The Cleburne Eagle News (Cleburne, Tex.), Ed. 1 Thursday, January 31, 2013 Page: 4 of 10
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By: Joel Victory
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By: Wendell Dempsey
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tution!
Cleburne
Yellow Jackets
Football
Teacher Salary Survey
Released
Reflexology introductory offer plus aroma therapy
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Cleburne’s football team this year had one of the better seasons
in recent years, and part of the reason is the senior under the
center at quarterback.
Quade Coward is a senior this year and ended the season with
over 3200 yards passing with 598 yards running. He had 35
touchdowns and only 9 interceptions, with an overall 60.0 com-
pletion rate on his passes. Thirteen of those 35 touchdowns were
made by the running effort of Coward.
Quade was recently voted to the honorable mention in the 2012
Texas Associated Press Editors Class 4A All-State High School
football team.
The Cleburne Yellow Jacket football team went 7 and 4 this year,
but was 6 and 1 in District 8-4A. This team averaged 42 points
a game with coward directing traffic. The season ended with a
loss in the playoffs to defending champ Aledo.
Quade is quick to give credit to his team members and said the
great season they had was due to team play with everyone con-
tributing throughout the season.
In the game with Waco this season Coward threw for 6 touch-
downs for 388 yards, and rushed for 69 yards to win in overtime
42-41.
When the Jackets played Centennial they trailed by as much as
18 points, but managed to win 61-59 with Quade again having 6
touchdowns , 403 yards and a 169 yards running the ball.
Quade won several awards this year, but friends say he has not
changed one little bit. Still quite, courteous, and easy to get
along with.
Quade say that he is looking forward to a college career, but
until that time comes, he will play baseball for CHS.
Writing about a good student, a great athlete with his head on
right and a kid that gets along with everyone is a great way to
let our citizens know a little more about our students. Quade
Coward is my student of the week, and with his talent he will do
great in college.
Just a great kid in our school system. Congratulations Quade
for a job well done, and a great example for other Cleburne stu-
dents.
Contact me at 8817-925-3149 or wgdemp@gmail.com
Weekly Focus- Optimism is the faith that leads to
achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and
confidence.
—Helen Keller, the first deaf and blind person to
earn a Bachelor of Arts degree
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Studio cr‘Taulique
Lisa Bandy
CLEBURNE EAGLE NEWS Janoary 31,2013, PAGE 4
A
CLEBURNE BUSINESS
JOHNSON COUNTY_________WEEKLY_______
LIFE CARE PLANNING
BY SANDRA W. REED
Social Security Payoff: Only If
Retiree Paid Into the System
Misconceptions regarding the Social Security Retirement sys-
tem have prompted heated rhetoric recently. Payments to re-
tirees have been called handouts. Those receiving Security
pay checks have been labeled takers. In particular, critics ac-
cuse Baby Boomers of robbing their children and grandchil-
dren through accessing a program that will not be there for
future generations. Some predict a War Between the Ages.
(Would Gen Xers and younger call it the War of Elderly Ag-
gression?)
Benefits Not A Handout; Recipients Not Takers
My view about the raised concerns: (1) Social Security ben-
efits are not a handout and those accepting them are not takers
because those receiving benefits are workers who have paid
into the system sufficient amounts to be insured; and (2) Facts
demonstrate that the Social Security retirement fund system
is solvent now and will remain so, without modification, for
more than 20 years hence. Congress, despite recent stale-
mates, will enact those changes, if any, that become necessary
to secure future SS solvency.
The issues raised above are not the worry. What should con-
cern each worker is whether he or she meets the qualifications
for benefits at the time of retirement. No one wants to face the
the bitter truth that they are not insured and, therefore, will not
be getting monthly SS retirement checks.
40 Quarters of Coverage Required For SS Retirement In-
come
A worker must have paid into the system and have accumu-
lated 40 quarters of coverage known as Qualified Credits (QC)
between the ages of 21 and 62 to be insured under the Social
Security program. These QCs do not have to be earned con-
secutively, but a minimum amount must be earned to obtain
each quarter of coverage. And, no matter how much mon-
ey a worker makes, no more than 4 quarters of coverage are
awarded in any given year.
Minimum Amounts Earned Per Quarter to Qualify for QC
Prior to 1978, SS awarded a QC for each quarter a worker
was paid $50 in wages or 4 quarters for each year in which
a worker earned $400 or more self-employment income. In
1978, $250 earned in a quarter qualified as a QC, up to 4 quar-
ters. After 1978, employers generally report wages on an
annual, rather than a quarterly basis, with the amount needed
for a QC equal to $250 multiplied by a ratio of a scale known
as the national average wage index. The amount is rounded to
the nearest multiple of $10. The amount a person must earn
for 2013 is $1,160 per quarter.
Individuals concerned as to whether they have met the earn-
ings requirement for any given year may consult a chart which
lists the quarterly amount for each year from 1978 to 2013
at www.ssa.gov , the official Social Security Administration
website.
Numerous scenarios which lead to an individual’s having
fewer QCs than necessary to obtain insured status with Social
Security. Several examples follow.
Example 1: Jobber Joe worked for a company that assured
him they were paying the employment tax on his behalf to
the government. He discovers on his 55th birthday, that the
company had not done so for 5 years. As a jobber, he was not
consistently employed throughout his work life. As a result,
now Joe is faced with being 20 QCs short of the 40 he needs
to be insured.
Example 2: Entrepreneur Eddie started a construction busi-
ness the year he graduated from high school and faithfully
paid contributions to Social Security. Ten years later, during
a boom in both the housing and stock markets, he made so
much money building homes and in investments, he took off
for 3 years to travel the world and accumulated no QCs during
that period.
Example 3: Doting Dotty worked for a large accounting firm
after passing the CPA exam. When her father died, her mother
needed fulltime care but could not afford 24/7 caregivers and
refused assisted living. Dotty moved back home, investing all
of her time in her mother’s care for 6 years. In January 2013,
at the age of 60, Dotty discovered she was lacking 8 CQs to
qualify for benefits. Dotty’s mother’s health prevents Dotty’s
seeking outside employment.
Can Joe, Eddie and Dotty remedy their situations? Yes.
They can go back to work, make the quarterly minimums and
pay into the system all monies required. But time is of the es-
sence for Joe and Dotty. Eddie is younger with fewer missing
quarters and more years in which to make them up; but even
he would be wise to start soon, not knowing what his own
future holds.
Joe lacks 20 QCs, so he must work 5 years before the year he
turns 62. We know Joe is 55. Let’s assume his birthday is
early June. Given there are only 26 quarters before the year
he turns 62, he should immediately seek work allowing him to
pay the minimum amounts per quarter. If he gets a job in July
after that 55th birthday, earns 2 QCs that year, and 4 QCs per
year thereafter, he reaches his goal in June the year he turns
60.
Dotty has the thorniest problem for two reasons: (1) she has
2 years to make up, with only one year ahead, before the year
she turns 62; and (2) she can’t leave her mother for work out-
side the home. Fortunately, even she has a solution. Dotty’s
mother can contract to pay her a monthly amount equal to or
exceeding the minimum for earning a QC. Dotty’s mother
pays Dotty this amount retroactively for the year 2012 and
going forward at least through 2013. Dotty files an income
tax return for 2012, pays in the self-employment tax for the
year and repeats the process for the year 2013. In this manner,
she earns the missing 8 quarters to meet insured status for SS
benefits before her time runs out.
Sandra W. Reed is an attorney, of counsel with Katten & Benson, an
Elder Law firm. Contact her at 254.797.0211 or at swreed2@yahoo.
com if you have questions, or wish to request a topic for the Life
Care Planning column. ______________
Massage Spa E Wellness Center
Massage Wellness at its Finest
(Austin) - Budgets for teacher pay raises are slightly up for
2012-13 according to the Salaries and Wages in Texas Public
Schools Report recently released by the Texas Association of
School Boards (TASB) and Texas Association of School Ad-
ministrators (TASA). Less than 20 percent of districts froze
teacher salaries this year, compared to nearly half of participat-
ing districts last year.
While more Texas teachers received a raise this year, the av-
erage teacher salary remained relatively flat. Teachers earn an
average salary of $49,139, a change of about 1.6 percent over
the average salary of $48,375 in 2011-12.
District concerns about school funding shortfalls have been re-
flected in teacher pay raises for the past three years. The aver-
age pay raise for 2012-13 was 2.3 percent, up slightly from
last year’s average of 2 percent, which was the smallest raise in
more than 10 years. In the past three years, pay raises averaged
2.2 percent, a significant drop from the nearly 4 percent average
between 2000-01 and 2009-10.
Cindy Clegg, director of TASB HR Services, believes the lack
of any noticeable change in average teacher salary reflects the
fact that more highly paid teachers are retiring and being re-
placed by less experienced teachers at lower salaries. Clegg
states, “The average teacher salary actually dropped for the first
time in history in 2011-12. Because teacher salaries are strongly
correlated to years of service, the loss of so many experienced
teachers keeps the state average from improving.”
Other survey highlights:
Differentiated teacher pay for critical shortage areas continues
to grow. Seventy-four percent of districts pay critical shortage
area stipends to teachers in at least one critical shortage area, up
2 percent from 2011-12.
Of the shortage stipends surveyed, districts pay a math stipend
most frequently. Similar to last year, the areas of math and bi-
lingual education pay the highest stipends, $2,441 and $2,495
respectively.
The TASB/TASA teacher salary survey is the second in a series
of four that is the most definitive study of compensation and
benefits practices in Texas. This information is used by poli-
cymakers at the local and state levels to make decisions about
educator pay and benefits.
TASB is a nonprofit association established in 1949 to serve
local Texas school districts. School board members are the larg-
est group of publicly elected officials in the state. The districts
they represent serve approximately 5 million public school stu-
dents.
Full report available for purchase from the TASB Store
817-645-60050186681-6800
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INVESTMENT STRATEGIES I
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They say that optimism is catching. The performance of
markets across the globe last week certainly supported
the idea.
During the second week of January, there was reason for
optimism about the housing market as data showed that
housing starts exceeded economists’ expectations and
home construction appeared to be on the rebound. Last
week, the National Association of Realtors disclosed that
very low mortgage rates, falling unemployment, and one
of the most affordable housing markets on record helped
make 2012 the best year for home sales since 2007.
In addition, earnings season - the period of each quar-
ter during which public corporations announce their
quarterly earnings to the public - moved into high gear.
Generally solid corporate earnings drive markets higher.
This helped the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index close above
1,500 for the first time in more than five years.
Across the pond, the European Central Bank announced
that banks plan to repay 137 billion Euros next week much
earlier than many had expected. Markets interpreted the
news as a sign that European financial systems may be on
the mend. Global stock markets gained strength and the
Euro reached its highest level in nearly a year against the
U.S. dollar.Interest rates in Italy and Spain, some of the
weaker links in the Eurozone economy in recent years,
fell significantly during the week offering further evi-
dence that investors’ optimism and appetite for risk was
on the rise.
Traditional or roth retirement plan contributions? A
provision of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012
(ATRA) allows many people with savings in workplace
retirement plans to make “in-plan Roth conversions.”
They can move savings from traditional, before-tax
401(k), 403(b), or 457 plan accounts to Roth plan ac-
counts without a distributable event (such as death, dis-
ability, or reaching age 59%2) as long as the employer of-
fers both options.
Traditional contributions
In general, traditional contributions to retirement plan
accounts are made with before-tax dollars so they reduce
current income. Any earnings in these accounts grow tax-
deferred until assets are withdrawn. Generally, that’s at
retirement. Distributions from Traditional accounts gen-
erally are taxed as ordinary income.
Roth contributions
Contributions to Roth retirement plan accounts are differ-
ent. They are made with after-tax dollars so they do not
reduce taxable income today. Any earnings in Roth ac-
counts grow tax-free. Distributions from a Roth account
are tax-free and penalty-free as long as the five-year par-
ticipation period requirement is met and the distribution
is taken for a qualified purpose, such as reaching age 5914
or becoming disabled.
How do I decide whether a conversion is right for me?
The decision about whether to convert a Traditional
workplace retirement plan account to a Roth workplace
retirement plan account should be based on criteria that
are similar to the criteria used when deciding whether to
convert a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. These include:
• Tax brackets now and in the future: If you think
you’ll be in a higher tax bracket during retirement than
you’re in today, then a Roth conversion may make
sense.
• Assets available to pay the taxes due: When you
convert from a Traditional to a Roth plan account, you
will owe taxes on the assets you convert. If you have
non-retirement savings available to pay these taxes, a
Roth conversion may be a good choice.
• Legacy and estate planning goals: If aRoth
401(k) account offers estate planning opportunities that
suit your needs, conversion may be a good choice.
• Income needs during retirement: If having a
source of tax-free income to supplement taxable income
during retirement could boost retirement income, then a
Roth conversion may make sense.
Source: Investment News
It’s important to recognize a retirement plan conversion
is different from an IRA conversion. Plan conversions
do not allow a do-over while IRA conversions can be re-
voked for a certain period of time. If you have any ques-
tions about this topic, please give us a call.
Shop (817)641-5800
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Oaks, Judy & Oaks, Kelly. The Cleburne Eagle News (Cleburne, Tex.), Ed. 1 Thursday, January 31, 2013, newspaper, January 31, 2013; Cleburne, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1499790/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Johnson County Historical Commission.