Workers face many concerns as they prepare for retirement, but one of the most pressing is regarding Social Security. Nearly three-quarters (71%) of workers say they're worried Social Security won't be available to them once it's time to retire, a recent survey from Wells Fargo discovered.

With no shortage of gloom-and-doom headlines promising the program's demise, it's understandable to worry about the future. Especially if you're going to be depending on your benefits to help make ends meet in retirement, you may be concerned that you won't be able to afford to retire if Social Security is no longer around.

However, although the Social Security program has its fair share of troubles, there's no need to worry about its future. Here's why.

Image source: Getty Images

You've likely heard that Social Security is bankrupt and that your future benefits are at risk. The good news, though, is that the program itself isn't going anywhere.

When you pay your Social Security taxes as an employee,that money isn't stored in an individual account just for you, which you can tap once you're ready to start claiming benefits. Rather, it's paid out to current retirees in the form of monthly benefit checks. Then once you're ready to retire, the checks you'll receive will be funded by younger workers' taxes.

That means that as long as workers continue paying their taxes, there will always be cash that can be paid out as benefits. In other words, the program is not on the verge of collapse, as many soon-to-be retirees are concerned about.

The not-so-good news, however, is that the program is facing a slight hiccup: There's currently not enough cash to go around. With baby boomers retiring en masse (to the tune of around 10,000 workers every day, according to Pew Research Center), a lot of money needs to be paid out as benefits. And with retirees living longer than ever, today's seniors are receiving more monthly checks than generations past.

As a result there's more money flowing out of the system than coming back in. To cover the shortage, the Social Security Administration has been dipping into its trust funds. However, those funds are expected to run dry by 2035, the most recent report from the Social Security Administration Board of Trustees revealed. Once those trust funds are depleted, the only money that will be available to pay out in benefits will be what comes in from taxes -- and it's currently estimated that future taxes will be enough to cover only around three-quarters of scheduled benefits.

There are a couple of potential solutions to the cash shortage plaguing the Social Security Administration. Congress could raise taxes, for instance, which would provide more money that can be paid out as benefits. Or the Social Security Administration could cut benefits because there's not enough money to go around.

Nobody knows exactly what will happen in the future, but if you're nearing retirement age, it's a good idea to be prepared for any possible scenario. If you're banking on being able to survive primarily on Social Security benefits and then realize your checks are going to be slashed by 25%, that could wreck your entire retirement plan.

One way to prepare for potential cuts is to bulk up your savings so you won't be forced to rely too heavily on Social Security. Your benefits are designed to replace only around 40% of your preretirement income anyway, so if you play it even more conservatively and assume they may make up only a small portion of your income once you retire, you won't be left in the lurch if your checks are reduced.

Another option is to take advantage of delayed retirement credits. If you claim benefits at your full retirement age (FRA), you'll receive the full benefit amount you're theoretically entitled to. But the Social Security Administration rewards those who delay claiming benefits until after their FRA, up until age 70. If you have a FRA of age 67 and you wait until age 70 to claim, for instance, you'll receive an additional 24% each month on top of your full amount. In the event that benefits are reduced, the boost you'd receive by waiting to claim can take the sting out of the cuts.

It can be frightening to think about the future of Social Security, but the positive news is that you'll still have some form of benefits to depend on once you retire. It may not be quite as much as you'd anticipated, but if you start adjusting your plan now to account for potential reductions, you can prepare yourself for any obstacles life throws your way.

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71% of Workers Are Worried About Social Security. Here's Why You Shouldn't Be - The Motley Fool

Having a sense of your retirement expenses is essential for crafting an accurate retirement plan, but it's not always easy to figure out. Who knows what kind of medical expenses you might incur or how much you'll spend on entertainment? You don't know how your lifestyle or interests might change between now and then.

There really is no way to solve that problem, but looking at averages can give you a jumping-off point for crafting your own retirement budget. A recent Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) study looked at how households with adults in three age ranges -- 50 to 64, 65 to 74, and 75 and older -- spent their money over one year. Here's what it found.

Image source: Getty Images.

Housing costs tend to decrease over time. Individuals in the 50 to 64 range, many of whom are likely still working, spent $25,000 on average on housing in 2017, while those 65 to 74, many of whom have likely retired, spent just $21,000. Adults 75 and older spent the least on housing, at just $18,000. This could reflect an increasing number of adults paying off their mortgages over time or possibly downsizing to a more affordable living situation in retirement. The EBRI study found that while only 40% of 2016 homeowners aged 50 to 64 did not have a mortgage, that number rises to 60% for adults aged 65 to 74 and 79% for adults 75 and older.

Interestingly, housing costs still made up about 45% of household expenditures for all age ranges. This makes sense when you consider that total household expenditures tend to drop as people age, so while individuals are spending less on housing, it still takes up a similar proportion of their smaller overall budgets.

You would think that food spending would remain roughly the same for every group because regardless of your age, you still need to eat. But the EBRI survey found that food expenditures decrease as people age. Households with adults 50 to 64 spent an average of $5,100 on food in 2017, while those with adults 75 and older spent just $3,800. Those 65 to 74 fell in the middle at $4,400.

Healthcare is the one cost that people expect to rise in retirement, but interestingly, the EBRI survey found that average healthcare expenditures remained pretty constant for each age group -- around $4,000 in 2017. But median household healthcare expenditures do rise over time, as does the percentage of average annual spending on healthcare.

When you consider that the average household size decreases as people age yet healthcare spending remains constant, this fits in with our thinking that healthcare costs rise as we age. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services found that adults 65 and older spent nearly three times as much as working-age adults on healthcare in 2014, and while medical inflation hurts everyone, it hits those who require the most medical care the hardest.

Some older adults might also spend more on healthcare than their working-age counterparts because Medicare doesn't cover some of the services their workplace health insurance plan provided. Things like prescription drugs, hearing aids, and dental and vision coverage aren't included in Original Medicare, so seniors must either pay for these costs out of pocket or purchase supplemental coverage, which means another monthly healthcare payment.

Making efforts to remain healthy while you're young can help keep your healthcare costs lower, but you never know when an unexpected injury might sideline you, so it's best to plan for increased healthcare spending in retirement, even if you believe you're a healthy person.

Transportation expenses also decline as people age. Adults 50 to 64 spent the most at $7,600 on average, which makes sense when you consider that those who are still working have to travel back and forth to their office every day. Adults 65 to 74 spent just $5,300 on transportation, and adults 75 and older spent a mere $3,600, on average.

Clothing expenditures decrease slightly by age but remain fairly level when you consider that household size also tends to decrease with age. Adults 50 to 64 spent about $1,400, on average, on clothing while adults 75 or older spent just $1,100. Those in the middle spent $1,300. This makes sense because clothing is a necessity, regardless of your age.

Entertainment spending remained relatively constant for adults in the 50 to 64 and 65 to 74 age groups, with both spending about $5,400 on entertainment. If we assume that household size declines over this period, that indicates slightly increased spending on entertainment for 65- to 74-year-olds. This makes sense because new retirees have more time to devote to hobbies.

Entertainment costs declined among adults 75 and older. The EBRI survey found they spent just $3,600 on entertainment, on average. But the percentage of household expenditures on entertainment remained pretty close to the other age groups, dipping down to just 8.3% from 10.5% for 65- to 74-year-olds and 10.2% for the 50- to 64-year-olds.

The money people spend on gifts and charitable contributions actually increases as they age. The difference is slight. Adults 50 to 64 spent just $2,900 on this while adults 65 to 74 spent $3,000, and adults 75 and older spent $3,100. But when you consider that overall expenses tend to decline with age, the proportion of income spent on giving rises significantly.

The above figures can give you a baseline to gauge your basic expenses in retirement -- but remember, these are just averages. If you live in an expensive city, you might have to figure in more for housing. If you plan to enjoy a quiet retirement at home, you might not need to spend as much on entertainment. Use the above figures as a starting point, but adjust them up or down based on how you envision your senior years.

Once you have your estimates, you have to consider inflation, which will drive up the cost of all living expenses over time. The inflation rate varies from year to year, but 3% per year is a safe estimate. The above figures are all in 2017 dollars, and inflation in 2018 and 2019 to date has driven up costs by approximately 4.2%, so if you're using the above estimates, add 4.2% to get your estimated costs in 2019 dollars. Then add 3% for each year between now and your retirement to estimate how much your living expenses might cost you by the time you're ready to leave the workforce.

Keep in mind that your annual expenditures will probably decrease over the course of your retirement. You might use the above figures for the 65 to 74 age group to estimate costs in the early years of your retirement and the 75 and older estimates to plan for costs later on in your retirement. Then, add the two together to figure out your total retirement expenses.

You won't need to save all this money on your own because Social Security will cover some of it and your employer may offer a pension or a 401(k) match. If you're saving for retirement, your investments are also likely to grow between now and then, which will relieve some of the savings burden on you.

So don't panic if your total retirement expenses seem like more money than you can save on your own. Just focus on getting the most accurate estimate you can first and then go from there.

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How Will My Expenses Change Between Now and Retirement? - The Motley Fool

Do Texas legislators read what they vote for? Do they do their homework?

The passage of House Bill 2820 gives us reason to doubt.

Written by Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, and sponsored by Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, the bill repealed the requirement for financial product sellers to register with the Teachers Retirement System. It also eliminated the already catastrophic 2.75% annual expense ceiling on products sold to teachers in their 403(b) accounts.

Basically, the new law declared open season in Texas. It put a target on the backs of 635,000 public school teachers and employees. It made Texas safe for investment predators. The likely result will be poorer retirements for teachers and a multitude of lawsuits that may eventually cost Texas taxpayers hundreds of millions.

Isnt this odd?

Nope. Its business as usual.

This isnt the first time Texas has refused to regulate financial products offered to Texas teachers. Seventeen years ago, another bill attempted to rein in the high expenses for teacher 403(b) products. An early version of that bill put limits on expenses and charges.

The limits never made it to the final bill. At the last minute, the Texas State Teachers Association objected to the changes. Hard to believe, but the organization did.

So vendors had to register, but expense charges werent reduced. Front- and back-end commissions werent eliminated. Surrender charges werent eliminated on most options. The only limit was a sky-high annual expense of 2.75%.

Now the requirement to register products has been removed. Even the very rich limitation of 2.75% in annual charges has been removed. The only good news is that teachers arent required to save through a 403(b) plan. They can invest elsewhere with better results.

Has something happened to make offering punitively high-cost retirement products in 403(b) plans (or anywhere) a good idea?

No. If anything, tolerance for consumer abuse has been disappearing everywhere but Texas. Beyond that, workers with 401(k) plans have enjoyed major improvement in plan menus and a long trend to lower expenses. We might ask, for instance, how Exxon Mobils 17,000 employees enjoy a 401(k) plan with expenses of 0.01% to 0.04%, while 635,000 Texas teachers and school employees must choose between thousands of options, many priced over 2% a year?

Beyond the 403(b) plans of Texas, the entire securities industry competes to lower costs. And I mean really lower them. It is now possible for consumers to buy exchange-traded index funds commission-free on platforms like Vanguard, Schwab and Fidelity. So while savers are in a new age of no-commissions and 0.05 percent annual cost IRAs, Texas teachers are corralled in 403(b) plans dominated by high-cost choices.

Some readers may be skeptical of reduced tolerance for consumer abuse. So consider this: Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission began an investigation into the sales practices for 403(b) plans in school districts. AFTER a recent SEC meeting, Dan Otter, the founder of 403bwise.org, told me: The SEC is really on this issue.

More recently, the New York State Department of Financial Services announced that it, too, is going to investigate sales of annuities to 403(b) accounts.

In fact, two research studies demonstrate that Texas legislation favoring unregulated vendors is exactly what should not be done. Both studies are public information. They are readily available as quick downloads, even to Texas legislators.

In 2010, the TIAA-CREF Institute published a paper comparing what it called open-access states (like Texas) to controlled-access states. In controlled-access states, providers must bid for access. The researchers found that expenses in the controlled-access states were half as high as in open-access states. They also said that long-term outcomes for teachers were likely to be massively better.

While open-access Texas had 54 providers, 172 products and 3,367 investment options in 2009, controlled-access Arizona had one provider, three products and 22 investment options. Iowa, another controlled-access state, had five providers, 10 products and 135 investment options.

Texas had an average expense of 1.75% a year. Thats double the 0.88% average expense in Arizona and the 0.85% average expense in Iowa.

The TIAA-CREF researchers calculated that the difference would materially improve the retirement income for teachers in lower-expense states.

Aon Hewitt, an investment-consulting firm, came to similar conclusions in a 2016 study, How 403(b) Plans are Wasting Nearly $10 Billion Annually, and What Can Be Done to Fix It. Its study suggested using controlled access and avoiding choice overload by having a limited menu of options in the plan. It also suggested an emphasis on target date and low-cost core index funds.

Texas is a poster child for choice overload, confusion and deceptive sales practices. The TIAA-CREF Institute found 3,367 investment options in 2010. Today the number of options is three times larger at 10,112.

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Bill declares open season on Texas teachers' retirement funds - The Dallas Morning News

Though retirement is an exciting milestone, it can be a major source of uncertainty. Living on a fixed income can introduce financial challenges, while declining health can cause not just money-related upheaval, but logistical trials as well.

It's not surprising, then, that 50% of older Americans worry about becoming a burden to their families as they age, according to a recently published Nationwide survey. If you share similar concerns, here are a few critical steps to take.

You need a plan for how you'll receive care should you require it to function as you get older. To this end, it helps to have honest conversations with loved ones in advance. Even if you have family members who live close by, you can't assume that they'll be willing to step up and offer the type of in-home support you might eventually need. Setting proper expectations can help you and your loved ones handle that transition once it comes to be.

IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

If you don't have family members who are able or willing to become caregivers for you when you're older, then you'll need to outsource that task. Unfortunately, the costs involved could prove astronomical.

Here's what annual long-term care costs look like today, according to Genworth's 2019 Cost of Care Survey:

It's for this reason that long-term care insurance can serve as a lifeline when you're older. But if you wait too long to apply, you'll risk getting stuck with prohibitively expensive premiums, or getting denied altogether.

The best time to apply for a long-term care policy is during your early to-mid-50s. If you're relatively healthy at that point, you'll likely manage to not only get approved, but also snag a reasonable rate on your premiums.

Even with long-term care insurance, it pays to have extra money on hand to cover some of the expenses that aging might bring about. It's a good idea to boost your retirement savings as much as possible, and you can do so by taking advantage of catch-up contributions in your IRA or 401(k). Currently, workers 50 and older can set aside up to $7,000 a year in the former, and $25,000 a year in the latter. These limits are $1,000 and $6,000 higher, respectively, than the limits assigned to workers under the age of 50.

Here's how maxing out a retirement plan later in life might help you: If you're 60 years old with the intent of retiring at 67, maxing out an IRA for seven years will give you an additional $53,600 to work with in retirement, assuming your investments generate a conservative average annual 3% return during that time. Do the same for a 401(k), and you'll be sitting on an additional $191,600, assuming that same investment window and return.

If you're worried about burdening loved ones as you age, you're in good company. But if you make an effort to secure long-term care insurance and pad your savings, you'll be less reliant on family to take on the demands of caregiving.

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50% of Older Americans Share This Retirement Fear - The Motley Fool

If you've stashed most of your nest egg in your 401(k), the last thing you want is for taxes to blow up in your face when the time comes to start taking withdrawals.

Remember when you first started earning a decent salary, and it seemed as if everybody your parents, your boss, the nice lady in HR and, of course, your tax preparer all told you to put as much money as you could into your employers 401(k) plan?

Grab the employer match, they said. Get the growth that the market has to offer. And take advantage of the tax break, for crying out loud. Why not avoid paying taxes on that money now, while youre in a higher tax bracket, and worry about it later, when youre in retirement?

But what they didnt tell you then (because they probably didnt know) is that as you kept stuffing money into that tax-deferred account, you were chaining yourself to a ticking tax time bomb.

Because theres a good chance your tax rate wont be lower when you retire. And if you dont do something to help defuse the situation before you start withdrawing money from that 401(k) (or SEP IRA or 403(b)) for retirement income, you could be sending a sizable chunk of your nest egg to the IRS every year.

Dont think so? Here are just a few points to consider:

So, you basically have two choices. You can ignore the data, the trends and the experts, and see what happens. Or you can incorporate some tax strategies into your retirement plan now, bring some balance to your portfolio and maybe even get yourself to a tax rate of 0% with these steps:

As with most investment decisions, the right strategy for you will be based on your personal situation.

One option is to do a Roth IRA conversion moving money from a traditional IRA or 401(k), paying taxes on it at todays rates, then letting the funds grow inside the Roth knowing the principal and earnings will never be taxed again. You can do this all at once or, to keep the tax bite lower as you go, convert the funds over a period of years.

Another option is to take the money out of your tax-deferred account and put it into a cash value life insurance policy from which you can take policy loans tax-free. (This is a more complex strategy, however, with some risks, so its best done with the help of an experienced financial professional.)

No matter which strategy you choose, if youre concerned about the money thats piling up in your tax-deferred accounts, dont delay. Help defuse the ticking tax bomb before it can blow up your retirement plan.

Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Insurance and annuity product guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Policy loans and withdrawals will reduce available cash values and death benefits and may cause the policy to lapse or affect guarantees against lapse. In the event of a lapse, outstanding policy loans in excess of unrecovered cost basis will be subject to ordinary income tax. Tax laws are subject to change and you should consult a tax professional. All withdrawals from qualified accounts are subject to ordinary income tax and, if taken prior to age 59, may be subject to a 10% federal additional tax.

Kim Franke-Folstad contributed to this article.

John Creekmur is the senior wealth adviser and co-founder of Creekmur Wealth Advisors (www.creekmurwealth.com). He is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professional (CFP).

Comments are suppressed in compliance with industry guidelines. Click here to learn more and read more articles from the author.

This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

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Are Your Taxes Set to Explode in Retirement? (Strategies to Help Defuse the Problem) - Kiplinger's Personal Finance

When Jimmy Burrow decided to retire after three decades coaching football, he figured it would be worth it to watch his youngest son play football for LSU in person.

Like LSU itself, Jimmy Burrow got more than he could have ever imagined.

Joe Burrow is the nations No. 1 Heisman Trophy candidate on the nations No. 1-ranked college football team. And Jimmy Burrow, who grew up in neighboring Mississippi, is having no retirement remorse.

Obviously the only reason I retired was to be able to go watch Joe play and be with my wife, Robin, because she goes to every game, Jimmy Burrow said Thursday. I would have been happy and content to do that.

But there is so much more to this whole thing due to Joe and LSUs success that has all added to the fun for us.

Some of the media spotlight glaring on Joe has splintered off to his parents. Jimmy Burrow, who spent the past 14 seasons as defensive coordinator at Ohio University, is a weekly regular on the morning drive Off the Bench sports talk show on WNXX-FM 104.5 in Baton Rouge. Robin Burrow, an elementary school principal, was interviewed this week by Sports Illustrated.

We appreciate all the interest and support Joe is getting, Jimmy Burrow said.

The support extends to the small town of The Plains, Ohio, where the Burrows live. Right outside of Athens, where the Ohio University campus is, The Plains is about the same distance from Ohio States campus in Columbus as Tiger Stadium is from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Though its Ohio U. and Ohio State country, Jimmy Burrow said LSU yard flags have sprouted up in their town like autumn mushrooms. A local restaurant is giving discounts to customers wearing purple.

That makes us feel good, Jimmy said. People come up to us at games in Baton Rouge and say theyre from such and such in Ohio, but they just wanted to see him play.

If Joe and the Tigers keep playing like this, they will wind up in the College Football Playoff. And there is an excellent chance they could play Ohio State, Joes former team ranked No. 3 behind LSU and Alabama in The Associated Press poll.

Such a matchup might put the LSU yard signs in Ohio to the test.

Joe would probably never admit it, but thats probably his dream matchup, Jimmy Burrow said. And mine. And the entire state of Ohio. Were hoping that can happen.

Meanwhile, this concurrent Heisman Trophy thread is running through the season. LSU has three national championships in the modern or wire service era 1958, 2003 and 2007 but only one Heisman winner: Billy Cannon in 1959.

Right now, Joe Burrow is better than even money to join Cannon in that super-exclusive LSU club. For someone who has spent his entire life in football Jimmy Burrow was a defensive back at Nebraska when Johnny Rodgers won the Heisman in 1972 and a coach there when Eric Crouch won in 2001 what is it like for your youngest child to be this close to college footballs most prestigious prize?

Its a little overwhelming to turn on the TV and see theyre talking about it nonstop on the sports channels, Jimmy Burrow said. Its a little scary, too.

Jimmy Burrows son is the Heisman favorite because his team is winning and hes completing passes at a record clip. Joe Burrow is connecting on 78.8 percent of his passes 80 percent against AP Top 25 opponents. Hes on a pace to break the FBS record of 76.7 percent set in 2008 by Texas Colt McCoy.

Jimmy Burrow isnt about to divulge what he would do as a defensive coach to try to slow Joe down. But he does know what has made his son so effective.

There are a lot of different options with the development of their wide receivers, Burrow said. Actually, he has four or more good choices with their top three wide receivers and (tight end) Thad Moss turning into a very dependable receiver. And Clyde (Edwards-Helaire) has developed as a runner and pass catcher.

Then add the improvement of the offensive line. Those guys have played great. Add to that a new scheme and a quarterback who has done it his whole life, and its kind of a perfect storm for a quick turnaround.

Of course, none of this was so a year and a half ago when Joe decided to transfer to LSU from Ohio State, choosing the Tigers over in-state Cincinnati.

Jimmy Burrow said his son relished the bigger challenge.

(Cincinnati) was probably the natural choice, Jimmy Burrow said. That was probably the easiest. But Joe ended up choosing LSU because he wanted to play at the highest level. He always wanted a chance to play for a national championship. Ultimately, thats why he chose LSU.

I wondered how Jimmy thought Joe was dealing with all the adulation and praise. He said his son self-insulates himself from that.

He doesnt read the clippings, Jimmy said. He doesnt look at the internet to read about himself. A few times I sent him things about him on the internet but he said, Dad, I dont want to read that. It makes me feel good hes focusing on whats at hand.

Whats at hand next is LSUs Nov. 9 showdown with No. 2 Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Jimmy and Robin Burrow will be there, cheering on their youngest boy.

At some point, Jimmy will probably think about a coverage or a blitz or a short-yardage package he would call. But then hell think how much he has enjoyed the journey of this season, and what may still be to come.

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Rabalais: Joe Burrow's dad Jimmy is loving retirement ... it isn't hard to figure out why - The Advocate

Simon Sinek. TED

Sinek goes on to share the story about how he and Grant were slated to introduce each other at an event.

"I went first. I looked at Adam, looked at the audience, and said, 'You make me unbelievably insecure because all of your strengths are all my weaknesses. You can do so well the things that I really struggle to do.'The audience laughed,"he recalls. "Adam looked at me and responded, 'The insecurity is mutual.'"

It was a funny (and ballsy) introduction, but Sinek's self-revelatory joke ended up being more than a clever applause line. By facing his insecurity head on, Sinek realized why Grant bothered him so much: His fellow author was great at things Sinek struggled with.

That's a common dynamic, according to experts. We're often most irked bypeople who highlight our own weaknesses. If you hate arrogant people, it's often because you have unresolved issues about self-confidence. If bragging sets you off, chances are excellent you struggle with tooting your own horn.

By recognizing what it was about his own weaknesses that was triggering his envy of Grant, Sinek was able to focus his energy not on fruitless competition but instead on self-improvement. And that eventually drove him to even greater success.

That's often what a great work rival paired with a littleself-awarenesscan do for you.

"A Worthy Rival can push us in a way that few others can not even our coaches, mentors, or advisors," he contends. "Traditional competition forces us to take on an attitude of winning; a Worthy Rival inspires us to take on an attitude of improvement. The former focuses our attention on the outcome; the latter focuses our attention on process."

"It is the focus on process and constant improvement that reveals new skills and boosts resilience. An excessive focus on beating our competition not only gets exhausting over time, it can actually stifle innovation,"Sinek insists.

So forget about winning the competition and vanquishing your work nemesis once and for all.The comparison game is a never-ending soul suck.If you really want to be successful, you don't want your biggest competition to go away. You always want to have a worthy rival. As Grant did for Sinek, the person who makes you sick with envy at first can end up being one of your biggest sources of self-improvement.

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Simon Sinek says having a 'worthy rival' at work can make you better at your job and even he has one - Business Insider UK

November 17

After two seasons of Claire Foy playing Queen Elizabeth II in the period drama The Crown, Olivia Colman takes over for season three, which will follow the queens reign from the late 60s to the late 70s. Tobias Menzies will be playing her husband Prince Philip, while Helena Bonham Carter will take on the role of her sister Princess Margaret. This was an eventful decade for the monarch, as England went through dramatic cultural changes and labor strife, at the same time that the young Prince Charles began preparing under intense public scrutiny for the job of one day replacing his mother.

November 22

The country music singer-songwriter Dolly Parton has already seen some of her more story-driven songs turned into successful TV movies. Now shes serving as executive producer on the anthology series Heartstrings, featuring a variety of approaches to converting her music into television. In the first season, Parton hits like Jolene, Two Doors Down and Cracker Jack will be brought to life with the help of guest stars like Julianne Hough, Ginnifer Goodwin, Delta Burke and Melissa Leo.

November 27

The Irishman stars Robert De Niro as a contract killer looking back on his life and reconsidering his associations with a notorious mobster (played by Joe Pesci) and with the labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Directed by Martin Scorsese (from a Steven Zaillian screenplay, adapting the Charles Brandt novel I Heard You Paint Houses), this movie is a decades-spanning reflection on American crime, with cutting-edge digital de-aging technology used to make the characters look era-appropriate. The film is also an elegiac genre piece, made by the modern masters of the gangster picture, and is Netflixs most high-profile attempt yet to compete with the traditional Hollywood studios.

November 29

Based on a novel by Guillaume Laurant (best-known for co-writing the movie Amlie), the animated feature I Lost My Body is imaginatively fantastical and poignant, telling the story of a North African immigrant looking for love and personal purpose in Paris. The story is told mostly in flashback, narrated by the heros severed hand, as it crawls across the city, looking for its original owner. Part action-adventure and part low-key character sketch, this is a cartoon like no other.

Also arriving: Ash vs. Evil Dead Season 1 (Nov. 1), Atypical Season 3 (Nov. 1), Holiday in the Wild (Nov. 1), The Man without Gravity (Nov. 1), Matilda (Nov. 1), Tucker: The Man and His Dream (Nov. 1), The End of the F***ing World Season 2 (Nov. 5), Outlander Season 4 (Nov. 5), Seth Meyers: Lobby Baby (Nov. 5), She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Season 4 (Nov. 5), Scams (Nov. 6), Busted! Season 2 (Nov. 8), Im with the Band: Nasty Cherry (Nov. 8), Let It Snow (Nov. 8), Phantom Thread (Nov. 9), Blockers (Nov. 11), Jeff Garlin: Our Man in Chicago (Nov. 12), Maradona in Mexico (Nov. 13), Joe Versus the Volcano (Nov. 15), Seven (Nov. 15), The Toys That Made Us Season 3 (Nov. 15), Iliza: Unveiled (Nov. 19), Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator (Nov. 20), Z Nation: Season 5 (Nov. 20), The Dragon Prince Season 3 (Nov. 22), The Knight Before Christmas (Nov. 22), Nailed It! Holiday! Season 2 (Nov. 22), Narcoworld: Dope Stories (Nov. 22), Final Space Season 2 (Nov. 24), Mike Birbiglia: The New One (Nov. 26), Holiday Rush (Nov. 28), Merry Happy Whatever (Nov. 28), Atlantics (Nov. 29), Sugar Rush Christmas (Nov. 29), The Movies That Made Us (Nov. 29).

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The Best Movies and TV Shows New to Netflix, Amazon and Stan in Australia in November - The New York Times

Life naturally has its ups and downs, and we tend to produce many of them simply by making right or wrong decisions at any given time. With such oscillations, its often difficult to notice patterns that force us to abandon certain healthy habits or to form unhealthy ones in their stead. Too often, we float through life without giving too much consideration to those common issues, let alone to finding ways to give our choices a structure.

That is perhaps why so many of your New Years resolutions never come to life, or so many of your dreams get replaced by other, subpar solutions. To achieve some of those major milestones in your life means not only to embrace the fact that your entire lifes journey is made up of self-improvement, but to also find systematic ways to take meaningful action. Here are a few starting points to consider that will add purpose and structure to your life and imbue it with meaning and wellbeing.

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Some people enjoy sci-fi novels, others like the classics such as Hemingways stories, while there are those who love poetry. Maybe you have long abandoned your love for storytelling because digital domination has taken over most of your time, so you enjoy social media or you prefer blogs. However, reading, especially fiction, has a profound effect on your mind, both on a physical and a spiritual level.

In addition to boosting brain connectivity and various brain functions, devoting some time to reading fiction allows you to develop your imagination, explore alternative ways of self-expression, evolve your language, and boost your communication skills. Even a chapter a day is more than enough to tickle your reading muscles, so give your mind the boost it needs by picking up a book on a regular basis.

Forming healthy habits takes time, but when you start with a single healthy habit, you have a better chance of developing others, supporting ones down the line and much sooner than you think. In the todays era of greater fitness awareness, its relatively easy to find an activity that will suit your personality and that will help you grow stronger, more agile, and retain healthy muscle and bone mass as you age, all of which is essential for a long, healthy life.

If youre a dancer at heart, find high-quality womens dancewear that you can use as inspiration to hit the dance floor on a regular basis and that will provide you the support you need to dance safely for hours on end. Obtaining the right gear is half the battle, its also a source of motivation that will help you get out of the chair more often, so as to stick to your exercise regime.

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Although dancing and other physical activities give you ample stimulation and allow you to learn something new as often as you please, learning should become a mindset that helps you improve over time in other areas as well. For example, you can try your hand at chess, take up cooking classes, or take math lessons.

Expanding your knowledge gives your mind a way to stay nimble, and youll be humbled by how much you dont know, thus be more curious and eager to learn as you go through life. These new insights will also give you a way to connect to new people, expanding your social circle and giving you a better understanding of the world around you.

Life is so much more than a routine, but in order to lead a functional, fruitful existence, you need to develop habits and rituals that enforce positive behavior, self-love, self-care, and that allow you to accomplish anything you desire without exposing yourself to excessive stress. For example, instead of working haphazardly during the day, you can assign various time-slots to each task you should complete.

If you need to reply to emails every day, take a designated hour to do so. If you need to do some creative work, make sure that you devote time to such tasks when you know youre most likely to focus, imagine, and create, be it in the morning, afternoon, or evening. That will let you add your exercise schedule into the mix and establish a stable structure in your life that ensures ample time for all activities that help you grow and lead a fulfilling life.

Systematization may not seem like the most romantic or spiritual way to approach self-development, but its by far the most promising one to give you the flexibility and the structure you need to evolve in life. These are just some examples of healthful activities that will empower you to find other, complementary ways to grow and keep learning as your life unravels.

Read more:
4 Ways to Improve Yourself Systematically - Thrive Global

Inevitably, most teams get to the stage where they need to adopt a more Agile delivery process. This is not just a sign of maturity. Its a sign that the software they are developing is being used, is deemed useful, and is receiving feedback and change requests so that it continues to improve.

My team is in a unique position. We are striving to improve delivery as we develop a tool that strives to help teams do the same. In other words, we use our own tool to improve the delivery of it!

In my experience, the journey to becoming more Agile can be tricky. Each team has its own goals and ideas about how to get there. All teams, however, need to be able to reflect on their progress, measure how effective their current strategy is, and gain more visibility of the wider landscape. Of course, this is easier said than done.

The topic of which metrics Agile teams can trust to reliably help them measure progress or whether to use them at all is both fascinating and contentious. Many people associate metrics with a top-down management style, which is the opposite of the decentralised, empowered and self-determining team philosophy that Agile promotes.

During a one-to-one meeting with my team lead, I asked him which metrics he felt I should focus on. He explained that the only ones worth looking at were those that the whole team agreed would help improve delivery. When it came to my own self-improvement goals, he said I should select metrics myself.

SEE ALSO:Infrastructure as Code Lessons learned from Dev to Ops

As a rule, whenever metrics are applied from the top down, the less effective they are. (This is not to say, however, that there arent valuable metrics that can indicate progress at a higher level.)

Self-improvement is a key Agile principle. On the face of it, its a pretty simple process. First, you identify what you want to improve. Next, establish ways to measure the attributes that contribute to improvement. Then measure and reflect. Therefore you will always need a reliable way to track progress.

My team chose Agile metrics that focus on various attributes of delivery, quality and value. For example, we measure Lead Time from the time the ticket is created in Jira to its production deployment and number of escaped bugs. Weve created a dashboard in our own software around these attributes so we can measure, integrate and affect them daily, or as part of a retrospective. Our dashboards help guide us and qualify decisions we make around team, process, and delivery improvement to ensure we continually head in the right direction. We can also opt to see individual contributions to these metrics. For instance, I have chosen to create a view of metrics that only I can see, so I can measure my own personal output.

As part of our cycle rituals, our team is responsible for making sure our scope is realistic. To support this, we use Agile metrics to ensure that the sum complexity, time and effort of our tasks match the overall time available and the teams abilities. We measure the scope using story points. We also built and now use a Sprint Report facility. This allows us to see a breakdown of the sprints overall completion, including the target completion and work added to the sprint after it started. It also includes Sprint-specific dashboards that use metrics like Completed Tickets to calculate the amount of work developers can reliably complete during a sprint (aka their velocity).

As I said before, Agile metrics for team improvement can be contentious. They open up a lot of heated discussions and to varying degrees benefit from a wider understanding of context and narrative. So we discuss them and apply the following tenets to help find common ground:

Complicated metrics run counter to the Agile spirit. We like to define our journey as specifically as we can, answering simple questions with easy to understand metrics which support them like:

The metrics need to be selected by the development team and serve a common aim shared by project members from the Scrum Master to the technology leader.

You shouldnt measure anything unrelated to your journeys destination. Each project follows a different set of milestones so may need different metrics. However, as there is only one final destination, some carefully-selected metrics should be applicable across all teams. Less can be more, so when we build out a dashboard together in our team meetings, we try to concentrate on only a handful of metrics at a time.

Software delivery metrics are often outcome-based. Although legitimate, theres a risk of tracking only symptoms and not root causes. The Cycle Times metric, for example, shows how long work is taking rather than why. Descriptive metrics like these should also include details of the variables that impact the outcomes. For example, alongside Cycle Time you could show an analysis of the bottlenecks. To improve we want to uncover root causes and identify behaviour gains we can make together we need to tell a full story.

Right sources we need to analyse data from those sources that our developers genuinely engage within their everyday work. These include workflow management software like Jira; code repositories like GitHub and Bitbucket, TFS or Gitlab; code quality tools like Sonarqube; time tracking systems like Harvest or Tempo; and continuous delivery tools like Jenkins and GoCD.

If analysing metrics takes significant cognitive effort or time to collate, we tend to lose patience and abandon the effort. The metrics need to complement processes, not slow them down.

Agile metrics delivered in near real-time fundamentally drive improvement as they can be discussed in daily stand-ups and sprint retrospectives.

Software development is a process (almost) completely driven by people. This means it should be possible to source information and get to the root-cause of issues very fast. Typically feedback is collected in person, in stand-ups and retros. In theory this should work well, but it can also hide issues that participants dont want to openly communicate. This is especially true in changing, distributed teams with a mix of full-time employees and contractors. To address this and provide us with context and narrative around our metrics, we incorporate feedback into our tool. For example, when tickets get closed we get the chance to provide feedback on how the ticket went and its requirements via Slack. These prompts also give us a feel for how a ticket has performed post dev as it continues (hopefully!) past QA.

Metrics only make sense if teams can act upon and improve them. Without constant support, many teams will not have the time or inclination to drive their own self-improvement as they strive to meet their short-term delivery objectives. Active stewardship by the technology leadership team can make a huge difference.

Since for many developers (Agile && metrics) dont seem to get along, its no surprise that few analytics tools are available to measure Agile delivery effectiveness. However, now that Agile is mainstream, there is urgency to measure. Since few analytics tools were available, many teams started to build their own. This worked well on a small-scale but hit the wall when projects and teams grew.

There are several other problems with home-grown tools. Most notably, they allow teams to tweak calculations and tell an overly flattering story. Also, the time it takes to build your own tool can be a big distraction from planned work. Fortunately, new solutions are now emerging that work in line with the principles listed above.

If you are still not convinced about using Agile metrics for teams, I recommend testing them on yourself. Most find that when they do this, the metrics become a reassurance or even a confidence boost. For example, a younger colleague of mine was struggling with his programming confidence. He found metrics to be very helpful because they showed him objective proof of improvement.

SEE ALSO:Seven Security Sins: The 7 biggest security problems of agile projects

For my part, one way I often use Agile metrics is to provide insights during a retrospective. To measure how Im improving over time, I track metrics for the tickets Ive completed, the amount of story points completed, and the amount of returns Ive had from QA. Crucially, this also helps me remember the tickets Ive worked on and how they went. Like most developers, I tend to switch focus once a ticket passes and can find it hard to retain the details when its time to review a cycle or perform a project post mortem.

You will of course come up with your own, but I have found these example questions (and related Agile metrics) can help self-improvement:

Whether you decide to use them yourself or for your team, (Agile && metrics) return true. In my experience, people want similar things and work well together in helping deliver on the key Agile principle of self-improvement. Try it out!

Read the rest here:
(Agile && metrics) ? Can agile metrics help developers and teams improve? - JAXenter