Updates from Organizations - Government agencies - Advertise Various Artists

Line Up Brings Together Friends From Throughout The Years

Including Reel Big Fish, Bowling For Soup, The Used, Frank Turner,

All Time Low, Simple Plan, Taking Back Sunday, The Maine, Waterparks, The Interrupters, 

ISSUES, SUM 41, Tonight Alive, Knuckle Puck, 3OH!3, Mayday Parade, Hatebreed, 

Hail The Sun, Four Year Strong, Ice Nine Kills, This Wild Life, and more

 

Tickets For All Shows On Sale Now, Purchase Here

 

Los Angeles, CA, March 26, 2018 - Press applications are now open for the 2018 Vans Warped Tour, presented by Journeys. Writers and photographers interested in covering this year's festival can apply now, here: smarturl.it/VWT_PressApplication

 

It was previously shared that this would be the final cross-country run for the tour, now in its 24th year. On the upcoming shows, founder Kevin Lyman has shared: "I truly am happy to get the chance to travel around the country one more time to thank you for your support, and bring you another best day ever."

 

For its final run, the tour is thrilled to welcome back countless bands who have rocked Vans Warped Tour over the last 24 years including Reel Big Fish, Simple Plan, All Time Low, Four Year Strong, 3OH!3, Less Than Jake, Underoath, We The Kings, The Used, Tonight Alive and more. Adding to this year's lineup are up-and-coming acts such as State Champs, Trash Boat, Don Broco, Grayscale, Waterparks, Real Friends, and Movements. A special announcement video can be seen at www.vanswarpedtour.com .

Also returning this summer are the newly named Mutant Red Dawn and Mutant White Lightning stages, showcasing the best in heavy and hardcore music: Chelsea Grin, MYCHILDREN MY BRIDE, Every Time I Die, Knocked Loose, The Amity Affliction, Ice Nine Kills, and more.

It was recently announced that Vans Warped Tour veterans Pennywise and Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band will also be joining this final cross-country tour for a few special guest performances. For a current list of artists and dates, please visit: vanswarpedtour.com/bands

The Vans Warped Tour is the largest traveling music festival in the United States, and the longest-running touring music festival in North America. Originally conceived by founder Kevin Lyman in 1995 as an eclectic alternative rock festival, with a focus on punk rock, over the years the tour has grown to include a multitude of genres, including metal, hip hop, reggae, pop and more. It remains one of the best tours to attend to discover emerging acts, to learn more about wonderful non-profits and companies who are working to make a positive impact on the world that surround them, and to meet like-minded friends. 

Over the past two decades, Vans Warped Tour has built a legacy as the must attend summer festival for rock and music lovers alike. Since its start in 1995 it has provided a platform for established as well as up-and-coming artists, with past performers including blink182, No Doubt, Sublime, Beck, Katy Perry, NOFX, Limp Bizkit, Black Eyed Peas, Green Day, Eminem, Yellowcard, Bad Religion, and countless others.

In addition, the tour continues to host a wide array of amazing non-profits and educational workshops for attendees and 2018 will be launching the FEND Movement (Full Energy, No Drugs) in partnership with thePreventum Initiative. The FEND Movement empowers youth to make a stand against opioids. The FEND Movement aims to engage 50,000 young people between March and August 2018, giving them the chance to earn rewards and prizes as they increase their knowledge and change their attitudes and behaviors in relation to opioids. Youth can participate by downloading the Preventum app and on-boarding to the FEND campaign.

 

A Voice For The Innocent, American Red Cross, Hope For The Day, Feed Our Children Now!, Living The Dream Foundation, To Write Love on Her Arms, and truth will all be involved this summer, just to name a few. Fans can see their favorite bands as well as become educated on these causes and how they can help.

"I am very excited about the upcoming year. With it being the last tour, the non-profit presence will be as big as ever. Groups who have been out in the past will be coming out in more markets, and hopefully we will attract new non-profits," comments Sierra Lyman. "With more non-profits coming out there will be more options for our audience to hopefully get involved before, during, and after the tour. I am hoping that this last year encourages non-profits to partner with bands and for bands to partner with non-profits on their own events and tours once this summer is over."

 

The Entertainment Institute will return to the 2018 tour as well, hosting educational workshops and Q+A's hosted by the industry's most successful writers, artists, and photographers. More information regarding the artists conducting workshops will be available in April at http://www.thinktei.com 

Also joining the tour this year as sponsors are dailyKARMA, Ernie Ball, Equal Vision Records, Full Sail University, Peta2, MusiCares, PRS Guitars, Hopeless Records, Viceland, Violent Gentlemen, Hope For The Day, and more.

"Kevin and the tour have touched so many lives through their commitment to giving back to the community," shares dailyKARMA CEO Patricia Dao. "They've been doing it long before it was the cool thing to do.  Our team is thrilled that dailyKARMA will be powering Warped Tour's online fundraising efforts this year."

 

General admission tickets, as well as Super Fan Bundles, for this year's tour on are sale now and can be purchased at www.vanswarpedtour.com .

 

The 38-date tour will commence June 21st in Pomona, CA and end on August 5th in West Palm, FL.

VANS WARPED TOUR DATES:

Super Fan Bundles on are sale now and can be purchased at vanswarpedtour.com

 

6.21 POMONA, CA

6.22 SAN DIEGO, CA

6.23 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA

6.24 VENTURA, CA

6.28 PHOENIX, AZ

6.29 LAS VEGAS, NV

6.30 SALT LAKE CITY, UT

7.01 DENVER, CO

7.03 ST. LOUIS, MO

7.05 BONNER SPRINGS, KS

7.06 DALLAS, TX

7.07 SAN ANTONIO, TX

7.08 HOUSTON, TX

7.10 NASHVILLE, TN

7.12 VIRGINIA BEACH, VA

7.13 CAMDEN, NJ

7.14 HOLMDEL, NJ

7.15 HARTFORD, CT

7.16 PITTSBURGH, PA

7.17 TORONTO, ON

7.18 CUYAHOGA FALLS, OH

7.19 CINCINNATI, OH

7.20 DETROIT, MI

7.21 CHICAGO, IL

7.22 MINNEAPOLIS, MN

7.23 MILWAUKEE, WI

7.24 INDIANAPOLIS, IN

7.25 DARIEN CENTER, NY

7.26 SCRANTON, PA

7.27 MANSFIELD, MA

7.28 WANTAGH, NY

7.29 COLUMBIA, MD

7.30 CHARLOTTE, NC

7.31 ATLANTA, GA

8.02 JACKSONVILLE, FL

8.03 ORLANDO, FL

8.04 TAMPA, FL

8.05 WEST PALM BEACH, FL

 

About Vans Warped Tour:

The Vans Warped Tour, presented by Journeys, is well known as America's longest running touring music festival of the summer. Since 1995, the tour has been a showcase for both established and up and coming talent, across a wide range of eclectic sub-genres.

 

The tour has also cemented its place in history by bringing alternative rock and skate culture from the underground to the forefront of global youth culture, while at the same time helping those in need through non-profit and eco initiatives.

 

Alternative Press readers voted the Vans Warped Tour as the "Best Tour/Festival" and Rolling Stone called it "America's Most Successful Festival."

 

Learn more about the Vans Warped Tour:
www.vanswarpedtour.com 

 

Follow the Vans Warped Tour:

www.facebook.com/warpedtour 

www.twitter.com/vanswarpedtour 
www.instagram.com/vanswarpedtour 

 

Download 2018 Vans Warped Tour Assets at  www.vanswarpedtour.com/assets 

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How Your IRA Or 401(k) Can Become

A Tax-Free Gift For Your Loved Ones

The IRS is coming – eventually – for the money in your 401(K) or Traditional IRA.

As a result, people who think they have $500,000 or $1 million stashed away for retirement will learn they have less than they realized once they start withdrawing the money and have to pay taxes on those withdrawals.

“It’s not enough to simply save money and grow an IRA and 401(K),” says Troy Bender, president and CEO of Asset Retention Services Inc. (www.asset-retention.com).

“If those accounts are heavily invested in the stock market, you may wake up one morning to see your retirement fund shrink drastically.”

What’s worse, Bender says, is that once a person turns 70½, what’s called the Required Minimum Distribution kicks in. This means each year you must withdraw a certain percentage from those tax-deferred accounts – whether you want to or not. And the worst part is the percentage grows larger as you age.

“I work with a lot of clients who don’t need IRA/401(K) distributions because they’re doing fine on their Social Security, a pension and perhaps other savings,” he says. “They would just as soon leave the money where it is, but the IRS says they have to withdraw the money and pay the taxes – or face a hefty 50 percent penalty of the required minimum amount each year.”

But there are options, especially if you can live without that money. If your goal is to leave a legacy to loved ones, there is a great option. Bender’s option is to use a life insurance policy to turn that retirement savings into an income Tax-Free gift for your spouse, your children or your grandkids.

Here’s how that works:

• This is the part where it’s key that you don’t need all the required minimum distributions for your daily living. If you need the income from your RMDs to pay for bills, household expenses, etc., it’s important to take care of those items before looking into purchasing life insurance for the purpose of leaving a legacy.

 

• You can take the RMDs from your IRA, pay income tax on the distributions, and use the balance to pay the premiums on a life insurance policy. This is very popular because you must take the RMDs each year. The reason this is popular is because you can choose to use some of your money, or all of it, to fund a life insurance policy depending on what your needs are. Anytime you can turn a 100% taxable investment into 100% Tax-Free, that’s a good thing, because it has the ability to increase your net worth through the leverage of life insurance and the Tax-Free component.

 

• If you own an annuity and you can withdraw monthly income which will satisfy your required minimum distribution, this is an option that others choose to use as well.

 

• The Tax-Free part. If you leave an IRA or a 401(K) to anyone other than your spouse, they’re required to start taking distributions the next year regardless of their age. And of course, they pay taxes on those withdrawals, Bender says. That’s not true with life insurance. The beneficiary named in a life insurance policy doesn’t owe any taxes on the amount they receive and thus, it is a true gift.

“As a reminder, this isn’t an option for anyone who needs that retirement savings just to survive,” Bender says. “But others, if they want, can set things up so 20 years from now, when they pass away, their spouse can have a nice Tax-Free gift to use for paying off a mortgage, replacing reduced Social Security benefits or a lost pension. If the benefit were to go to a child or grandchild the Tax-Free proceeds could be used for college, grad school or to make a down payment on a house.” In every scenario, it will certainly bring a smile to the beneficiary.

 

About Troy Bender

Troy Bender, President and CEO at Asset Retention Insurance Services Inc., can be found at (www.asset-retention.com), and has more than 30 years of experience in the insurance and annuity industry. He started his career in the financial services industry as a bond and stockbroker with Merrill Lynch and then moved to Prudential Securities. In 1999, he started Asset Retention Insurance Services Inc. Bender also co-authored the book “The Ultimate Success Guide” with best-selling author Brian Tracy, and Troy has been featured on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates around the country, and has been in Newsweek, Designing Wealth magazine, the Wall Street Journal and Forbes.   Ca. License # OD73702.

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3 Times Tariffs Or Other

Trade Strategies Worked

President Donald Trump’s plan to impose stiff tariffs on Chinese imports has drawn cheers in some circles and jeers in others.

But are tariffs the grand solution to our trade deficit with China, as the president insists, or are they a looming debacle that will lead to a trade war, as critics predict?

Sometimes answers aren’t found at the extremes, says Chris Macke, founder of Solutionomics (www.Solutionomics.org), a non-partisan platform that researches solutions for creating a more dynamic American economy.

“People say that tariffs are really good or they say that they are really bad,” Macke says. “Actually, they are a mix of good and bad. But ultimately, tariffs are widely used by countries around the globe because they work.”

It’s understandable that Trump might try them, he says, considering that the U.S. trade policy has experienced more than four decades on the negative side of net exports of goods and services. In 2017, the country’s net exports totaled a negative $571 billion.

Macke says the question isn’t whether something needs to change, but what needs to change and how.

“All countries are protectionist,” Macke says. “All of them try to gain a trading advantage and we are naïve if we think their goal is free trade. They want trade agreements that benefit them. If every country could, they would have the most unfair trade agreement that benefits them.”

Macke says just three examples of how tariffs or other efforts to gain a trading advantage have played out include:

• China’s own tariffs. China places a 25 percent tariff on imported cars, while the U.S. has a 2.5 percent tariff. How has that worked out for each country? China is the world’s No. 1 producer of cars, producing more than 24 million in 2016, which is one-third the world’s production. In the U.S. we have gone in the opposite direction. Production declined by more than a third from just over six million units in 1996 to under four million units in 2016.
• One lesson from history. In 1965 the U.S. implemented a 25 percent tariff on light trucks. “What happened as a result of that?” Macke asks. “From 1965 to 2015, commercial vehicle production in the U.S. increased more than 450 percent while passenger car production declined by half during the same period.”
• Another approach. Tariffs aren’t the only trade tool that has proved effective, Macke says. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan placed a quota on Japanese auto imports. As a result, those foreign automobiles became more homegrown. Today, Japanese manufacturers Toyota, Honda and Nissan produce more than three million vehicles at plants they operate in the U.S. More than half of the vehicles they sell in the U.S. are produced right here.

Strategic tariffs and other trade tools, implemented gradually over time to allow manufacturers to reconfigure supply chains, can be part of an effective trade policy, Macke says. When implemented too suddenly and aggressively, they’re more problematic.

“The idea that tariffs and other trade tools are always losers is not supported by the facts,” he says. “Just ask Chinese government officials if they think they are losing or winning in the production of cars.”

About Chris Macke

 

Chris Macke is the founder of Solutionomics (www.Solutionomics.org), a non-partisan platform dedicated to developing and disseminating solutions for creating a more dynamic American economy. He has 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, including advising the U.S. Federal Reserve by providing market updates and counsel around the potential impact of monetary policies. Macke earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Southern California and an MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.