Ghosts and Goblins

What do ghosts and goblins drink on Halloween? ... Ghoul aide.

This past week while many busied themselves in preparing for Halloween, executives at Wal-Mart were pondering a different issue. Nationwide employees of Wal-Mart took part on Saturday in various actions, including the first ever national Halloween Candy Sale to raise money for some 600,000 employees who must face that "There´s Nothing Scarier Than Not Having Healthcare!"

Wal-Mart´s current health care crisis resulted from their rising benefit costs which have risen to $4.2 billion last year from $2.8 billion three years earlier.  This is even more surprising in that more than 45% of Wal-Mart´s workers have no company health insurance. In trying to both control costs and increase participation, Executives at Wal-Mart came up with a plan to allow employees to qualify for health insurance earlier. Unfortunately a leaked Wal-Mart memo detailing how they would cut employee benefits, including forcing out older more expensive workers, hit the media at the same time. Wal-Mart executive "Spin control" efforts state they are not cutting costs but rather redirecting them. Wal-Mart´s critics already contend that Wal-Marts´ wage and benefits are lowering the countries national average.

On a different note, now that it is Halloween, forget about ghosts and goblins and instead think about preventing the horrors of maybe having to delay your retirement. So to avoid a real scare on this and future Halloweens, start preparing for your retirement. See your friendly neighborhood professional financial adviser, planner, consultant, accountant, etc. to help you get started.