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19-01-2012 17:04 Peyton Manning To Retire? Rob Lowe Cites Sources With Surprising Colts News thoughts Rob Lowe may be adding NFL reporter to his resume.On Wednesday afternoon, the star tweeted that his "people" were telling him that Peyton Manning is set to retire from the NFL.The actor lit up social media when he tweeted that Peyton Manning was done.Lowe said he'd heard from "my people" that the Indianapolis Colts quarterback would retire later in the day.No official word yet from Manning, the 35-year-old star who missed this season with a neck injury. Colts spokesman Avis Roper and Manning's agent ,Tom Condon, had no comment.Lowe currently is on the NBC show "Parks and Recreation," which is set in Indiana. He's also friends with Colts owner Jim Irsay. Rob Lowe tweets about Peyton Manning thoughts

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Peyton Manning To Retire According to Rob Lowe tweets -- News Story - Video

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire -02/22/12)- As the February 29th deadline approaches to make a contribution to a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and as part of its ongoing commitment to improving financial literacy, BMO Financial Group will be providing daily retirement tips during the month of February from BMO Retirement Institute Head Tina Di Vito's new book 52 Ways To Wreck Your Retirement...And How To Rescue It.

Tip Number 43:

Consider Others During your Retirement

More and more Canadians find themselves responsible for caring for their parents, a spouse, a friend or other family members. As you envision your retirement, make sure you consider how the added responsibility of caregiving might alter that vision.

-- Have a care strategy in place.
-- Ask family members for help.
-- Establish set vacation days from caregiving and stick to them.
-- Investigate workplace support for elder care services.

Tip Number 44:

Be Sure to Protect your Most Important Asset - You!

The best-laid plans can go astray if you do not take the proper steps to protect your earning capability during your working years, and your income and assets during retirement. Be sure to examine your life, disability, long-term care and critical illness insurance needs, for both now and into your retirement.

Before retirement:

-- Review your disability insurance policy, to make sure you have the
appropriate type and amount of coverage.
-- Review your life insurance policy. Is the coverage enough, and can you
continue the policy in retirement?
-- Consider long-term care and critical illness insurance to help cover the
costs that may arise.

In retirement:

-- Incorporate the potential costs of long-term care or a critical illness
into your retirement plan, and determine what impact these costs would
have on your retirement. Consider long-term care and critical illness
insurance to help cover costs that may arise.
-- Consider life insurance to pay estate costs and income taxes, or to
create an inheritance.

For more information on retirement: http://www.bmo.com/retirement.

Get the latest BMO press releases via Twitter by following @BMOmedia.

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BMO Retirement Tips of the Day: Consider Others During Your Retirement & Be Sure to Protect Your Most Important Asset ...

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Standard Retirement Services, Inc., has enhanced its core retirement plan services with significant, new fiduciary protection services. The company can now act as an ERISA 3(16) fiduciary in performing certain plan administrative duties on behalf of plan sponsors who delegate these tasks. These duties can include required compliance testing, plan eligibility notifications, approval of participant loans and distributions, and delivery of required participant notifications and disclosures.

“Plan sponsors must take on considerable administrative responsibilities in order to comply with ERISA regulations,” said Dan Hall, vice president of Retirement Plan Sales. “By leveraging our internal expertise and resources, we are able to take on a significant amount of plan sponsors’ administrative burden while better supplementing the offerings of plan advisors.”

To further complement the needs of advisors and their clients, StanCorp Investment Advisers, Inc., can now take on ERISA 3(38) fiduciary responsibility for the removal and replacement of investments at the plan level. This expanded layer of protection adds to The Standard’s existing fiduciary capabilities, which include acting as an ERISA 3(21) fiduciary for the selection and ongoing monitoring of the investments offered in a plan sponsor’s retirement plan and acting as an ERISA 3(38) fiduciary for participants who are enrolled in Mainspring ManagedSM, the company’s goal-based savings and investment planning and advice service.

“We recognize that many advisors provide some level of investment fiduciary services as part of their offerings to plan sponsors, while others do not provide such services,” Hall said. “Our fiduciary services are intended to complement the unique value proposition and service delivery model that each advisor brings to the table. Advisors can choose to use all, some or none of our fiduciary services as they determine what is most appropriate for a particular client’s plan. This approach gives advisors maximum flexibility to deliver the right level of fiduciary protection to their clients.”

In addition, the three-level fiduciary protection services under ERISA 3(16), 3(21), and 3(38) will be available to plan sponsors of any size.

“We designed our fiduciary offering to be cost effective for all employers, especially for those with smaller plans who have not traditionally had access to this level of fiduciary protection,” Hall said. “When you also consider that The Standard does not outsource any of this fiduciary responsibility to a third party, we believe that our fiduciary services offer a very compelling value to advisors and sponsors.”

Disclosure

StanCorp Equities, Inc., member FINRA, distributes group annuity contracts issued by Standard Insurance Company and may provide other brokerage services. Third party administrative services are provided by Standard Retirement Services, Inc. Investment advisory services are provided by StanCorp Investment Advisers, Inc., a registered investment advisor.

About The Standard

The Standard is a leading provider of financial products and services, including group and individual disability insurance, group life, AD&D, dental and vision insurance, retirement plans products and services, individual annuities and investment advice. For more information about The Standard, visit http://www.standard.com.

The Standard is the marketing name for StanCorp Financial Group, Inc., and its subsidiaries: Standard Insurance Company, Inc., The Standard Life Insurance Company of New York, Inc., Standard Retirement Services, Inc., StanCorp Mortgage Investors, Inc., StanCorp Investment Advisers, Inc., StanCorp Real Estate, LLC, and StanCorp Equities, Inc.

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The Standard Adds New Fiduciary Protection for Retirement Plan Sponsors

(MoneyWatch) 

As an actuary, I'm a numbers guy. That's why most of my posts offer analyses, strategies and insights from my 35-plus years of actuarial experience to help you make the best of your retirement.

But many people need more than facts and figures to get them to take action to improve their lives -- they need inspiration. And motion pictures often tell the stories that move us to make changes in our lives.

With Oscar night approaching, it's a good time to watch a few movie clips that will inspire us to take charge of the rest of our lives. All of these clips except one come from movieclips.com, a fun website that organizes a treasure trove of clips from the classics and beyond. One clip comes courtesy of YouTube.

With all the bad news about retirement -- inadequate savings, stock market meltdowns, layoffs, retirement benefits cutbacks, and the threat of reduced Social Security benefits -- it's understandable if you're mad as hell about retirement. If it helps to get it out of your system, go ahead and shout out your frustrations, like Peter Finch's character did in the movie "Network," when he yelled, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

But just being mad won't change the reality of the retirement challenges that boomers face today. So redirect that energy and take action steps that will make your life better. Believe that failure is not an option, and develop a plan that will work, as shown by this scene from "Apollo 13."

Some movie clips offer examples of what not to do, such as this scene in "Shrek Forever After," when Shrek meets up with the retired cat Puss in Boots, who had lost purpose in life, and had degenerated into a fat cat. Instead, you'll thrive in your retirement years if you enter them with a spirit of renewal and transformation, as shown in this scene from "Man of La Mancha."

Speaking of contrasts, one thing you may want to avoid is adopting Billy Crystal's cynical attitude about aging, as shown in this clip from "City Slickers." Instead, look no farther than the tale of reinvention in one of this year's nominees for best picture, "The Artist."

While planning for your retirement years, don't forget to make plans to ensure that your spouse or partner will be secure after you've gone to the great cutting room floor in the sky. In this famous scene from "Gone With the Wind," Clark Gable's character, Rhett Butler, gives us an example of how not to think about the future. Instead, it's better to be sure you'll never be sorry about the plans you've made for your spouse's future, as illustrated in this equally famous scene from "Love Story."

The people who do best in their retirement years are the ones who commit to making a difference in their lives and the lives of others. Need some inspiration for that? Watch this scene from "Star Trek: Generations," and you'll see what I mean.

Motivated to learn more about retirement planning? These posts are a good start:

Retirement planning: How to do it right
Women: Don't go broke in retirement

So what are you waiting for? It's time to start planning for the rest of your life. May the Force be with you!

Link:
Retirement planning inspiration from the Oscars

What does race have to do with retirement? Apparently plenty. A new study, Retirement Revealed,  from ING U.S. examines how cultural environment can affect one's financial situation and behavior.

While no one in America seems to be feeling terribly confident about retirement, not even those who are a lot closer to the lofty 1% than the rest of us, there remain significant differences among ethnic groups. The Retirement Revealed study shines the spotlight on the differences between Asians, African Americans and Hispanics (as compared to an overall set of 4,000+ U.S. respondents), when it comes to retirement saving, planning and preparedness.

ING's research showed that Hispanics feel the least prepared, with 54% indicating that they feel "not very" or "not at all" prepared. This compares with 50% of African-Americans, 48% of whites and 44% of Asians polled who said they don't feel prepared. The feelings make sense when you look at the amount save in employer-sponsored retirement plans, where Hispanics reported having the lowest average balance ($54,000) in their retirement plans. This amount was notably lower than the average balance across all groups, ($69,000). The top savers were Asians, who had the highest average balance of $81,000.

Savings shortfall

What's getting in the way of saving?

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of those surveyed admitted having barriers to saving. Among the groups, African-Americans said debt was their biggest obstacle. More than 60% of African-Americans said that whittling away their debt was their most important short-term financial goal. Needing to know more about their savings options is a greater barrier to savings for Hispanics than for any other group.

Fail to plan, plan to fail

The Hispanics said they were less focused on their future retirement goals — well over half (57%) have never done the math to come up with a figure for how much money they'll need to mirror their current lifestyle later down the road. Seventy percent didn't have a formal investment plan to reach their goals. In fact, only 29% of all who shared their thoughts said they had a formal investment plan. African-Americans are most likely to have one (32%) and whites are least (28%).

No safety net

Nearly half of all participants have too little savings to amount to much (one month or less). The number increases to 47% for Hispanics, 50% for African-Americans, while only 25% of Asians have one month or less saved for hard times.

Cart before the horse syndrome

While Asians win the trophy for being most prepared for retirement, they seem to have their priorities somewhat misplaced. Lifestyle matters much for Asians, who put a higher priority on purchasing a nice house or car, than planning for retirement, according to the survey.

What's the takeaway?

Truth is, the survey shows that everybody on the planet could likely benefit from professional planning advice. "Having a road map to retirement will increase one's probability of achieving one's goal," says Fred Makonnen, vice president of Multicultural Sales at ING. Universally, there is a need for a stash of at least six months worth of expenses. Then too, across the board there is also room for improvement in getting life insurance coverage. However, there is one group that stands out: nearly one-in-four African-Americans have life insurance coverage equal to four to five times their salary, higher than the total population (18%).

Makonnen, has this advice for African-Americans, "Tackle debt. Write your goals on paper and create a plan to get there. Start with reducing your debt. It may require cutting your cable or other expenses. African-Americans also incur higher levels of late fees. You can avoid unnecessary penalties by setting up an automatic payment account." Once the debt is paid off, the next task should be building an emergency and stepping up retirement savings at work.

For Hispanics, his words of wisdom are  simple, "Get focused. Create a comprehensive plan that takes into account shorter-term goals like weddings and college and longer-term goals like retirement."

Although Asians are strong savers, they are the least likely to have a last will and testament (26%), compared with 31% for Hispanics and 37% for whites. Makonnen urges Asians to put creating a will high on the to-do list.

While the research reveals cultural differences, I'm left wondering why? The intersection of culture, tradition and money is fascinating. How much of one's financial personality and attitudes can be attributed to upbringing, environment, culture and tradition? No one can say for sure yet. I'm waiting for that study.

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Race And Retirement: Who’s Saving The Most, Least?

Retirement planning is full of rules of thumb. The 4 percent rule can help you to decide how much to withdraw from your retirement savings each year, and aiming to replace a certain percentage of your pre-retirement income can give you a rough idea of how much to save. However, this well-intentioned advice sometimes gets slowly twisted into something else that does more harm than good. Here are some ways following expert advice can actually harm your financial future.

[See 10 Important Ages for Retirement Planning.]

You are unlikely to implement the 4 percent rule. The 4 percent rule is based on withdrawing 4 percent of your assets annually and adjusting the amount based on inflation every year. So even if the market does really well or drops precipitously, you stick with a 4 percent withdrawal based on the original nest egg and ride out the bumps. But can you imagine anyone actually doing this throughout retirement? Say you are 20 years into retirement. By then, even the most stubborn and disciplined person has probably come up with a new percentage to draw based on market performance and personal circumstances. In reality, people end up twisting the 4 percent rule, perhaps to withdraw more money when they incur an unexpected expense or skip a withdrawal while the market is down. This may or may not work for them, but it's not the 4 percent rule.

Everyone doesn't need the same percentage of pre-retirement income. Some studies have calculated that most people will need a specific percentage of their pre-retirement income to live comfortably in retirement, such as 75 or 80 percent of working income. This is another rule that could help you get a sense of how much is needed for your retirement years, but it may not work in practice. There are just too many expense variables to say that everyone will be able to get by on a given percentage of their pre-retirement income. For example, many people have a mortgage payment that consumes around 25 percent of their income. Obviously, people who pay off their house before they retire will have a vastly different expense situation than those who are still making payments. Therefore, the only way to come up with any realistic retirement budget is to know your own situation and track your expenses. There's no other way to determine how much you need to save for retirement.

[See The 10 Best Places to Retire in 2012.]

There's inflation between now and retirement too. While most people consider how inflation will impact their nest egg during their retirement years, not enough people account for inflation eroding their purchasing power from now until the day they decide to start their retirement. Of course, this problem is worst for younger folks who have decades until they retire. But workers nearing retirement should acknowledge that they will probably need a bigger nest egg to account for inflation. Once you figure out your expenses, you need to remember to add inflation into the calculation too. For example, if your expenses are currently $40,000 a year, the same level of consumption could cost as much as $54,000 in 10 years.

Social Security is a big help. It's true that the Social Security system has a long-term deficit. But there is almost no chance that the program will be eliminated in its entirety. This means that, for the vast majority of Americans, there will be some sort of check coming to you on a monthly basis for the rest of your life, and it will be adjusted each year to keep up with inflation. The program won't replace all your working income, but the monthly payments will give your retirement standard of living a significant boost.

[See 7 Misconceptions About Retired Life.]

Instead of writing the whole scheme off completely, you should make sure that you are doing what you can to increase your retirement benefit. This means at least 35 years of paying into the system, and taking some time to figure out the pros and cons of claiming your benefits at various ages. Married individuals should explore ways to maximize their lifetime benefit as a couple.

David Ning runs MoneyNing, a personal finance site aimed at helping others change their habits for a better financial future. He suggests that everyone to sign up for an online savings account to get more out of our hard earned money.

Read more:
Retirement Gotchas Experts Rarely Talk About

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qQLOCrQ6rY

15-10-2011 13:05 Seven of Nine gives a special, personal performance for Janeway. This video and the soundtrack (jazz standard "It Can't Be Wrong") were created by manipulating material not belonging to me under fair dealing (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) and fair use (Copyright Act of 1976) terms, out of love and admiration for the musicians and film makers involved.

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Seven Serenades Janeway (J/S) - Video

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14-02-2012 18:40 http://www.newegg.com | Computer Case bit.ly 11-352-008 Here we have a High Performance PC Computer Case, made by Fractal Design, Model: Arc Mini. Check out the video for more info! Fractal Design Arc Mini Black High Performance PC Computer Case w/ USB 3.0 and 3 Fractal Design Silent Fans @Newegg: bit.ly - Credits - Presenter: Paul Producer: Lam Camera: Kyle Post-Production: Kyle

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Newegg TV: Fractal Design Arc Mini Black High Performance PC Computer Case Overview - Video

Houston, TX (PRWEB) February 22, 2012

The International Association of Drilling Contractors is pleased to introduce IADC SkillSTICK*, a groundbreaking manpower development tool for the oil and natural gas drilling and completion industry. IADC SkillSTICK is a standardized, portable training management utility. The device can be used off line for training from preloaded eLearning courses and can store student progress and assessments associated with the courses. When an Internet connection becomes available, the IADC SkillSTICK syncs back to an online data repository, uploading information recorded on the device while working off line, for example, on a remote rig. Developed by Houston-based Indaptive Technologies, Inc., IADC SkillSTICK is a specially designed USB drive that allows workers to manage information and activities related to training performance anywhere in the world regardless of Internet quality.

“The need for land or offshore employees to provide training certificates and licenses on demand and to manage and take ownership of their own training needs has never been greater,” remarked Mark Denkowski, IADC Vice President - Accreditation & Certification.” IADC SkillSTICK makes it easy.

“The IADC SkillSTICK provides a truly portable job performance management solution for the drilling and completion industry,” he explained. “IADC SkillSTICK delivers an effective solution that makes premium quality, fit-for-purpose eLearning available cost effectively to large workforces. And workers and companies operating in remote corners of the globe with unreliable Internet performance will appreciate the unique off line capability that IADC SkillSTICK offers.”

IADC SkillSTICK consolidates training data and facilitates continuing education. The device:

    May be preloaded with the latest interactive multimedia electronic learning modules. Workers can access these courses off line should an Internet connection be unreliable or nonexistent--a situation that can exist at rig sites. When an Internet connection later becomes available, accumulated training data is automatically uploaded and synchronized with Indaptive Technologies’ web-based data repository called SkillGRID*     Presents workers with a list of training requirements and training activism for typical drilling-rig job functions     Stores personal information: training certificates, licenses and other documents can be scanned into the system.

Visit http://www.SkillSTICK.com/IADC for more information or to place an order.

About IADC
IADC is dedicated to enhancing the interests of oil-and-gas and geothermal drilling contractors worldwide. IADC’s contract-drilling members own most of the world’s land and offshore drilling units and drill the vast majority of the wells that produce the planet’s oil and gas. IADC’s membership also includes oil-and-gas producers, and manufacturers and suppliers of oilfield equipment and services. Founded in 1940, IADC’s mission is to improve industry health, safety and environmental practices; advance drilling and completion technology; and champion responsible standards, practices, legislation and regulations that provide for safe, efficient and environmentally sound drilling operations worldwide. IADC holds Accredited Observer status at the International Maritime Organization and the International Seabed Authority, specialized agencies of the United Nations. The Association is a leader in developing standards for industry training, notably its Well Control Accreditation Program (WellCAP)® and rig-floor orientation program, RIG PASS®. IADC is headquartered in Houston and has offices in Washington D.C., the Netherlands, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, as well as chapters in the UK, Brazil, Australasia, South Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and across the United States. For more information, visit the IADC website at http://www.iadc.org.

About Indaptive Technologies, Inc.
Indaptive Technologies, Inc. and its affiliated companies offer both technology and eLearning content solutions for the petroleum industry. Indaptive specializes in the deployment and management of eLearning content in extreme global work environments. Multi-language technical drilling training content is offered through its affiliate, PetroED (http://www.petroed.com). PetroEd uses the latest multimedia technology and instructional techniques to present complex technical processes and deliver engaging user experiences that resonate with users at all levels. Enterprise deployment options for medium to large corporations are available. For further information, contact: PetroEd, +1 713 461-5200, email: sales(at)petroed(dot)com.

*SkillSTICK™ and SkillGRID™ are marks of Indaptive Technologies, Inc.

# # #

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IADC SkillSTICK Marks Major Advance in Personal Training Management

Strong performance in beverage cans, particularly specialty containers, combined with a raft of coast cutting measures fuelled a jump in 2011 underlying profits of over £50m (€59m), said Rexam.

The UK-based packaging company said its beverage unit accounted for £447m of the firm’s £549m underlying profits – offsetting what it described as a “mixed performance” in its plastic packaging division, which focuses primarily on health and personal care but also food.

The headline figures did not include exceptional items costs – such as plant closures and restructuring – totalling £19m.

“Our strong profit growth was achieved by a better than expected performance in our Beverage Cans business, primarily in Europe, and a continued focus on cost management,” said company chief executive Graham Chipchase.

Beverage can exceed expectations

Rexam’s European volumes climbed 6%, which means it now has a 40% market share of the region’s 57bn cans. It highlighted the growth of specialty cans that now account for almost 30% of cans sold, pack mix changes and an uptick in home consumption as key drivers.

Russia was singled out as a strong market for specialty can although the trend spans the whole of Europe. The firm’s own specialty volumes rose 10% in 2011.

Russian can growth as a whole was well above the regional average and Rexam revealed it is now seeking to invest in the eastern part of the country to tap growing demand and reduce shipping costs.

A new £68m two line plant is also planned for Finland for the beginning of 2013. A £20m cash injection into its Ludesch plant in Austria to meet booming demand in energy drinks has also been earmarked. The investment will boost capacity by 700m cans and is expected to come on stream by Q3 2013.

In Asia, the company said it would make a £30m investment in its Mumbai plant that would more than double capacity to 950m cans annually by the end of 2012.

North America rebound?

Rexam confirmed that its overall volumes in North America dropped 14% in 2011 after a string of previously announced contract losses. The firm struck a bullish note, declaring that it expected to recover most of this loss with new deals by 2013.

The company said it is currently the second largest can maker there with a 20% market share of the 95bn can sector.

Growth in specialty cans was again highlighted. Rexam said its specialty volumes rose by 16% in 2011, which means these now account for almost a quarter of is US output. This has been driven by an upsurge in demand for energy drinks, iced-tea, and beer.

Overall profit in its North American unit was said to be significantly higher that start-of-year estimates but no figures were provided

South America – Brazilian slowdown

The firm’s performance in the dominant regional market of Brazil was flat following a strong 2010. A shrinking national GDP, price increases by Rexam’s customers and unfavourable weather all slowed demand, it said.

The company was also hit by direct imports by its rivals and loss of volume share as customers sought to cut freight costs.

Rexam said it has a 60% share of Brazil’s beverage can market but recognized that growth would not always be constant. Opening of a new plant in Belem has been delayed to the second half of 2012.

Outlook

Chipchase said the company remained cautious about the global economy. He expected beverage can to remain robust but said he did not envisage “any turnaround in the performance of Plastic Packaging in the near term”.

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Thirst for beverage cans drives Rexam profit growth