Updated: August 13, 2012, 4:57 PM ET

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- UCLA middle linebacker Patrick Larimore will take a medical retirement because of multiple concussions, coach Jim Mora said after practice Monday during training camp at Cal State San Bernardino.

Larimore, a senior who was a team captain last season, suffered a concussion in April and sat out the latter portion of spring practice. He returned for the first two days of training camp, but had another concussion Aug. 6 and hasn't been back since.

He left camp to be examined by doctors at UCLA, then came back and informed his coaches and players of his decision Sunday night.

For the latest news on UCLA, check out ESPN Los Angeles' blog on the Bruins. Blog

"After talking it over with the doctors and talking it over with his family and the way he felt, he felt that for his future heath and long-term health that he should medically retire," Mora said.

"Obviously it was a very tough decision for Patrick and a very tough decision for this team. Patrick was very mature in his decision and gave it a lot of thought. He didn't get captured in the moment and only thinking about the here and now."

Larimore, 6-foot-2, 250 pounds, was a starter since his sophomore season. He was the team's defensive MVP last season after leading the team with 81 tackles. As a sophomore, he was named the Nagurski defensive player of the week after registering 12 tackles in a game against Houston.

He was the defensive leader on the field, calling out the plays and formations, but was equally important off the field as a high-character peer who kept his teammates in line.

"On the field, off the field, in the locker room, from snap to whistle, it's hard to replace a Patrick Larimore," Mora said. "It's really hard to replace that intensity, that passion, that commitment to the game."

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UCLA LB Larimore chooses medical retirement

Retirement planning is often focused on investing for retirement. But saving during retirement is part of the big picture as well. Many soon-to-be retirees are finding they may be a little short on post-retirement funds. With yields low throughout the U.S., they may have to rely on savings strategies in their leisure years.

To get a better handle on retirement planning in today's environment, we spoke with Sheila Handy, Ph.D., department chair and associate professor of business management at East Stroudsburg University. Professor Handy gave us some insight into retirement planning and how retirees can stretch their dollars.

Is it financially smart to set a retirement date when retirement planning?

Yes, individuals should set a specific retirement date. Rather than always thinking there will be more time to contribute to a retirement plan, setting a date allows you to estimate how much in Social Security benefits you will receive. You should carefully review your Social Security statement every year. It also allows you to know how many more years you can contribute to your employer retirement plan or (individual retirement account), and it provides a window for improving your current financial situation -- paying off your home mortgage and other debts.

What is the ideal amount needed to retire in 2012?

A rule of thumb used in retirement planning is that 70% of pre-retirement income is required to maintain the same lifestyle, since individuals spend less on taxes, commuting costs and likely expenses related to raising children. The same amount -- adjusted for inflation -- will likely be needed for 25 years (unless Social Security benefits are reduced). In either case, paying your mortgage and eliminating all credit card debt is beneficial.

For the person who wants to travel during retirement, what tips can you give him to live out his dreams of being a world traveler and financially stable?

Retirees can travel more affordably by planning trips during the off-season to take advantage of lower rates and airfares and by capitalizing on the flexibility in their schedules. (They can do this) by taking advantage of last-minute deals offered by airlines and travel sites. Staying in a condo and cooking your own meals may prove to be more affordable than staying in a hotel and eating out for one to two weeks. Some people trade houses with another retiree by using websites that connect individuals who are willing to exchange homes for one or two weeks. If travel is important, it should be built into the retirement budget. Other ways to travel more affordably include low-cost national park passes for seniors, 15% Amtrak discounts, Elderhostels and AARP discounts.

When pre-retirement expense planning, what are a few ways toreduce monthly costs and save more money for retirement?

Pre-retirement expense planning should include eliminating debt and cutting down on nonessential expenditures like eating out and buying coffee. Add any money not spent to savings. If you record every expenditure made in a two-week period, you would probably discover many ways to cut your current spending.

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Taking Control of Your Retirement Planning

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10-08-2012 08:08 Save for Retirement or Pay Down Debt? from Money Talks News. Like this? Watch the latest episode of Money Talks News on Blip! Youapos;d like to pay off your high interest credit card, but you also need to save for retirement. Which should you do first? See all episodes of Money Talks News Visit Money Talks News's series page

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Save for Retirement or Pay Down Debt? - Video

If you thought that Americans as a whole were unprepared for a secure retirement, you should see the ones who have lost their job.

A report from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies finds many unemployed and underemployed workers have been dipping into their retirement accounts to fund their regular expenses. In addition, the retirement savings for many of those workers in their 40s and 50s is virtually non-existent.

A dire situation for displaced workers

The report, titled The Cracked Nest Egg, is part of the 13th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey. Its findings paint a bleak picture for workers who lost their jobs during the recent recession.

"The Great Recession has led to a potentially devastating impact on the retirement outlook of American workers who have become unemployed or underemployed," said Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, in a statement. "Many have raided retirement accounts to make ends meet -- and it will be difficult for them to overcome these savings setbacks once they regain employment."

Among the center's findings:

In addition, 30% report being without health insurance, placing their finances at risk should they have a medical emergency or serious illness.

Retirement savings: How low can they go?

Perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of the Transamerica report is just how little most displaced workers have in their retirement savings. The estimated median retirement savings for these households was $5,800. Among middle-age individuals, the amount was even lower.

As part of the study, median retirement savings were broken down by age:

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The Bleak Retirement Outlook for Displaced Workers

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- I recently attended an educational session by Mitch Anthony, an author and retirement planning expert, which discussed thinking about retirement in a new way. Most people still view retirement as crossing a finish line because they have reached a certain age. This construct is based on our nation's industrial past when most workers performed physically demanding jobs. The paradigm then was you worked until age 65 when you were physically worn out and then you retired. The company you worked for would typically pay you a pension "for life." Unfortunately "for life" in the good old days might have only meant two or three years! Fast forward to our current U.S. economy: Most workers today are no longer engaged in physically demanding jobs. Instead most of us are engaged in intellectual or service-based work. So in today's world many of us are capable of working past age 65. For most people working past 65 is a better option than permanently retiring at an artificial age-based finish line. For individuals who work for compensation during retirement there are the financial benefits. Retirees who work part time during retirement can defer collecting social security until their full retirement age or even to age 70. Waiting to collect social security until at least your full retirement age results in a benefit 25% higher than starting at age 62. Another financial benefit of part time work is it might give a retiree access to health care coverage till they reach Medicare eligibility at age 65. Finally, the post-retirement income might allow the retiree to defer drawing down a portion of their retirement assets just a bit longer. Working past age 65 can be helpful for financial reasons but it goes deeper than extra money and doesn't have to be about compensation. If you are lucky enough not to need the money, volunteering at a not-for-profit is a valid form of work. Some non-financial benefits of working during retirement include: sense of relevance feeling of contribution and making an impact creativity competition for those who crave it connectivity to others The commonality among the non-financial benefits of working are that they all help with our emotional and physical well being. Working during retirement can also aid our cognitive health. The more we use our brains the healthier they are likely to be! The key to our second act work is engaging in work we find meaningful and that brings value to others. The great thing about it is we can define for ourselves what constitutes meaningful and provides value to others. In a nutshell, we can create our own personalized retirement job that works for us. I want to pass on two suggestions from Anthony when planning for your own retirement. The first is to write down how you plan to spend your 168 hours a week in retirement. If you are staring at an almost blank piece of paper you have got some work to do. The second idea is to get a mentor for retirement. Find someone you know who is doing retirement well, from your perspective, and engage them in a dialogue about how they did it. Remember, having enough "financial resources" to retire is only the first step towards a successful retirement. --By Michael Maye Michael Maye is the founder and president of MJM Financial Advisors (www.mjmfinadv.com), a registered investment advisory firm in Berkeley Heights, N.J. He is a member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) and has been a speaker covering tax topics at NAPFA's national and regional conferences. Maye has also been a frequent contributor to the Star Ledger of New Jersey's "Biz Brain" and "Get With the Plan" articles. In addition to NAPFA, he is a member of Financial Planning Association, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, New Jersey State Society of CPAs and the Estate Planning Council of Northern New Jersey.

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168 Hours a Week of Retirement? Better Get a Job

A recently published study by Jeff Hooke and Michael Tasselmyer of the Maryland Public Policy Institute took a look at the $37.6 billion Maryland State Retirement and Pension system. Their findings weren't pretty, but they are elucidating for both individual and institutional investors.

It wasn't all bad news. As usual, those advising the pension funds did spectacularly well. They reaped a whopping $221 million in fees for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011. The hard working employees who are depending on the decent returns from plan assets fared poorly. According to the study, Maryland's returns trailed those of nearby states with June 30 fiscal years by about 1 percent each year. That might not seem significant until you convert this underperformance to dollars. It cost the plan $3 billion over the last 10 years.

The study correctly noted the current investment practice of most public pension systems. It is probably no different than the way you invest your personal assets. They go to a Wall Street firm that tells them they can "beat the markets", primarily by stock picking. They justify their hefty fees by claiming this expertise which, if it existed, would be very valuable.

The problem is there is precious little evidence that this expertise does exist. The study noted that during calendar year 2011, 84 percent of actively managed U.S. equity funds underperformed their benchmarks. It cited two other studies with similar results.

The authors looked at retirement plans in all 50 states. Total assets were a staggering $2 trillion. Total fees spent on Wall Street fees were $7.8 billion.

The conclusion and recommendation of the authors of this study will be familiar to readers of my books and blogs. Here it is: Buy index funds. That's it. By simply purchasing a globally diversified portfolio of low management fee stock and bond index funds in a suitable asset allocation (typically 60 percent stocks and 40 percent bonds for large pension plans), plan administrators could save the bulk of the outlandish fees they are paying for stock picking advice that often yields returns that underperform the index.

A more comprehensive study of the performance of state pension plans supports the conclusion of Hooke and Tasselmyer. This analysis looked at the performance of all state pensions plans for which there was publicly available data. Here's what they found: Over the 10-year and 23-year periods studied, all of the plans would have had higher returns with an index-based portfolio, with the stock portion tilted towards small and value stocks.

As Hooke and Tasselmyer correctly noted: "There is substantial evidence that Wall Street managers are unable to beat passive equity index funds that cost much less in fees."

It is unfortunate that participants in these state pension plans can do little to change the cozy system that rewards Wall Street at their expense. You are not similarly constrained when it comes to managing your own money. Fire your stock picking broker or adviser. Buy index funds. It's an easy fix.

Dan Solin is a senior vice president of Index Funds Advisors. He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read, The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read, The Smartest Retirement Book You'll Ever Read, and The Smartest Portfolio You'll Ever Own. His new book, The Smartest Money Book You'll Ever Read, was published on December 27, 2011.

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The $7.8 Billion State Retirement System Rip-off

The last five years have been tough for those in retirement. Portfolio valuations have been hammered and annuity rates have plunged. There's no sign of things improving anytime soon, either, as the eurozone and the UK economy look set to muddle through at best for some years to come.

A great way of protecting yourself from the downturn, however, is by building your retirement fund with shares of large, well-run companies that should grow their earnings steadily over the coming decades. Over time, such investments ought to result in rising dividends and inflation-beating capital growth.

In this series, I'm tracking down the UK large-caps that have the potential to beat the FTSE 100 (Euronext: VFTSE.NX - news) (UKX) over the long term and support a lower-risk income-generating retirement fund.

Today, I'm going to take a look at GlaxoSmithKline (Other OTC: GLAXF.PK - news) , the UK's largest pharmaceutical company.

Performance enhancing drugs

GlaxoSmithKline's product range includes consumer brands such as Lucozade, Sensodyne and Nicorette, as well as its prescription drugs and vaccines. It's a classic defensive stock and has been far less volatile than the FTSE 100 over the last 5 years:

Source: Morningstar (NasdaqGS: MORN - news)

(Total (Other OTC: TTFNF.PK - news) return includes both changes to the share price and reinvested dividends. These two ingredients combined are what make it possible for equity portfolios to regularly outperform cash and bonds over the long term.)

Although GSK's trailing 10 year average total return is below that of the FTSE 100, anyone holding GSK shares from 2007 until today would have seen a total return, including reinvested dividends, of 40%, compared to 12% for the FTSE 100 total return index.

What's The Score?

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Is GlaxoSmithKline The Ultimate Retirement Share?

Last year, the average U.S. consumer carried $6,576 in credit card debt. Earlier this month, the average credit interest rate stood at 14.5 percent.

With so many people struggling with large balances and high interest rates, Money Talks News founder Stacy Johnson gets asked this question more than most: Do I pay off my debts or save for retirement? Check out his answer in the video below, then read on for details about what you should do

Click here to watch Save for Retirement or Pay Down Debt? on MoneyTalksNews.com

When youre trying to reach your financial goals, you have to decide what investment will give you the highest return. Compared to the rate of return on a typical savings account, CD, or stock investment, youll have a higher rate of return by paying off your credit cards first.

Say you have $7,000 in credit card debt and a 15 percent interest rate. If you pay the minimum payment of $157.50 (2.25 percent) on your credit card, it will take 25 years to pay it off. During that time, youll pay $8,229.16 in interest.

On the other hand, if you paid $300 a month toward your credit card balance, youd have the debt paid off in 28 months and youd only pay $1,328.13 in interest.

As Stacy said in the video, if youre paying 15 percent on a credit card, paying it off is like earning 15 percent tax-free and risk-free. Thats hard to beat.

But theres an exception to this rule: a 401(k) or other type of retirement plan that offers a company match. In these plans, your employer matches your contributions up to a certain amount, typically 50 percent of whatever you contribute, capped at 6 percent of your annual salary. So if you earn $50,000 annually and contribute $3,000 (6 percent) to your retirement plan, the company will contribute $1,500.

Thats free money: something hard to come by!

If your company matches any of your 401(k) contributions, make sure youre contributing enough to get every free penny being offered by your plan. After that, put any extra income you have left into paying off your debt. Once your debt is wiped out, then you can start contributing more to your 401(k) or looking into other investment options.

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Save for Retirement or Pay Down Credit Card Debt?

NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- John C. Bogle, Founder of The Vanguard Group, Inc., and President of Vanguard's Bogle Financial Markets Research Center is set to headline AdvisorOne's 5th Annual Retirement Income Symposium to be held on October 4-5, 2012 in Boston.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100316/SUMMITLOGO )

AdvisorOne's Retirement Income Symposium, the leading event in the Northeast, provides an established and progressive learning environment for retirement professionals who actively sell, market, support, or service retirement plans. The Symposium is geared to provide advisors with clear, actionable strategies that they can utilize to address their clients' needs.

"Simply putJohn Bogle is a legend, revered not only for his innovation in the investing space, but for his strong advocacy for always putting the clients first," says John Sullivan, Editor-in Chief of Investment Advisor. "We are honored to have a person of Bogle's character and temperament with us at our conference; someone who is clearly 'the conscience of the industry.'"

This year's event will bring together the perfect blend of industry trail-blazers looking to provide a leading-edge program for financial and investment advisors, planners and brokers. For more information on keynote presenters, CE accreditation and to view the agenda, please visit http://www.risymposium.com.

About Summit Business Media

Summit Business Media is the leading B2B media and information Company serving the insurance, financial services, legal and investment advisory markets. Summit strives to be "The Next Generation of Business Information" for executives and practitioners by providing breaking news and analysis, in-depth practice management strategies, business-building techniques and actionable data. Summit services the information needs of its customers through numerous channels, including digital, print, and live events. Summit publishes 16 magazines and 150 reference titles, operates 20 websites and hosts a dozen conferences, including the world's largest mining investment conference in South Africa. Summit's Marketing Data Group provides detail on nearly one million health and benefits plans in the U.S. For more information, visit http://www.sbmedia.com

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John Bogle to Headline AdvisorOne's 5th Annual Retirement Income Symposium

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ2GzwfjsUc

08-08-2012 10:15 Michael Phelps says he is excited to be able to enjoy just watching swimming following his reirement from the sport. Report by Sam Datta-Paulin. More Michael Phelps: Paying tribute to Usain Bolt: Phelps retires: Wins record-breaking 19th medal: Pre-Olympics interview: Sympathy for Tiger Woods: Subscribe to ITN News! Like us on Facebook: Follow us on Twitter:

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Michael Phelps talks life after swimming following his retirement after 2012 Olympics - Video