We haven't talked about goals in a long time
I've been busy as hell since taking this job. I wanted to be the big fish in the smaller pond and I got it. As the I.T. director for a movie producer, I've got a lot of challenges. The guys who set this place up originally knew next to nothing about computer networking so I've got my work cut out for me.
They left open relay on the mail servers for about 3 years so every spammer on earth was bouncing off our server. Their answer for this was to move half of the users from the .com domain to the .net domain.
This means we had half of our users on llpla dot com and half of them on llpla dot net.
I took care of this immediately by installing a new Cisco IronPort spam appliance, and a new mail server. Between them we've got 4 layers of spam protection and 2 layers of virus protection not including the virus protection on the client computers.
I've checked our charts and about 1.1% of the messages sent here are legitimate and the rest are spam. The users are happy as hell now because they don't get a thousand messages a day telling them how to make their dicks bigger.
We've got 5 offices across Southern Cal and none of them are connected. They have no help desk, no ticketing system, no standardization of hardware or software, no software pushing mechanism, no remote desktop setup for the PC's or Macs, no real network security, etc.
My goals are to implement all of these and to hire a couple of guys to help me do it. My other goals are to increase my income enough so I can actually afford a house in the L.A. area while sending my daughter to private school. (a lofty goal).
I'm already working on connecting our sites using point-to-point fiber with an ungodly amount of bandwidth. :D
Next is desktop and laptop hardware and software standardization and making baseload ghost images. After that, I'll setup the remote desktop stuff with the software push ability, and the helpdesk ticketing software. Then I've got to create an inventory system for our props warehouse, get the company to switch to digital video rather than film (not easy) so we can video something in HD at our states in Simi Valley, transfer it to the editing department in L.A. who can have our digital effects department send them stuff, and then have it all sent to our sound studios in Burbank and have the finished product done in about 1/4 the time it takes while using film.
This isn't going to be cheap or easy, but I swear I'm going to bring this company up to par if it kills me.
Sorry for the long and geeky post, but I needed to vent.
What are your goals? short term? long term?
I want to end up eating a steady diet of government cheese and living in a van down by the river.
Ya know, I have a lot of long-term goals. But they don't mean anything unless I get a real job. I've been trying to find one, but nothing's biting right now, which just sucks. Right now, I feel like I wasted $20,000 going to grad school...I want it to stand for something.
I want to end up eating a steady diet of government cheese and living in a van down by the river.
You can park it on the river behind my place. If you share your cheese.
I want to end up eating a steady diet of government cheese and living in a van down by the river.
Mmmm...free cheese is some good shit!
The relationship between free cheese and shit has never before been described as good.
I like those big mountain goats that leap and cavort over the rocks.
What?
oh. goals.
. . .
Nevermind!
The relationship between free cheese and shit has never before been described as good.
My aunt used to qualify for it...and it was pretty damn good! At least, it was in the late '80s.
Well, any cheese, really, has the rep for not providing a good...s-word. ;)
Actually, my grandma used to get that cheese in that time frame, too. It wasn't bad!
I've also been fighting with some asshole in Australia. He runs the SORBS spam list. His name is Matthew Sullivan and he apparently thinks it's ok to put people on a list even when they don't spam, they prove they have a static IP with rDNS, they install spam firewalls, etc.
He says, "It's not a spam list. It's a list of people who have dynamic IPs". But either way I don't belong on the list. I don't spam or have a dynamic IP.
He thinks it's up to him and his nerdy little friends he plays world of warcraft with, to determine what network settings other people will have.
Unfortunately for some odd reason, legitimate businesses are subscribing to his illegitimate list. I think they just subscribe to them all. But this means we can't send email to anyone at Earthlink, Yahoo, and a number of other very large ISPs and smaller ones.
I sent this guy a very polite letter, and he got snippy and insulting with me, so I sent another polite letter and he eventually started just calling me names. He posted my email in a newsgroup filled with other idiots who run other lists, and our spam load tripled. They deny having anything to do with it, but they have no honor, or integrity. The only list with more false positives than SORBS is SPEWS and some jackass from there wanted to mouth off to me too.
I've done all I can to comply with SORBS, but now I'm going to change ISPs. If they add us to their list again, I'll fly my ass all the way to Australia, beat the living shit out of this guy, and then sue him until he can't afford to live in his mother's basement anymore.
Radar,
After your first post, and the following cheese posts, I felt bad because you obviously have a great work ethic. I'm amazed at anyone who understands the intricacies of the internet.
Having said that, I also want you to know that if it were possible for me(it's not), I would love to go to Australia and kick the snot out of that guy also.
And then come back and eat my government cheese.:cool:
Seriously, good luck with your career and goals.
...
My other goals are to increase my income enough so I can actually afford a house in the L.A. area while sending my daughter to private school. (a lofty goal).
...
I thought you were into that whole home schooling thing.
I am into home schooling. I don't have confidence in my wife to deliver the curriculum. She stopped going to school at age 9 when her parents divorced. She worked to help support her family. I'm too busy paying the bills to do it myself.
I want to end up eating a steady diet of government cheese and living in a van down by the river.
Dingle, that's what my husband and I have decided to do if Obama gets elected President. Free health care? Title XX and Section 8?! Why not just get free health care, housing, unemployment, and have 8 kids??! I'm even thinking of letting him run me over with his car so I can get disability.
(Maybe I'm being a little too serious for a Friday night. I just ran into my best friend from high school, who slunk from valedictorian to unmarried mother of two, collecting social security and food stamps. Pisses me off that I get up and go to work every day, and she makes almost as much as me for being a leech on the system, despite the fact that she could have easily been a HUGE contributor to society.)
:2cents:
Sorry.
Anyway, goals. I just got the new job, yay.... now they'll pay for my Master's degree in Early Childhood Education. After that, it's onto Psychology.... I think it would be really rewarding to counsel abused or neglected children. That's totally my dream.
I am into home schooling. I don't have confidence in my wife to deliver the curriculum. She stopped going to school at age 9 when her parents divorced. She worked to help support her family. I'm too busy paying the bills to do it myself.
Oh, and Radar.... didn't see that.... Gotta say, having been to public school, private school, and having been homeschooled all between 1st-12th grade--Private school is the way to go. My sister and I only managed to make it through homeschooling because we were relatively intelligent to begin. Homeschooling did nothing for us, and since I've been through it, my humble opinion is that only parents who have an incredibly high regard for themselves should homeschool their children. If they're both teachers, then fine.... but otherwise, I know that
I, at least, as a college graduate lack enough knowledge of science or mathetmatics to properly educate an 8th-grader.
I never thought much of my private schooling either until I got to college. There, I noticed that many of my publicly-schooled counterparts struggled with the workload. It wasn't that kids who had gone to private school were any smarter--we weren't--it's just that we were USED to having a 5-page paper due once a week.
Sorry to offend anyone... guess I'm just kind of in a no-nonsense mood tonight.
Stuffing all private schools into one category is a bit.... sweeping
There are pushy, work-heavy, test-oriented private schools and there are laid back take-it-at-your-own-pace private schools and there is everything else in between.
State schools vary almost as much
As do home-schoolers.
And regarding stay-at-home parents, Euphoria, why do you assumes your friend isn't making a contribution to society because she "stays at home" with her kids? If she gets as much as you earn for your job, perhaps you should consider switching your job rather than bitching her up. I don't work. I don't claim benefits. I "stay at home" for no pay. It's not just about the money. Actually, i don't "stay at home" so much -I do a lot of stuff in the school and I have to say that it is my experience that the kids of parents who work a full-time job are either out-of-control and obnoxious or convinced that anything they do is an annoyance and hide quietly to the best of their ability. It's a little scary. I feel bad for families where both parents MUST work full time to make ends meet (and single-parent families in the same positon).
Dingle, that's what my husband and I have decided to do if Obama gets elected President. Free health care? Title XX and Section 8?! Why not just get free health care, housing, unemployment, and have 8 kids??! I'm even thinking of letting him run me over with his car so I can get disability.
Haha, I had no idea my Chris Farley quote would lead to all of this... I try not to get too deep, I HATE politics... I tend to lean conservative, and I agree with you on the bullshit handouts, but if I think about politics too much, I break out in hives. Obama, the racist socialist, Hillary the anti-christ, or McCain, the stand-for-nothing-wait-for-the-dems-to-kill-themselves old fart who is a Republican only in name? Fuck, pass me the cyanide.
You should fill out the applications now so you can turn them in because Obama has it locked up. Hillary will lose to him, and McCain doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of coming within 20 percentage points of Obama.
My only problem with private schools is that in SoCal, the cheapest ones are Catholic schools and those are $12k per year. Non-religious ones are $20k per year. As an atheist with a Buddhist wife, you can guess which I'd prefer.
I'm honestly going to write in a vote of "no confidence" this year... This country is fucked if we honestly think those are the best three we have to offer...
/end political rant
Ron Paul is a better candidate than all the others. America just doesn't vote for the best candidate. They vote for who will give them the biggest cut of the stolen loot government has taken from their neighbors and who tells the prettiest lies.
(Maybe I'm being a little too serious for a Friday night. I just ran into my best friend from high school, who slunk from valedictorian to unmarried mother of two, collecting social security and food stamps. Pisses me off that I get up and go to work every day, and she makes almost as much as me for being a leech on the system, despite the fact that she could have easily been a HUGE contributor to society.)
Heh. I wonder if your friend from high school knows what a di** you are being about it Euphoria. She obviously took a heavy hit being an unwed mother. Now she still has you out there still comparing yourself with her after all that time. What a riot.
Maybe I think it's helpful to society when people make it their first priority to raise their kids?
There's lots of ways to go about things....And if you are making as much as a welfare recipient and you are unhappy with that, maybe you need to change something about
what you are doing instead of beating on a single mom for scraping by? lol! Whatever.
Oh jeez...Euphoria all I mean to say here is I think you ar being rather harsh about someone who obviously is still trying to do their best...Or maybe I have a soft spot for single moms that try to navigate in this world without any money but still try to raise their kids to the best of their ability.
[youtube]O6lVBp-oUnk[/youtube]
Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!
Short term goal (next 3 months):
buy a house, with a yard and everything
rewrite my syllabi for 2 of my 3 classes
start another masters degree (apparently the administration gets antsy about calling you a professor of music when your only advanced degree is in philosophy)
long-term goals:
finish and publish my first book
finish (finally!) my own album (the cobbler's children have no shoes)
fully fund college accounts for my two children
Eh. I'm not trying to be harsh. I would absolutely LOVE to be able to stay home with my children one day, and I definitely don't discredit people who do--I honestly think that that IS the best thing for children, and I appreciate that some people have to make huge sacrifices to do so. I guess you'd have to KNOW my friend from school--who opted, rather than finishing the brilliant college career she had started, to spiral into drug abuse and now two unwanted pregnancies. My distaste for the situation is a result of the fact that she ISN'T happy, and I wish that she was. I'm not trying to judge her unnecessarily or be quite the b!tch that you guys seem to think I am. It just aggravates me that she hasn't been able to fulfill her potential, and she recognizes and regrets it... but she can still live just as comfortably as I can, when I struggled through school and gave up parties on Friday nights to do so. Be that as it may... I suppose we've both had to give up different things to get to where we are.
--edit--
You know what though, I just re-read what I wrote there, and you guys are actually right. I am being too harsh. I might feel jealous or underappreciated, but it really isn't an excuse to lash out and vindictively point out the mistakes that others have made.
--end edit--
Now.... Radar, you're right. That was too general a statement regarding private schools. Some are great and some suck. I just know that I didn't take too kindly to homeschooling, partially because my parents were ill-equipped to teach us, and partially because kids lose a lot of socialization that way, which is a necessary skill to get by professionally. It might not be a graded subject in public or private schools, but it's definitely something you learn there!
Short term? Stash enough cash away to implement my plan by August. The plan as it stands is move my practice to a bigger office even closer to home and bring on 2 employees in August and set for another in January. My goal in doing so is for a bit of motivation and a challenge. If they do their jobs well, their production should cover all their costs plus my office space bring me back to 100% payout on my own production. If that goes smoothly I'd like to have 2 more people on board by August '09. Their production should increase my income by 30%. January '10 I want to bring on the final piece of the puzzle. One more highly specialized person that only works with one product for our client base. That person's production should bring me to 200% of my current income (and they all make their cheese too.)
By 2012 my plan is for the practice to be generating enough recurring and passive income that I can found a new soccer club without concern for my own income.
That's the plan anyway.
...that's what my husband and I have decided to do if Obama gets elected President. Free health care? Title XX and Section 8?! Why not just get free health care, housing, unemployment, and have 8 kids??! I'm even thinking of letting him run me over with his car so I can get disability.
You know what though, I just re-read what I wrote there, and you guys are actually right. I am being too harsh. I might feel jealous or underappreciated, but it really isn't an excuse to lash out and vindictively point out the mistakes that others have made.
Good, glad you noticed. I was on disability benefit for just over 6 months because I was depressed. I'm sure many people would simply categorise that as being lazy, especially as my issues with alcohol exacerbated the problem. Not only did I get paid for being off work, most of my rent was paid and I got free counselling. Would I have swapped the (barely liveable) benefits to be well and back at work? Hell yes. I'm now working thanks to the free anti-depressants and counselling I received at the time.
But then I'm a socialist European so feel free to ignore me ;)
My goals. Same old same old:
In May I am determined to sort my life out.
- Put a proper timetable in so I can go to the gym, work at the pub and here (EEA).
- Make time for my boys.
- Back on a healthy diet - also saves money.
- Start saving a regular monthly amount to come to the States.
- Reach agreement with ALL my creditors or go bankrupt (I prefer the former, they may not accept how much I can afford to pay).
- Only drink Sundays & Mondays (pub days/ eves).
- Lose weight almost as a consequence of all the rest!
- Be marvellous
Now.... Radar, you're right. That was too general a statement regarding private schools. Some are great and some suck. I just know that I didn't take too kindly to homeschooling, partially because my parents were ill-equipped to teach us, and partially because kids lose a lot of socialization that way, which is a necessary skill to get by professionally. It might not be a graded subject in public or private schools, but it's definitely something you learn there!
The social skills argument really holds no water. Home schooled kids don't live in a bubble. They still have friends. They join the scouts, little league, play in the neighborhood with other kids, some go to church, etc.
They have plenty of time to learn the intricacies of social interaction without going to a school where they are more likely to get a subpar public education and to be taught that government is the solution to every problem when in fact governments are usually the cause. I'd like my kids to have a better shot at succeeding in school and in the workplace when they get older.
As a father, this is one of the best things I can do for my daughter and her future brother. I'd truly love to be able to stay at home with my daughter to give her a great education. I'm fully confident in my ability to teach math, science (biology, physics, etc), grammar, geography, political science, history, literature, civics, and linguistics at least to college levels. The only areas where I'd probably be weak are sociology, theater <i>(I work for a movie company and know a lot of actors so I'm sure I could get help here...plus I live near a million acting schools)</i>, P.E. <i>(I could cover this by enrolling her in swimming or karate or another such class and by playing with her inthe park)</i>, etc.
I might have to send her somewhere else to learn tact. I've been told I don't know much about it.
Short term? Stash enough cash away to implement my plan by August. The plan as it stands is move my practice to a bigger office even closer to home and bring on 2 employees in August and set for another in January. My goal in doing so is for a bit of motivation and a challenge. If they do their jobs well, their production should cover all their costs plus my office space bring me back to 100% payout on my own production. If that goes smoothly I'd like to have 2 more people on board by August '09. Their production should increase my income by 30%. January '10 I want to bring on the final piece of the puzzle. One more highly specialized person that only works with one product for our client base. That person's production should bring me to 200% of my current income (and they all make their cheese too.)
By 2012 my plan is for the practice to be generating enough recurring and passive income that I can found a new soccer club without concern for my own income.
That's the plan anyway.
This sounds interesting. What is your product and/or service?
Good, glad you noticed. I was on disability benefit for just over 6 months because I was depressed. I'm sure many people would simply categorise that as being lazy, especially as my issues with alcohol exacerbated the problem. Not only did I get paid for being off work, most of my rent was paid and I got free counselling. Would I have swapped the (barely liveable) benefits to be well and back at work? Hell yes. I'm now working thanks to the free anti-depressants and counselling I received at the time.
But then I'm a socialist European so feel free to ignore me ;)
My goals. Same old same old:
In May I am determined to sort my life out.
- Put a proper timetable in so I can go to the gym, work at the pub and here (EEA).
- Make time for my boys.
- Back on a healthy diet - also saves money.
- Start saving a regular monthly amount to come to the States.
- Reach agreement with ALL my creditors or go bankrupt (I prefer the former, they may not accept how much I can afford to pay).
- Only drink Sundays & Mondays (pub days/ eves).
- Lose weight almost as a consequence of all the rest!
- Be marvellous
Given your problems with alcohol and depression, you should only drink soda on Sundays & Mondays. It might make the other goals (particularly those involving your health) a bit easier.
This sounds interesting. What is your product and/or service?
Dominatrix leather gear for furries.
Given your problems with alcohol and depression, you should only drink soda on Sundays & Mondays. It might make the other goals (particularly those involving your health) a bit easier.
Well given my past I should cut out alcohol altogether, eat more healthily, exercise more and not spend more money than I have. Then again I think that applies to 90% of the population?
I do appreciate this. But it's baby steps.
Trust me - not drinking every day is a big step.
I'm fully confident in my ability to teach [COLOR="Silver"]math, science (biology, physics, etc), grammar, geography,[/COLOR] political science, [COLOR="silver"]history, literature, civics, and linguistics[/COLOR] at least to college levels.
:eek:
This sounds interesting. What is your product and/or service?
Just ask TW. I'm the best damn shiny shoe sales whore this side of the mississippi. I still just prefer calling myself a Financial Consultant though. While I am full service, I specialize in retirement planning.
Originally Posted by Radar
I'm fully confident in my ability to teach math, science (biology, physics, etc), grammar, geography, political science, history, literature, civics, and linguistics at least to college levels.
:eek:
Just ask TW. I'm the best damn shiny shoe sales whore this side of the mississippi. I still just prefer calling myself a Financial Consultant though. While I am full service, I specialize in retirement planning.
Are shiny shoes a good investment strategy for retirement?
I'm kinda pissed right now about retirement. My old company is trying to screw me for about 15k from my 401k. This is after I saved them about 8 million dollars. Also, the accounting lady where I"m at now is in her 80s and it took all my efforts just to get direct deposit. When I told her I wanted 15% pre-tax money to go into my IRA, she told me "forget it". :mad2:
I swear if we brought back those old adding machines with the handle you've got to pull back, she'd do cartwheels. She had a heart attack when I upgraded her office 97 to office 2003. I can't wait to upgrade her to office 2007. :)
My old company is trying to screw me for about 15k from my 401k.
doesn't compute. 401K's don't allow for any subjectivity. Either you have $15K or you don't. Is it a vesting policy you are having an issue with? Sometimes those can be overly and neeedlessly complex.
separate issue - 15% pre-tax into your IRA? In addition to your 401K?
Yes, it is a vesting policy. What we were told in person in several meetings isn't what they are doing. I was on a 5 year vesting plan. I left a month before 3 years so they owe me 40%. They told us that we couldn't touch the money in our old 401k for a year, but on Jan 1, 2008 we'd become 100% vested in our old 401k and it would roll over into the new one. That didn't happen. Then they tried to say they told us "AFTER Jan 1, 2008". I've got a room full of witnesses who heard otherwise. I brought this up to an HR person and they basically said "off the record...if you don't touch the money it will become 100% vested and roll over into the 401k on April 1st."
Well, I guess I fell for that April Fool's joke because nothing has happened yet.
On the newer 401k and the older 401k, they show me as only vested for the exact amount of money I've put in. Not a penny more. I brought this up to their attention several times, but they've done nothing.
On the website, it did say, you have X amount of dollar in your 401k and you are vested in Y amount. Now it just says "you have Y amount" and it's the exact amount I contributed.
The old 401k still shows two amounts, and it says I'm only vested in the number of dollars I contributed and nothing more.
My new job doesn't have a 401k. This is why I want to put money into an IRA.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't put pretax funds into an IRA (except a rollover IRA, whose funds originate from a 401k plan), right? I always thought IRAs (roth and otherwise) were strictly after-tax contributions, with the benefit being no tax on gains. I could be way off.
Roth IRA = Post Tax
Regular IRA = Pre-Tax
You can roll-over 401k money into either of them, but if you roll into a Roth IRA, you've got to pay taxes on the money before it goes in.
Traditional IRA for most people is pretax money (Income tax to be paid upon withdrawal) because:
A) They don't have a 401K or other work sponsored retirement defined contribution plan. The money doesn't go straight from their check to the IRA though, it is listed as a deduction on your taxes.
B) Money rolled over from 401K, 403B, etc.
Roth IRA is aftertax money that gives you no tax benefit today, but has huge tax benefits in retirement - No taxes due whatsoever.
Radar- the whole vesting issue sounds wrong to me. I don't know what is happening there, but the best thing you can do is pull up the 401K contract/rules for your plan and go through it. Whatever you read in there is what the facts are. 401K's do not allow for any side agreements or special arrangements. Anyone who says, "keep it quiet, but we'll do XYZ" is either lying or stupid. The company can lose its ability to sponsor plans and be sued into oblivion if they don't follow the plan rules to the letter.
I never even signed anything for the newer 401k. They said we were "automatically enrolled" so I don't have a copy of the rules. I do know it was a 5 year vestment plan with us becoming 20% more vested each year. I was there just barely under 3 years (technically more than 3 years but my first 2 months were as a consultant). I left when I did because I was told by 3 different HR people that my old 401k would be 100% vested on January 1st 2008. After I left, they changed their story.
Ask for a copy of the plan guidelines that were in effect when you were employed there. If it were set for 20% vesting with each plan anniversary and you were there just under 3 years then you should be vested for 40% of your first year contribution, 20% of your second, and 0% thereafter. Your guidelines may say something different, but that is pretty normal for vesting (I refuse to work with contracts that have vesting clauses).
The unfortunate truth is the HR people know next to nothing about the 401K plans. They didn't set them up, they don't administer them, and they have no authority over them. ONLY a registered advisor can talk to you about your investments, etc. The HR person has no role other than handing you the paperwork at appropriate times. The company controller or owner generally sign up for whatever contract idea they were told was a good idea by the plan sponsor/advisor. The plan sponsor/advisor's goal is to get the business. They have to make the company authorities comfortable with the plan to do so - vesting is sometimes used appease cheap owners who don't want to give TOO much money to the employees, but want to LOOK like they're doing great things for the little people
IMO.
Actually you become 20% more vested in the company contributed money each year. After 2 years you're 40% vested for the entire company contributed amount. After 3 you are 60%, etc.
Cool. Check your guidelines. Many vesting schedules have vesting period for each year's contribution, rather than treating it as one bulk of money. Hope yours is more employee friendly.
As a side note, I learned the hard way that most 401(k)s have a clause that says if your company goes spectacularly bankrupt, and the 401(k) company incurs legal fees while wrangling out a variety of fraudulent situations caused by the company, they can use your money to cover their legal fees.
Uh, yep. the only thing better/worse than that was the local business owner who owned ever franchise location of a very popular company that turned out to be a flash in the pan. He encouraged every single one of his employees to invest in the 401K plan. Then when business started going south, he disappeared. Oh yeah, he had never actually sent any of their money to the 401k administrator.
Seriously, I'm thinking if I didn't get a statement periodically I'd ask questions.
Good, glad you noticed. I was on disability benefit for just over 6 months because I was depressed. I'm sure many people would simply categorise that as being lazy, especially as my issues with alcohol exacerbated the problem. Not only did I get paid for being off work, most of my rent was paid and I got free counselling.
Nahhhhhh.... see, I'm not angry about people using the system the way it's meant to be used--you fell back on it to change your life circumstances, and you're doing the hard work that it takes to get back on your feet. I'm angry at people like my friend who volunteered the information that she simply won't shower for 3 days before her redetermination appointment and tries not to sleep the night before in an effort to "convince" her case worker that she has a legitimate problem. She's too smart for that. That's what truly irks me... because I actually WORK in State government, and it ticks me off when people abuse the system and take the money and time away from the people who really need it.
Most companies 401(k)'s suck badly. I went to a Sep IRA and can put in much more per year than the last 401(k) offered. Each year they would give me a couple thousand back because we put in to much and it would be taxable. I can't think of any reason to give the company my money to play with when they have no interest in making money for me. Give it to a professional who has no interest in the company.
You aren't giving your money to the company with a 401K plan, you're putting it into your own investment account. You choose the investments so you are responsible for the greatness/suckiness of your performance. True, a 401K doesn't have as many choices as an IRA, but you still usually have enough options to find something worth having.
SEP IRA is for the self employed, and is meant for putting far more in than you can in a 401K.
The maximum you can put away for retirement in 401k plans and IRAs is 25%. Of this 15% may be pre-tax, and 10% may be post-tax like a Roth.
SEP allows 25% of cash flow with a ceiling of $41K (not counting catchups)
SIMPLE allows contributions and profit sharing feature
Owner/Uni 401K's allow $41K+ with some hitting $50K +
A traditional 401K allows you to put $15K + catchups in with pretax dollars. Many plans allow post tax dollars but you are talking about an accounting minefield. Quite often people who have after tax money in pretax plans end up double taxed so beware.
There are many many possible variations on 401K/IRA/Roth plans.