Fitness & Recreational Sports at the University of Nevada, Reno is one of the largest employers of students on campus, with up to 120 on the schedule at any given time. Their two main facilities, E.L. Wiegand Fitness Center and Lombardi Recreation Center, are opened, run and closed down at night by students, who fall into a variety of positions designed to keep everything (and everyone) moving for the 362 days per year that the centers are open.

In the midst of all that, with more than 130 classes per week and monstrously large buildings full of people throwing around weights and themselves, FRS still manages to not only train student workers in the myriad policies that keep things ticking but also to take close interest in their students success and contribute to it.

Our foundation is our students, Assistant Director of Fitness & Recreational Sports Sheena Harvey said. We could not run this facility without our student workers. Harvey is talking about the four-story, 108,000-square-foot E.L Wiegand Fitness Center, which opened in February 2017 and grew the number student workers needed to manage and run things by quite a bit.

Harvey herself joined FRS in 2003 as a student worker, and 17 years later, she proudly calls the fitness center The best place on Earth! She beams with enthusiasm for the work and for her students. They probably get tired of me, Harvey said laughing, but thats their fault for working here.

Shes always checking in with her student workers, asking about how their classes are going and how tests went. Sometimes we see them all the way through to graduation, Harvey said, and I think thats the coolest part.

Getting more than 100 students trained in everything from customer service to personal training to officiating intramural sports is no small feat. Were getting students that this is their first job. Theyve never had to be somewhere on time, Harvey said.

Just to begin work with FRS, students have to meet the following criteria:

Student positions include facilities operation staff, lifeguarding staff, intramural sports official staff, sport supervisors and fitness instructors, and each of these has its own path to move up, as well as specific in-service requirements.

We trust our students, Harvey said. "I think thats a big part of it, always backing them up. Were a big ball of risk, and this is an active job.

In addition to building good communication and critical thinking skills, doing in-service work, cleaning and managing all of the various tasks and responsibilities mentioned above, the student workers are encouraged to pursue new avenues and certifications.

There may be someone who wants to be a yoga instructor but doesnt know the steps to do it, Harvey said. If we have some spaces and there are students showing interest and wanting to do instruction, well put them into a certification program, so they can have it and get it in before graduation and not have to pay for it.

One such student is sophomore and kinesiology major Dalton Taylor, who earned his certification to teach barre (a blend of weight training and ballet-inspired movement) and work as a substitute instructor for cycling classes. Taylor is working his way toward becoming a supervisor, but as a senior staff member, hes still helping guide the new hires, sharing his experience, helping them understand policies, constantly doing walkthroughs and making sure to be friendly with everyone. He said the program has not only made him more able to assist people who need help but has encouraged him to ask for help when he needs it, too.

Ive always been big into fitness. Ive done rugby and dance throughout my youth, Taylor said. I want to share that experience and share what Ive learned with other people. This job has definitely helped me with my communications skills.

Taylor credits two of his own student supervisors with taking him under their respective wings to help him learn the ropes and all the policies. Hes learned to build connections with patrons and other student workers, and as a kinesiology major, its actually E.L. Wiegand Fitness Center that drew him to campus in the first place.

The first time I came to the gym was my junior year of high school, Taylor said. My mom and I were touring campus and got to see, Oh, this is a brand new facility. That was one of the big things that got me up here [from Las Vegas] was the gym.

Its not all about making sure the facilities are running efficiently at Fitness & Recreational Sports. Its also about getting students across the stage at commencement and giving them the skills theyll need going forward.

Fit to graduate. When I say that, I mean it. We want every student that comes through our program to graduate, Harvey said. I think the biggest thing is and I literally say this to all my students When you leave here, youre going to be a better communicator. Youre going to be a better critical thinker. Youre going to be able to deal with conflict as it comes. And I just think theyre going to be a better person.

Fitness & Recreational Sports also offers the Steve Pomi Scholarship, named for the FRS director who preceded Director Jim Fitzsimmons, which consists of $3,000 awarded to three students each year. Winners get to see their own smiling faces across social channels and on monitors throughout the facilities. Students working for FRS are encouraged to apply and reapply if at first they dont succeed.

Community health sciences major and senior Kyle Harris is a recent awardee who was encouraged to give it another go. He said his time with FRS has given him purpose. If I werent part of it, I probably wouldnt be a part of anything other than a few clubs here and there, Harris said. Working here has given me more things to do in college. Its really helped.

Harris is currently working as a student supervisor and working toward becoming an instructor before he graduates in May and starts training to become a paramedic. His work with FRS has truly enriched his time at the University.

I enjoy watching people grow as individuals, Harris said. As a supervisor and a shadow for crossfit, its really heartwarming to see people change as a crossfit shadow, seeing people make gains across the gym; as a supervisor, seeing people get more assertive with their work.

Talking with students and staff, its abundantly clear that working for FRS is more than just a paycheck for everyone involved. Student workers are empowered to make decisions knowing that staff members trust them and will be there to back them up. In the workplace, students are encouraged to be themselves and work together to make things their own.

I always tell my students to be great in whatever theyre doing, in whatever they want to do, Harvey said. In my emails, I sign off, Okay, go be great!

More here:
Go be great: Fitness & Recreational Sports mentoring and student success - Nevada Today

As we progress further into 2020, it is evident that the issues and opportunities surrounding the topic of identity within the financial services marketplace are undergoing fundamental change. Because of technological advance, digital verification is playing a larger part in banking.

Developments such as social media and mobile phones have provided many more people around the world with access to financial services. As a result, new ways of validating and verifying existing and potential customers have come to the fore but significant problems arise when these systems are compromised, raising new challenges for banks.

While the World Banks Global ID4D Dataset estimates that there are currently one billion people who cannot prove who they are, the emergence of digital authentication has also provided many sectors of the population, especially those who struggled beforehand because of socioeconomic factors, with increased access to public and private services such as healthcare and education.

This digital new normal has led to an expansion of the identity industry. Governments, regulators, companies and banks across the globe are now attempting to manage both personal authentication and the associated data security and policy questions arising.

Despite this acceleration in available technologies, traditional banks continue to ask their customers for identification such as birth certificates and passports when opening a new account at a branch. They do so despite the economic advantages of moving to new identity services.

According to the Boston Consulting Groups report The Value of our Digital Identity, the adoption of digital identity services could lead to a significant annual value growth of 22%, which would result in 330 billion by 2020 for the private and public institutions in Europe.

Reluctance

In the UK, at the start of 2019, governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney suggested that digital ID cards would make it safer for people to access money online and that improvements need to be made to the security and privacy of online financial services, not only to customer experience, as reported in The Telegraph.

Following the internet boom and the parallel decline of bank branches, this harmonisation of different systems of online identity verification is overdue. As cybersecurity increases as a major concern and digital criminals improve their capabilities to threaten both individuals and the wider financial system, the imperative only increases.

National culture and historical legacy have played a key role in approaches to identity issues around the world. In the UK the concept of an ID card has always been a controversial subject despite almost every other European nation using one. Back in 2010, the UKs Coalition Government scrapped a plan inherited from its predecessor to introduce identification cards. The then home-secretary, Theresa May, said that the scheme would increase control over citizens. A year later, the Cabinet Office started work on the GOV. UK Verify system. It was declared live on 24th May 2016.

In March 2019, GOV.UK Verify was criticised in a National Audit Office (NAO) report after only 3.6 million users had signed up for the digital identification scheme way off the 2020 goal of 25 million. The NAO report examined the Government Digital Services (GDS) expectation that the flagship identity verification platform would cost 212 million and generate 873 million between 2016 to 2020. The UK Government, however, claimed that drawbacks like this were normal when introducing new technology, despite the initiatives intention of becoming the default identity verification process for online services such as benefits or income tax.

At the latter end of 2018, the minister responsible for implementation, Oliver Dowden CBE MP, made a House of Commons statement that highlighted that the UKs GOV.UK Verify programme was ready to enter the next phase of development. GOV.UK Verify promotes itself as a secure way of proving who you are online and one way that a UK citizen can access government services such as taxes or their driving license. The UK Government has partnered with Barclays bank, identity provider Digidentity, credit reporting agency Experian, the Post Office and verification service SecureIdentity to offer this service. Consequently, all these private sector organisations are certified to verify identity on behalf of the UK government.

In his statement, Dowden said that now the Government Digital Service was mature, the private sector will take responsibility for broadening the usage and application of digital identity in the UK. While the Government will continue to provide assurance, the UKs identity scheme operates under commercial organisations. Success in the marketplace will be determined this way, without direct funding and investment from the Government. The announcement also ensured that GOV. UK Verify will continue to protect public sector digital services from cyber threats, including identity fraud, and other malicious activity.

However, in conversation with Finextra Research, head of thematic research and chief analyst at GlobalData, Gary Barnett, says he believes that while the Verify programme does purport to be useful beyond providing identity assurance for public sector services, theres been next to no uptake. This is partly because organisations like banks or insurance companies already have established identity assurance and Know Your Customer (KYC) processes in place many of which are not all that compatible with GOV.UK Verify.

People deal with digital platforms that are not customer-efficient in three stages: irritation, dejection and then, acceptance. Consumers understand that problems arise and may take time to resolve. What we are seeing in the UK is that the Government would like the private sector to lead and refine how identity services are provided to the public.

On the other side

Agility is necessary in identity services and a simple way of providing this would be to establish just one process of authenticatingcitizens. In the US, the Department of Treasury released a report emphasising the importance of portable digital identity 5. The report pointed to the significance of establishing legal identity for new customer relationships at financial institutions without the need for the bank having to verify personally identifiable information (PII).

This proposed US plan has strong parallels to the UKs groundbreaking Open Banking experiment and in the same way, stated that trustworthy portable third-party digital identity services could potentially save relying parties time and resources in identifying, verifying, and managing customer identities, including for account opening and access.

The US Treasury also put forward a request for financial regulators to collaborate with them so that unnecessary barriers which private and public organisations might face could be eliminated, and the adoption of digital identity services would be better facilitated within the financial services industry.

Speaking with Finextra Research, Alex Bolante, managing director, consumer identity management at Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory, discussed the US situation. Bolante considers that US financial institutions were already aware of the need for and benefits of digital identity. However, as customer expectations rise, so do those of the regulators.

According to Bolante, regulators are demanding increased transparency around transactions, meaning that financial institutions require greater granularity and accuracy in the identity information that they capture and are increasingly being held liable for inaccurate or missing identity information.

He adds that bad actors in financial systems are increasingly sophisticated in the technology and tools that they use to conduct illicit activity, increasing their ability to quickly cause financial and reputational damage by exploiting weak identity systems.

Identity risk

Despite this risk, banks could stand to benefit from creating digital identity solutions. Money and identity are two closely intertwined concepts that have started to operate on a parallel basis. In conversation with Finextra Research, Kaelyn Lowmaster, head of research at One World Identity, highlights that those two goals financial institution success and personal identity protection are not necessarily in conflict with one another. Its in the best interest of a financial institution to make sure that consumer identity is protected to avoid theft, fraud and compliance violations.

The contrast between banks and Big Tech an alternative source of consumer identity services is stark in this regard. Lowmaster continues: reliable identity data is critical for accurate risk assessment, financial product underwriting, and marketing but we find its helpful to think of personal data protection as a potential strategic differentiator for financial institutions.

On data protection a significant talking point in 2018 and not just in the financial services industry digital bank Tandems chief technology officer Paul Clark reiterates to Finextra Research there will always be a new threat for banks, and therefore they have a responsibility to inform and educate their customers.

The truth is that good service is built on a wealth of data and that benefits the customer and the bank. Part of data protection is keeping consumers aware. If you arent using customer attention to improve their security, you are doing something wrong, Clark says.

This article appears within the Finextra Research report on The Future of Identity. Download a copy of the full report here.

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Cutting through the hype of personal identity - Finextra

When Castro launched his campaign last year, he strived to become the nations first Latino president, running as part of the most racially diverse slate ever of Democratic presidential candidates. But just like most of the other Latino and Black candidates in the crowded field, he dropped out after slamming against barriers some personal, some deeply structural to raising money and gaining support in the polls.

Now as Democrats approach the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses with an all-white field of top contenders, Black and Latino politicians have become among the most sought-after endorsers and surrogates on the campaign trail. Their voices are needed to energize Democrats at a time when the party is searching for its direction and hoping to replicate the high voter turnout that won a House Democratic majority in the 2018 midterm elections on the strength of historic gains for candidates who were women and people of color.

I think the messenger does matter, said Amanda Renteria, president of Emerge America, which trains women to run for office, and served as national political director for Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential run. You have an electorate that really wants to be seen in their candidates.

Black and Latino elected officials, including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, this month rode through Eastern Iowa on a bus to shore up support for former vice president Joe Biden. At the University of Iowa student union in Iowa City on Friday, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revved up a crowd of some 800 people for Bernie Sanders, delivering impassioned defenses of his Medicare-for-All plan and bold economic proposals to tackle infrastructure and climate change.

When we hedge our bets we get more of the same, and the same has not been helping any of us, she said, calling on supporters to organize. We have 10 days left.

Its imperative for campaigns to have Black, Latino and Asian surrogates who can speak from experience to voters about candidates platforms, political analysts said. Their efforts have been particularly crucial to Warren and Sanders, who have been forced off the campaign trail to sit in as jurors in Trumps impeachment trial.

In Iowa, where voters declare their vote publicly at caucus meetings that can be complicated, confusing and feature one-on-one politicking, surrogates can help educate voters about the process, lure new participants and build excitement for candidates.

Kira Sanbonmatsu, a political science professor at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said congressional candidates of color, many of them women, put Democrats on notice when they leveraged their popularity and social media savvy into enthusiasm, money and votes during the 2018 midterms. Democratic presidential campaigns have since followed suit, she said, making greater strides to recruit people of color as surrogates, staff members and volunteers.

What we are seeing is intimately tied to the 2018 election, Sanbonmatsu said. Its a testament to their personal success as candidates that they can bring their supporters along in their presidential race.

At the Iowa City rally, attendees said they were thrilled to see all-star surrogates behind Sanders who reflected the diversity of their coalition and could counter the image of his supporters as Bernie Bros." Enaam Al-Quader, 41, who drove from Chicago, where he works as a social caseworker, said he could see their influence in the reactions of the Black and Latino students he works with.

Its huge, he said. When they see his surrogates, that actually stops them and makes them want to care about Bernie."

Once young, rising political stars from San Antonio, the Castro brothers now have weighty political bona fides and schedules that often keep them apart: While Julin Castro, a former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, was on his grueling run for president, Representative Joaquin Castro was at the frontlines of Trumps impeachment in the House.

But reunited at El Jimador, where classic cumbias played to a mostly white clientele, the Castros riffed off of each other. The jokes came swiftly over their looks (hes the uglier one") and their age (he was born a minute before me so hes the older one"). Later seated at a table, the two said they sought to encourage Latinos to participate in the caucuses.

The Latino community is a small but growing part of the Iowa electorate and often disengaged from politics. In Denison alone, Latinos now comprise 48% of the population, according to Census figures.

This is a place with a lot of potential for more people to come out and caucus, Julin Castro said.

National Democrats have been in the midst of a reckoning over the dynamics of gender, race and ethnicity in the 2020 campaign.

The party has done an overall better job than Republicans in increasing diversity among its congressional delegation and leadership but structural barriers, such as inequities in donors and funding, have continued to block women and people of color from pursuing the Democratic presidential nomination. And this election, questions over electability and who can beat Trump have largely hurt candidates of color, even in their efforts to build support among their own Black and Latino communities.

Some have argued not all can be blamed on structural issues: Some candidates were deemed too liberal by voters, others not liberal enough. Still, the all-white top of the field has spurred questions about the Democratic primary process, like the thresholds for getting on the debate stage.

Castro was among those vocal about the problems before he dropped out. On Wednesday, he doubled down on his concerns over the fairness of the process, saying he spoke with Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and hopes he considers changes.

After the primarys over, the DNC has an opportunity to look at how its done the primary process, from the thresholds to the order of states, Castro said.

It has all made Iowans somewhat defensive.

Listening to the Castros at a table nearby, retired teachers Larry and Eilieen Peterson said they were still weighing candidates after California Senator Kamala Harris abruptly dropped out of the race last month. Larry Peterson argued it was unfair to call the caucuses biased against candidates of color, though the electorate is predominantly white, saying they served as the launching pad for Barack Obama to become the nations first Black president.

I think I hold the balance of the republic in my hands because what we do here will most likely lead to the nominee, said Peterson, now an assistant professor of education at Morningside College in Sioux City. Its a crucial decision.

Some see signs of progress as Democratic surrogates arent dividing along racial or ethnic lines in backing candidates, focusing instead on values and policies. The prime example is the four liberal Representatives, all woman of color, who form the so-called squad. Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are campaigning for Sanders, while Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley is a top Warren surrogate.

Its interesting to me that thus far the surrogates that are of color and women of color are just as varied in who they are supporting, said Erin OBrien, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Black and Latino voters might still be viable voter blocs for Democrats, she added, "but they might not be a bloc for a particular type of Democrat.

Still, before Ocasio-Cortez took the stage in Iowa City Friday, Barbara Canin, 58, a former English teacher, said she hoped the loss of candidates like Castro and Harris from the race would force Democrats to reevaluate how to even the playing field.

Change takes a long time, especially change around deeply, ingrained ways of being, she said.

Reach Jazmine Ulloa at jazmine.ulloa@globe.com or on Twitter: @jazmineulloa

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Looking for diversity in the presidential race? Its with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other surrogates for the all-white top Democratic candidates -...

Marta Wilson Releases LEAP with ForbesBooks

This release is posted on behalf of ForbesBooks (operated by Advantage Media Group under license).

NEW YORK (January 28, 2020) Marta Wilson, CEO of Transformation Systems, Inc., today announced the publication of LEAP: Master Your Superpowers, Soar to the Leading Edge. The book is published with ForbesBooks, the exclusive business book publishing imprint of Forbes.

The fundamental question of LEAP asks, What is it that makes a successful, effective, and sustainable leader? In Wilsons view, leading is among the most challenging things humans pursue, and for those who excel at leading there must be more factors in the equation than talent and drive. There must be a sort of superpower at work. After 25-plus years of applied research, Wilson and her team prove within the pages of LEAP that not only do effective leaders possess a certain superpower, but that we all do. Its simply a matter of learning how to access it.

Marta Wilsons book is a roadmap that can help any individual improve their life. In addition to being the title of Martas book, LEAP (Leadership Effectiveness and Potential) is also an actionable program designed to help individuals develop four types of mastery: personal, interpersonal, organizational, and motivational. It adds depth and insight to the proven leadership-improvement program, and Wilsons thoughtful advice gives readers the necessary tools to move their lives towards mastery and becoming high-performing leaders.

Of her leadership development approach Wilson said, What Ive discovered throughout my careerboth as an academic and as a consultantis: people who are masterful in the four areas that are the focus of this book tend to become superheroes, those whom others rely on to lead the way forward when things are at risk of falling apart.

LEAP: Master Your Superpowers, Soar to the Leading Edge is available on Amazon.com today.

About Marta Wilson

Dr. Marta Wilson is an industrial-organizational psychologist and the CEO of Transformation Systems Inc. (TSI), an award-winning consulting firm that helps leaders be their best, do great things, and have meaningful success. Marta has dedicated her career to helping people and communities expand potential and boost effectiveness through her work as a leadership consultant, business author, keynote speaker, board member, and charity fundraiser. Marta is the creator of LEAP, which stands for Leadership Effectiveness and Potential. LEAP is a framework and a program that includes assessments, workshops, coaching, mentoring, and a groundbreaking mobile app. Marta is the author of several books including Energized Enterprise, Everybodys Business, Leaders in Motion, and the Transformation Desktop Guide.

About ForbesBooks

Launched in 2016 in partnership with Advantage Media Group, ForbesBooks is the exclusive business book publishing imprint of Forbes. ForbesBooks offers business and thought leaders an innovative, speed-to-market, fee-based publishing model and a suite of services designed to strategically and tactically support authors and promote their expertise. For more information, visit Forbesbooks.com.

Media Contacts

Janelle Millard, Transformation System Inc, jmm@transformationsystems.com

Carson Kendrick, ForbesBooks, ckendrick@advantageww.com

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New Book Reveals The Superpowers Of High-Performing Leaders - Forbes

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Doctor Mathew Trinca AM - as he becomes in the Australia Day honours - committed a slight indiscretion when he heard of his award. At the time, the 94-year-old mother of the director of the National Museum of Australia was on her death bed. Her son whispered that he was going to become a Member of the Order of Australia. In technical terms, he shouldn't have told anyone. In human terms, who can blame him? "I understood that she wouldn't be here when I got it," he said. Mrs Trinca died on January 15 knowing that her son had been given one of greatest honours Australia confers. When she was told, she simply said: "Well done, son." Dr Trinca was brought up in humble circumstances in Western Australia. His father migrated from Italy as a stone-mason and then worked in Australia cutting wood, searching for gold and eventually having a chicken farm. His wife - Dr Trinca's mother - was born in Australia of Italian parents. They had four children, including Dr Trinca's three sisters. All are graduates - he says they achieved degrees because of the value his parents put on education even though neither parent went beyond primary school. READ MORE: CANBERRANS HONOURED He ended up with a PhD in Australian history at the University of Sydney. He joined the National Museum as a senior curator in 2003, after working at the Western Australian Museum in Perth. From 2006, he was the Museum's assistant director, Collections, Content and Exhibitions and then became the director in 2014. But perhaps just as important as titles and qualifications, was the atmosphere of his childhood. He and his three sisters grew up in a boisterous, talkative family, melding an Italian background with Australian life on the outskirts of a city, not that far from the bush. His father would talk to friends over red wine and walnuts and the children would be engrossed. The language would switch from Italian to English and back. Conversation was important - and conversation means ideas and argument. It was a world of enthusiasm and good fortune forged from hard work. He thinks the institution he runs is about telling the different stories which weave together to make up Australian life, from the original Australians through to the British colonisers and then to the more recent immigrants from all over the world - like his own family. "The Museum is the place where the stories of Australians come alive, where the long human history of this continent intersects with the more recent creation of the modern Australian nation we know today," he has said. It's a long way from his childhood. "I came from a modest, ordinary family in Perth. When I was growing up I never thought that I would end up living in Canberra and being director of the National Museum of Australia," he said. Dr Trinca attributes his success to those around him, both in the museum and in his family. "I'm delighted to have the recognition for my work," he said. "But I am struck by how much personal success depends on the work of others. "I've worked with fantastic people. I take it as a real tribute to the National Museum and the other associations I've been involved with." He also thanks his "great family". "My wife and children have been very involved in this work. Without them, I wouldn't have been able to do anything that I have done," he said.

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/bc337d48-cac5-4971-8a00-0dbdae7a48d3.jpg/r2_0_728_410_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg

January 26 2020 - 12:30AM

Doctor Mathew Trinca AM - as he becomes in the Australia Day honours - committed a slight indiscretion when he heard of his award.

At the time, the 94-year-old mother of the director of the National Museum of Australia was on her death bed. Her son whispered that he was going to become a Member of the Order of Australia.

National Museum of Australia director, Dr Mathew Trinca. Picture: Jay Cronan

In technical terms, he shouldn't have told anyone. In human terms, who can blame him?

"I understood that she wouldn't be here when I got it," he said.

Mrs Trinca died on January 15 knowing that her son had been given one of greatest honours Australia confers.

When she was told, she simply said: "Well done, son."

Dr Trinca was brought up in humble circumstances in Western Australia. His father migrated from Italy as a stone-mason and then worked in Australia cutting wood, searching for gold and eventually having a chicken farm. His wife - Dr Trinca's mother - was born in Australia of Italian parents.

They had four children, including Dr Trinca's three sisters. All are graduates - he says they achieved degrees because of the value his parents put on education even though neither parent went beyond primary school.

READ MORE: CANBERRANS HONOURED

He ended up with a PhD in Australian history at the University of Sydney. He joined the National Museum as a senior curator in 2003, after working at the Western Australian Museum in Perth. From 2006, he was the Museum's assistant director, Collections, Content and Exhibitions and then became the director in 2014.

But perhaps just as important as titles and qualifications, was the atmosphere of his childhood. He and his three sisters grew up in a boisterous, talkative family, melding an Italian background with Australian life on the outskirts of a city, not that far from the bush.

His father would talk to friends over red wine and walnuts and the children would be engrossed. The language would switch from Italian to English and back. Conversation was important - and conversation means ideas and argument. It was a world of enthusiasm and good fortune forged from hard work.

He thinks the institution he runs is about telling the different stories which weave together to make up Australian life, from the original Australians through to the British colonisers and then to the more recent immigrants from all over the world - like his own family.

"The Museum is the place where the stories of Australians come alive, where the long human history of this continent intersects with the more recent creation of the modern Australian nation we know today," he has said.

It's a long way from his childhood. "I came from a modest, ordinary family in Perth. When I was growing up I never thought that I would end up living in Canberra and being director of the National Museum of Australia," he said.

I came from a modest, ordinary family in Perth. When I was growing up I never thought that I would end up living in Canberra and being director of the National Museum of Australia.

Dr Trinca attributes his success to those around him, both in the museum and in his family.

"I'm delighted to have the recognition for my work," he said.

"But I am struck by how much personal success depends on the work of others.

"I've worked with fantastic people. I take it as a real tribute to the National Museum and the other associations I've been involved with."

He also thanks his "great family".

"My wife and children have been very involved in this work. Without them, I wouldn't have been able to do anything that I have done," he said.

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A dying mother learns of her son's great honour - The Canberra Times

How fast will your equity investments grow in coming years?

That crucial question is at the heart of every retirement financial plan, especially in todays era of low rates that virtually guarantee that bonds will provide a dismal long-term return. Stocks will have to do the heavy lifting of funding your retirement, in other words. So if you assume too high a return for stocks, you will run out of money during your retirement; assume too low a return and you deny yourself the standard of living you have earned.

The occasion to revisit this crucial question is the release this past week of new research from the Pew Charitable Trusts on the rates of equity return that are assumed by state pension plans. That study shows that the median assumed return has dropped over the last decade from 8.0% to 7.4% in the latest survey.

Read: Retired and facing a stock market downturn? Heres what to do and not do

Pews researchers add that even this 7.4% return is probably too high, and I heartily agree. For this column I review the predictions implied by eight valuation indicators that have the best record forecasting the stock markets 10-year return. (For a fuller discussion of these indicators track records, consult a Wall Street Journal column I wrote a year and a half ago.)

Household equity allocation. Specifically, this indicator is the average portfolio allocation that U.S. households commit to stocks, as I discussed in greater length in a recent column;

The price/book ratio, the ratio of the S&P 500s SPX, +1.01% by per-share book value;

The price/sales ratio, the ratio of the S&P 500s by per-share sales. This indicator was the focus of a recent MarketWatch story;

The dividend yield, the percentage that S&P 500s dividends per share represent of the overall index;

The cyclically adjusted price/earnings ratio championed by Yale Universitys Robert Shiller;

The so-called q ratio that derives from research conducted by the late James Tobin, the 1981 Nobel laureate in economics. The ratio is calculated by dividing market value by the replacement cost of assets;

The traditional P/E ratio. I calculated this ratio by dividing the S&P 500 by its trailing years earnings per share;

The so-called Buffett Indicator, which is the ratio of the total value of equities in this country to gross domestic product. It is so named because Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A, +0.71% BRK.B, +0.71%, suggested in 2001 that is it probably the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment.

To calculate what each of these indicators is forecasting for the next decade, I constructed an econometric model that most closely fit the relationship between its historical readings and the S&P 500s subsequent 10-year return at each step along the way. I then fed into that model the indicators current reading. The forecasted 10-year nominal return that is implied by these eight indicators ranges from a high of 3.5% annualized (for the traditional P/E ratio) to a low of minus 5.4% (for the price-to-sales ratio).

Pretty depressing, isnt it? Even the most optimistic of these forecasts is barely a quarter of the 13.6% annualized total return the S&P 500 produced over the last decade.

What about low interest rates?

One rebuttal to these sobering projections is that the stock market deserves to appreciate at a faster rate when interest rates are as low as they are today. But the historical data do not support this rebuttal.

Consider what I found when I added the 10-year Treasury yield as an input to each of the econometric models I constructed for the above eight indicators. In no event did this addition increase the models forecasting power, at least at standard levels of statistical significance. In any case, furthermore, my PCs statistical package found that higher Treasury yields were associated with higher subsequent stock market returns, not lower.

This is just the opposite of what the bulls are assuming when arguing that low interest rates justify higher projected stock market returns, of course. And it is not particularly surprising, once you stop to think about it, since stubbornly low interest rates indicate that the markets expect future economic growth to be no better than anemic.

I discussed this at greater length in a Retirement Weekly column a month ago. As explained to me in an email from Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University and co-Director of the Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, interest rates are an excellent predictor of long-run growth potential, and their moribund level [today] reflects the markets expectation of sustained low future growth.

Reality check

As a further reality check on the low projected returns over the next decade, I next calculated the stock markets future return using a bottom-up, fundamental model based on projected sales growth, inflation, and dividend yield. When doing so, I come up with a projection of the markets nominal 10-year return of 4.5% annualized, and 2.6% after inflation.

My calculations were as follows:

Sales growth: 0.9% annualized after inflation. My rationale is this: If we assume that corporate profit margins stay at their current inflated level, which is a generous assumption since those margins are so much higher than their historical average, then the stock markets future growth will be a function of sales growth. And its hard to see how sales can grow faster than the economy as a whole, which the Congressional Budget Office will grow at a 1.8% annualized rate above inflation over the next decade. And from this rate we must subtract an estimate of GDP growth that does not come from publicly traded corporationssuch as entrepreneurial startups, private equity, venture capital, and so forth. Following research from Robert Arnott, founder and chairman of Research Affiliates, I subtract 0.9 of an annualized percentage point.

Dividend yield: 1.9% annualized

Inflation: 1.7% annualized (based on projections from the Cleveland Fed)

To be sure, mine is a simple model. I offer it here solely to show that the projections of the eight indicators with good long-term records arent that far out of line with a completely different approach to forecasting the market.

Its worth noting in this regard that Arnotts firm employs a far more sophisticated fundamental model than my simple one, and it is currently projecting an annualized 10-year return of just 2.4% nominal and 0.3% inflation-adjusted.

The bottom line?

There no doubt are other models out there that project more robust equity returns over the next decade. But it is very sobering indeed that 10 valuation approaches are each projecting very low returns between now and 2029.

You therefore might want to consider adjusting your retirement financial plan to include lower projected equity returns. If youre wrong, youll be pleasantly surprised, and thats a far better outcome than being too optimistic and discovering that you have run out of money.

Mark Hulbert is a regular contributor to MarketWatch. His Hulbert Ratings tracks investment newsletters that pay a flat fee to be audited. Hulbert can be reached at mark@hulbertratings.com.

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Will the stock market be able to support you in your retirement? - MarketWatch

Almost every employee has two goals in their career: make more money and earn enough to one day retire. It turns out, according to new research, that by making more money, youre also hurting your chances to afford a retirement that accounts for your newfound wealth.

As people earn raises during their career, their lifestyle expectations change. Its one reason why you dont live like you did when you were in your 20s. It turns out, though, that the percentage that one saves doesnt change, even as raises boost a salary.

On the surface that looks fine. After all, if youre making $80,000 and saving 10%, then get a raise to $100,000, well 10% of the new salary is more.

The math doesnt account for a persons growing lifestyle expectations, which becomes more expensive after the raise. Without increasing the percentage of retirement savings, the employee will now experience a shortfall come retirement, based on their adjusted living expectations, according to new research by the financial services firm Morningstar.

When you get a raise, any type of new income becomes normal, said Steve Wendel, head of behavioral finance at Morningstar and co-author of the raise research. People then spend that income, affording more expensive vacations or nicer cars, and that becomes your new standard. But in order to now afford that lifestyle in retirement, you must save more than your previous savings rate, added Wendel.

In the financial independence retire early (FIRE) movement, theres a strong concern for lifestyle creep. Its the psychological tendency to, as you make more to spend more. What studies have found, as you spend more, the materials you purchase become your status quo. You dont necessarily get enjoyment out of the extra spending, but it feels natural or almost like a baseline requirement to live your life.

What the Morningstar study highlights is just how much lifestyle creep can endanger your retirement.

How Much To Save From The Raise

Part of the reason the raise can hurt your ability to retire, if you dont prevent lifestyle creep, is that your retirement savings grow slower than the raise. If you keep a constant 11% savings rate, as your salary moves from $100,000 to $120,000 at age 47, then your standard of living rises while your income from Social Security benefits and past savings remains relatively static. As the chart shows, it leaves you, on an annualized basis, short of your new normal.

With a raise from $100,000 to $120,000, this person will discover a gap in expectations come ... [+] retirement.

The solution? Always save part of your raise, said Wendel.

The researchers tested three ways to save the raise. They evaluated the effectiveness of spending twice your age (meaning years) to retirement. This means if youre retiring in 10 years, you would spend 20% of the raise and save 80%. The second option was to save your age. If youre 40 years old, you would save 40% of the raise. And, finally, save 33% of the raise, no matter the age.

For the youngest earners, all three strategies worked fairly well, leaving someone able to afford a new lifestyle, even with the raise. At 35, the strategies begin to diverge, and the effectiveness of stashing 33% of the raise tactic falls off. It isnt until age 45 when the effectiveness of the Save Your Age strategy begins to wane.

The only strategy to work for all ages was the spend twice your age to retirement tactic.

It allows you to spend some now, but also boost your retirement income, added Wendel.

Avoiding Lifestyle Creep

What the savings strategy also prevents is too much lifestyle creep. If you save more, you cant spend it. By keeping your costs lower, you have less to make up for in retirement.

Youre locking in a standard of living from now until retirement instead of setting yourself up for a drop in retirement, said Wendel.

Those that pursue FIRE, saving 50% of their income or more in order to retire at an extremely young age, take painstaking efforts to prevent lifestyle creep. Therefore, as more money flows in, it isnt used to necessarily bolster their lifestyle. Instead, its used to strengthen their retirement accounts.

For most people, though, theres a psychological tendency to take a breath when receiving a raise, leading to more spending even in situations where theyre actively trying to fight lifestyle creep. Thats true for someone following FIRE strategies as well.

To counter this, Wendel suggests planning for the raise prior to actually getting it.

Its easier to invest the raise at the onset, than to do so when its in a checking account, he added.

Read the rest here:
Avoiding The Paycheck Creep. Heres Why Your Raise Threatens Your Retirement - Forbes

At what age do you hope to retire? If youre like the majority of workers, youre probably planning to stop punching the clock by the time you turn 65.

A survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) found that 54% of respondents said they expect to retire at age 65 or younger. However, a significant percentage of workers expect to keep clocking in until theyre much older. One-third of respondents said they dont expect to retire until theyre 70 or older. Some dont plan to retire at all.

Its one thing to have an idea of when you want to retire. Its another thing altogether to know whether youll actually be able to retire. Several factors can affect your retirement plans including whether youll have enough saved by your ideal retirement age to stop working. The EBRI survey found that less than half of workers 42% had tried to figure out how much they would need to have saved by the time they retired to live comfortably.

Using an online retirement calculator is a great way to get an estimate of how much you should save to retire by a certain age. To give you an idea, though, of when you might realistically be able to retire and how much in savings you would need depending on where you live, GOBankingRates crunched the numbers for you.

To determine the most realistic retirement age in every state, GOBankingRates first calculated the median income by age in every state using Census Bureau data to find out how much people could set aside in savings at various ages. Then GOBankingRates used findings from its January 2020 study on how much savings one needs across America to retire comfortably to pinpoint an ideal savings target amount for each state. To find out how long it would take workers in every state to save up to the states ideal savings target, GOBankingRates assumed the following:

Using the above assumptions, GOBankingRates found how much a worker in each state earning a median income could have saved at ages 24, 34, 44 and 58 to 77 years of age. Once the ideal savings target as identified by the earlier GOBankingRates study was met or exceeded, the following year was determined to be the ideal retirement age of each state.

You might be surprised to find that if you start saving 20% of your income starting at age 22, the realistic retirement age in your state might be sooner than you think. Or you might have to work longer than you expected.

Last updated: Jan. 23, 2020

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Methodology: To determine the most realistic retirement age in every state, GOBankingRates first found median income in each state, according to the 2018 current population survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. To calculate income by age bracket (15-24, 25-34, etc.), GOBankingRates first divided the median income of each state by the median income nationally to derive an income index that was use to factor out income by age for each state. Once the median income by age was calculated for each state, GOBankingRates found an ideal savings target for each state, sourced from a January 2020 GOBankingRates study (Heres Exactly How Much Savings You Need to Retire in Your State), which assumes one will draw 4% from their savings each year to pay for living expenses. Finally, GOBankingRates set three constants for the type of savings that would occur: (1) workers start working at age 22; (2) workers are following the 50/30/20 rule (allocating 50% of personal income to necessities, 30% to wants and 20% to savings); and (3) workers are saving 14% in a typical savings account, in addition to putting 6% into a 401(k) with a 50% employer match (up to 3%) and an average annual return of 5%. Using those constants, GOBankingRates found the savings total of each state at 24, 34, 44 and 58-77 years of age. Once the ideal savings goal was met or exceeded, the following year was determined to be the ideal retirement age of each state. All data was collected and is-up-to date as of Jan. 8, 2020.

Story continues

Heres Exactly How Much Savings You Need to Retire in Your State methodology: To find out exactly how much is needed to retire in each state, GOBankingRates found the annual cost of expenditures for a retired person in each state by multiplying expenditures for those over the age of 65 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2018 Consumer Expenditure Survey by the cost-of-living index for each state from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Centers third quarter 2019 cost of living series. To find how much money a retired person would need to save, GOBankingRates divided each states annual expenditures, minus the annual Social Security income as sourced from the Social Security Administrations monthly statistical snapshot, November 2019, by .04, assuming drawing down savings by 4% each year to pay for living expenses. All data was collected and is up-to-date as of Dec. 13, 2019.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: The Most Realistic Retirement Age in Every State

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The Most Realistic Retirement Age in Every State - Yahoo Finance

NICE, France (Reuters) - Most weekdays, 64-year-old Joelle Svetchine steps out of her French Riviera apartment, checks the sun is shining and the sea calm, and decides whether to go rowing.

It clears your head being out on the water, the pensioner told Reuters as she sculled across a bay near Nice under a blue sky. Im lucky to have free time and to be in good health, to have this freedom and no longer worry about work.

The former physiotherapist says she can lead an active life because she retired at the age of 61 and 1/2, benefiting from a pension system that allows many French workers to stop working years before their peers in other parts of Europe.

That system though is now under threat from a reform of the pension system being driven through by President Emmanuel Macron. His reform has provoked weeks of protests and strikes.

France has one of the earliest retirement ages among industrialized nations and its pensioners enjoy the third highest income level on a purchasing power basis of all European Union citizens, behind only those in Luxembourg and Austria.

Macron, a former investment banker, is pressing ahead with creating a universal pension system from a mishmash of schemes, each with their own benefits. He says it will be fairer. Trade unions say it will mean workers affected could have to work longer to get the same pension.

Macron has for now pulled back on another plank of his reform, raising the retirement age by two years to 64, but that could be a temporary retreat as the government says the system is underfunded.

Svetchine began working in the private sector before switching to public hospitals. She said she frequently saw workplace injuries the likes of which unions cite as justification for rail workers, dockers and others retiring up to a decade earlier than typical workers.

In all jobs, the body gets worn down. I know that in foreign countries, like Germany, people work longer. But in what state? Svetchine said.

Macron has said a single, points-based system which gives every worker the same rights for every euro contributed will be fairer, in particular for women.

That aspect of the reform, at least, resonates with Svetchine, who failed to reach her full pension by the legal retirement age after having taken two years maternity leave and later working part-time.

But she expressed support for the anti-reform strikes and protests.

Longer life expectancies meant that the early 50s was perhaps too early to retire nowadays, but a one-size-fits-all system that did not factor in a jobs physical and mental demands would be unjust, said Svetchine.

After all, to enjoy retirement, you need to be in good shape, she said.

Editing by Richard Lough and Alexandra Hudson

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A place in the sun: French defend right to retire early - Reuters

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Many Americans believe they will live longer than their parents.

For younger generations, that has led to a big concern: how they will provide financially for those extended years.

That's according to a new online poll from the Longevity Project and Morning Consult, which surveyed 2,200 U.S. adults in December.

Of the individuals polled, 63% said they expect their lives to be longer than their parents'. That rate was even higher for members of Gen Z, those ages 18 to 22, with 70% indicating they expect to live longer.

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Despite those hopes, many individuals are not saving more to prepare for those extended years, the poll found. In fact, many Americans believe they are saving less than previous generations.

In fact, 48% said they are not saving as much for for retirement as they should, and 50% feel unprepared in their ability to plan for their later years.

And many younger Americans feel less comfortable relying on one income source that has been a staple for generations Social Security.

While 83% of baby boomers expect to have some income from Social Security, that drops to 64% for Generation X. Meanwhile, just 42% of millennials and 38% of Gen Z plan to depend on those benefits.

On the other hand, across all generations, Social Security benefits are expected to be one of the biggest sources of income. That's alongside personal savings and investments and 401(k) and 403(b) retirement savings plans.

The results come as Social Security faces a looming funding shortfall. The Social Security Administration's latest estimate projects that the trust funds will be depleted in 2035. At that point, only 80% of promised benefits will be payable, according to the agency's calculations.

"There's probably more irrational worrying than there needs to be," said Sri Reddy, senior vice president of retirement and income solutions at Principal Financial Group.

That's because the system will continue to pay benefits, even if they are reduced, he said.

"It's not like Social Security is going away," he said.

Yet other recent research has shown that living on just Social Security alone in retirement is not enough.

While Social Security helps to shrink the wealth gap between high-wage earners and low-wage earners, many still face poverty in retirement, The New School Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis in New York recently found.

Separately, an analysis by the University of Massachusetts Boston found that there isn't one county in the U.S. where Social Security benefits equal the cost of living. That is, the cost of living is always higher.

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Here's where younger generations expect their retirement income to come from - CNBC