Amway - IRS Income Statistics">

"Grow up, get a good education, get a good job, work hard and you'll be successful" doesn't work anymore

The IRS's web site has statistics on incomes for 1993 (the last year statistics were available when I created this page in Nov. 96). Here are the top income levels from 114,608,819 tax returns filed:

$100,000	- $200,000	3,107,998
$200,000	- $500,000	785,206
$500,000	- $1,000,000	140,672
	> $1,000,000	66,426

I have no idea how this compares to prior years, but for this particular year, 2.7% of the tax returns filed met or exceeded the income level that is presented in "the plan" for an Amway Diamond. And please remember that less than 1% of all Amway distributors on record qualify as a direct distributor.

www.irs.ustreas.gov

Now lets look at retirment incomes.

The Social Security Administration's web site provides, among other things, statistics in every way imaginable about incomes of people 55 and older. Here are the statistics of Total Family Income (all sources) for people 65 and older from 1994, the last year statistics were available when I collected the information for this page in Nov 96:

	> 100,000	3.2%
75,000	- 99,999	3.1%
50,000	- 74,999	7.5%
25,000	- 49,999	23.3%
	< 25,000	62.9%

Now consider what you learned on my success statistics page. Only 8/10 of 1% of all distributors on record qualified as a Direct Distributor. If you add up the percentages above, you'll find that over 37% of those 65 and over retire with as much or more income as generated by a Direct Distributor, and of course, the retirees don't have the business expenditures that a DD has.

And isn't it incredible that 3.2% of those people, the ones that followed the system that doesn't work anymore, retire with incomes that equals or exceeds the income shown for a Diamond when the plan is showed! And remember, there are only "hundreds" of qualified diamonds -- not thousands!

There are many articles about the future of retirement incomes and Social Security. A lot of it is doom and gloom type reporting and since a distributor's goal is to get you involved in the "business" they will only tell you the things they want to tell you. At the Social Security Administration's web site, the Commissioner of Social Security addresses the future of Social Security.

If nothing is done, the trust fund will start drawing on reserves in the year 2019 and by the year 2029 the reserves will be exhausted and the money that would have been collected that year would fund about 75% of the benefits.

I repeat, this is only if nothing is done. I have never under-estimated the density of a politicians brain, but even they are talking about changes that will preserve the trust fund.

Am I trying to tell you that the vast majority of people are not going to find themselves in trouble when they contemplate retirement? Of course not. People are clearly not saving enough money towards their own retirement. But let me ask you this....if you can't afford to put $200 to $300 a month away in a saving's account where at least you are guaranteed some interest income...can you afford to "invest" $200 to $300 a month on the 8/10 of 1% chance of qualifying as a Direct Distributor? Think about it!

I would encourage everyone interested to research the issue at the SSA's web site or at any of the financial magazines web sites and find out how it will affect them personally and PLAN....PLAN....PLAN!