Peter and Paul
As the headline of the following article indicates, U.S. Postal Service to Stop Paying Into Worker Pension Fund, the Postal Service is seeking to stop payments into the Worker Pension Fund. But buried further down in the article is this interesting statement:

"The service wants the authority to reduce pre-payment of health benefits for retirees and has said it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due Sept. 30 for health benefits for future retirees."

What is the above telling us? The Postal Service has to contribute to two funds: the pension fund and the health care fund. Since it doesn't have the money to continue to fully fund the pension fund, it wants to stop contributing to the health care fund. This is the classic government "robbing from Peter to pay Paul" that has been going on for years.

Word to the wise: If you are planning on Social Security, Federal pension or any other type of government retirement plan to feed you when you retire, you are living in a dream world. You better start investing or find a job that you can do till you die.

I hear Wal-Mart is hiring greeters. (Or, you could just buy some gold.)