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A retirement plan for African leaders, Mo Ibrahim

Written by: G Kofi Annan

Article Overview: African leaders, Ibrahim (says), look to retirement as they would to the edge of a cliff, beyond which lies a dizzying fall towards retribution and relative poverty.

A retirement plan for African leaders, Mo Ibrahim

African leaders, Ibrahim (says), look to retirement as they would to the edge of a cliff, beyond which lies a dizzying fall towards retribution and relative poverty.

“We don’t have financial institutions for ex-presidents to go and run, or boards of great companies. There is life after office in other parts of the world. I just read that Tony Blair was paid half a million pounds to make a speech in China. People like Blair always have a place in society, they have secure financial futures,” - Lunch with the FT: Mo Ibrahim

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Article Tags: african leaders, china, financial futures, financial institutions, half a million, lunch, mo ibrahim, presidents, relative poverty, retirement, retribution, tony blair



Related Forum Posts
You can do this without financing your business with it - If you are leaving your present employment or have retirement funds from a previous employer, you can rollover those retirement funds without any penalites or taxes involved (into your own business) rather than leaving them in someone elses business. You do not have to finance your business with your retirement to do this. Here's how it works: Our resources form a C corporation for your new business, your C-corporation creates a new retirement plan. Funds from the existing retirement plan are rolled into your corporations new reitrement plan and your new retirement plan purchases stock of your corporation. The program is IRS approved! Contact me if you are interested. FYI- This program has also been helpful for people obtaining an SBA loan for their franchise or Acquisition, because they can obtain the loan down payment for the loan from the rolled retirement funds (without penalties or taxes) rather than financing the entire business themselves. Contact us!
Re: Quote of the Day - John Johnson - Hi Evan, Thanks for the link; I love Johnson’s quotes and his attitude to life in general. The fact that he started to make his millions during a time when it was really tough for African Americans to succeed makes his story even more remarkable. I particularly like his attitude to retirement as he kept working right up until his death and I happen to believe that retirement is a matter of choice if possible and not compulsory but unfortunately most people don’t get that chance. regards, Mal.
Re: Searching for options for good investments!!! - [quote="Pompy":3vfhb802]Hi everyone, I have a few months left in my company before I retire …. and I would like to know about the options that I can consider for my retirement plan. I am taking about some real good investments so that I get my future secured (want it secured for the kids too). I have a few options that I can look up to like REI, mutual funds and stocks…..but need a bit of advice from you to make a better decision.[/quote:3vfhb802] I hope you actually already have some investments in your retirement plan and have had them for 20 years or so! While it's never too late to start saving for retirement... waiting until you've got just a few months to go is cutting it pretty fine! I'd put any investments into annuities for your kids maybe, or invest in their college educations with a signed contract that they reimburse all monies when they get good jobs thanks to you! You could always become an angel investor, as Buzz suggested... although going with smaller sums than $500,000!
Re: How do you budget your life? - [quote="GT Bulmer":1cwfzwox]The best planning and budgeting concept I have seen (and [u:1cwfzwox]some[/u:1cwfzwox]times follow) to help plan for the future is "Pay yourself first." Decide on a dollar amount or a percentage, then on "payday" the first thing you do is put that amount into a savings account that you have mentally [u:1cwfzwox]blocked[/u:1cwfzwox] yourself from accessing for anything but the intended purpose. Do not consider it an emergency fund or a rainy day fund. Keep it as a retirement fund that you cannot touch for anything else. If there is something you want to buy - a major expense, that is - you can do the same thing. You can "save up" for it by determining how much you can put into a special, untouchable savings account each payday. Then, on payday, "pay yourself first" and do not touch that money for anything else.[/quote:1cwfzwox] Every person has to keep retirement fund . "Pay yourself first" this will be the best method for future and retirement planing.
What do you do to give back? - I'm launching new section of the site for social entrepreneurship and our first category is going to be called African Accounts. The goal with the project is to raise awareness of African entrepreneurs and showcase that entrepreneurship can be the path to achieving sustainable development. This has always been a passion of mine and I have done a number of talks around the world on this subject so I'm excited to bring it online as well. We have recruited some of the top bloggers in the world who focus on African entrepreneurship and are preparing additional resources. I believe that a big part of running a business is being socially responsible and giving back - even if it's donating your time to an organization or small amounts of money or products. You don't have to be mega-successful to make a difference. What are some of the things you are doing to give back to the community around you?


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