few.

The reason an IRA plan works is because you can invest money as long as you stay under the limit that the tax law allows you to. Tax law calls these investments "contributions" and these are not taxed, a further benefit would be that under certain circumstances a tax deduction is available.

What type of IRA plans are there

You can choose from a few IRA retirement plans. First you have the usual IRA plan, this plans allows an individual to invest, or contribute if you will, an amount of not more then $2,000 a year. How much tax deduction you get on your income tax return all depends on your Adjusted Gross Income bur also if your retirement plan is sponsored by your employer in a qualified retirement plan.

The second type of IRA plan is the education IRA. This plan lets you contribute a maximum of $500 every year. This money will grow tax-free and upon distribution to the beneficiary also has preferential tax treatment. This beneficiary can then use it for authorised educational expenses.

Thirdly there is the SEP IRA. Simplified Employee Pension is what SEP stands for. This Simplified IRA is established for you and funded by your employer. The employer can put up a maximum of 15% of your compensation into a special SEP IRA account.

There are more choices where it concerns IRA retirement planning, you have Simple IRA and there is ROTH IRA. Both are good choices but we won't be talking about them in this article.

Every individual is free to choose an IRA plan and start making contributions to it. But it's best to learn about the different options you have and maybe a consult with a financial advisor could clear things up for you. Looking into IRA plans on your own can be very daunting, a financial advisor takes you by your hand and helps you make clear and good decisions. There is a lot of help for you available. This is an important step and you should think carefully before taking action.

An IRA retirement plan has many benefits as I have shown you, the tax benefit being one of them. Now it is up to you which form of IRA retirement plan you choose. Just start planning your retirement now so you won't be left with an empty bank account on the day you retire.

John Chomsky worked as a consultant helping other people plan for their retirement. Almost forgetting his own. He helps people out at http://www.planning-a-retirement.com

Yahoo! News

AP - Cries for help inside a Trenton, N.J., home turned out to be for the birds. Neighbors called police Wednesday morning after hearing a woman's persistent cry of "Help me! Help me!" coming from a house. Officers arrived and when no one answered the door, they kicked it in to make a rescue.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is to send not one, but two emissaries to Beijing this week in an attempt to heal the growing diplomatic squabble between China and France.

After the recent apparently non-orchestrated spontaneous anti-Western, and in particular anti-French demonstrations in China, Sarkozy seems to have decided that it's time to bring a little calm into play.

Those demonstrations were against allegedly biased Western media coverage of the Chinese security clampdown in Tibet and in particular at the protests that took place in Paris at the beginning of this month as the Olympic torch made its way through the streets of the French capital.

Sarkozy has chosen a contrasting couple to do this country's bidding in what for him is a somewhat unaccustomed mild-mannered counter attack.

Next weekend he's sending his diplomatic advisor, Jean-David Levitte, to sweet talk the Chinese authorities. No great surprise on that front perhaps as Levitte is clearly the right man for the job. He's a former French ambassador to the United Sates and a recognised "Sherpa" or personal representative of Sarkozy, responsible for preparing the president's participation at international summits.

The other emissary however is something of a surprise. It's the former prime minister and current vice president of Sarkozy's ruling centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who will be arriving in China on Wednesday.

On first sight that decision isn't so extraordinary, after all the two men belong to the same party and were in government together under Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac.

But Raffarin, while not exactly condemning the current president over the past year, has not held back in his criticism of Sarkozy's personal style and some of his policies.

What's more, Raffirin will also be delivering a letter from Chirac, apologising for his being unable to make a planned trip to China himself on medical grounds.

That should go down well with the authorities in Beijing, as Chirac remains immensely popular there. And it might bring an amused smile to the face of many commentators here in France who know how little love is lost between the former and present French presidents.

Further proof, if it were needed, of how canny a political operator the present incumbent can be when it suits him.

In fact the whole business of sending emissaries to China is something of an interesting departure for Sarkozy. If this had all happened a couple of months ago when he was still in his supersonic omnipresent presidential phase, he would more than likely have boarded the first Beijing-bound plane himself to try to sort out the problem.

This then perhaps is more evidence that the newly presidential Sarkozy is calmer, more measured and statesmanlike and actually allowing others to do the jobs for which he wasn't elected.

Johnny Summerton is a Paris-based broadcaster, writer and journalist. For more on what's making the headlines here in France, log on to his site at http://www.persiflagefrance.com