Remember all those scandalous things, the big scoops, and the incredulous stories we heard or read about the pop icon? The music legend retells all those (and then some) with a lot of wit, humour and self-awareness.

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The book is replete with anecdotes not just about Elton but also people from his social circle. The name- dropping is not ostentatious, it is organic to incidents and accidents in his life. Like once, when he was often under the influence of dangerous amounts of an addictive stimulant drug, he threw a party. And he recalls, I was flying... When a scruffy-looking guy I didnt recognize wandered into the party. I loudly demanded to know what the gardener was doing helping himself to a drink. There was a moments shocked silence, broken by the sound of Bob Halleys voice: Elton, thats not the f*&@ing gardener. Its Bob Dylan.

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He even gave the iconic Andy Warhol the snub. Elton was hanging out with John Lennon doing drugs, when Warhold knocked at their hotel suite. They decided against opening the door as they didnt want to be clicked. So Warhol kept knocking and finally left.

Elton recalls, after he debuted with his new hairdo at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, a writer noted, that I looked like I had a dead squirrel on my head. He was mean, but I was forced to concede, he also had a point.

The honesty, through which he looks at himself makes it different from the regular celebrity memoirs. Its a firecracker of a gift this Diwali. He owns it.

At Hindustan Times, we help you stay up-to-date with latest trends and products. Hindustan Times has affiliate partnership, so we may get a part of the revenue when you make a purchase.

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First Published:Oct 21, 2019 16:50 IST

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Sir Elton Johns autobiography is warm, moving and a hit - Hindustan Times

Cher transplanted Las Vegas glitz to the O2MARILYN KINGWILL

The first thing that struck you about Chers O2 extravaganza: wow, her voice sounds great. Who cares if it wasnt always coming out of her mouth. This is Cher World, where nature is your enemy and nothing is fake if you paid good money for it. And second, how exactly did she manage to transplant the multicoloured glitz of Las Vegas to the granite grey industrial zone of North Greenwich? It is one thing to do a costume change per song, but to do an entire set change per song? Thats impressive.

Just in case anyone wasnt sure who Chers core audience is, oiled-up gladiators enacted a pneumatic dance routine before the worlds least subtle 73-year-old descended on to the stage, wearing a massive blue

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Cher review camp is too austere a word to cover it - The Times

The France-based, Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping, who was known for weaving Chinese and Western historical canons together to create provocative results, died suddenly on Saturday. The pioneering member of the Chinese avant-garde was 65 years old.

Born in 1954 in Xiamen, China, Huang was a founding member of the Xiamen Dada group. The collective first came to attention when in 1986 they torched a number of the paintings they had recently shown at the Xiamen Peoples Art Museum. The radical act was prompted by their dissatisfaction with the circumstances around the show. The collectives motto was Zen is Dada, Dada is Zen, and Huangs hero was Marcel Duchamp.

Over the following decades, Huang continued to fuse elements of Zen Buddhism, Dadaism, and a Duchampian sense of irony to create large-scale surrealistic installations and sculptures, some of which fell foul of political censorship in China, while one notorious work upset animal rights activists in North America.

Huang Yong Ping was a giant of the avant-garde, a father figure for generations of artists and thinkers, the Paris-based art dealer Kamel Mennour told artnet News. He opened up the delicate path of the dialogue between worlds with intact engagement and philosophical view on the worlds turbulences, Mennour said, adding, He was an immense artist. He was my friend. The dealer began formally representing the artist a decade ago by which time Huang was already settled in Paris.

The self-taught artist, who numbered Joseph Beuys, John Cage, as well as Duchamp as inspirations, maintained a critical position and cast a skeptical eye on a rapidly globalizing world, which his career personified.

In 1987, he made what would become an iconic work, The History of Chinese Painting and the History of Modern Western Art Washed in the Washing Machine for Two Minutes, by destroying art history books by Wang Bomin andHerbert Read in the laundry. The artist placed the resulting pulp atop of piece of broken glass on a Chinese teabox.

In 1989, Huangtraveled toParisto take part in the groundbreaking Centre Pompidou exhibition Magiciens de la Terre. He stayed in France, which he went on to represent at theVenice Biennale in 1999. For his prestigious Monumenta commission in 2016, he filled the Grand Palais in Paris with a giant, serpentine sculpture and shipping containers to createEmpires.

Huangs controversialBat Project 2was censored at the inauguralGuangzhou Triennial in 2002. His installation featured a model of the cockpit of an American EP-3 spy plane,and referenced a fatal collision between a US and a Chinese plane in Chinese airspace. In Huangs sculpture, the US plane included taxidermy bats hanging from its blasted-out windows. The animals signified the gap in understanding between the West, where bats are often feared, and China, where they symbolize happiness.

It would not be the last time his work, which often featured animals, was pulled from a major exhibition. In 2018, HuangsTheater of the Worldwas heavily modified by the Guggenheim Museum after vehement protests from animal rights activists. A petition to take down the title work and two other pieces from the group showArt and China After 1989 garnered half a million signatories within days.

In Huangs work, caged snakes and lizards were meant to devour insects, and probably each other, during the show. The Guggenheim showed the artists sculptural cage without the animals.

In an interview with artnet Newss editor-in-chief, Andrew Goldstein, Guggenheim director Richard Armstrong described Huang as an artist asking tough questions, and that is brutal. New Yorks Gladstone Gallery, which also represents the artist, put up a show of Huangs work following the museums decision.

Huang maintained that he was against provocation for its own sake, asking: How can an artwork be created just to be censored? HisTheatre of the Worldwas shown as the artist intended at the Guggenheim Bilbao but only as an empty cage at SFMOMA.

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He Was an Immense Artist: The Chinese Artist Huang Yong Ping, Who Fused the Spirit of Duchamp with Zen Buddhism, Has Died - artnet News

Its the start of the workweek. Another ordinary workweek. This likely includes the same old routine, a mix of getting ready, wrangling a kid or two, getting stuck in traffic, getting stuck in meetings, responding to never-ending email, running errands, making dinner, doing bedtime. And doing it all over again.

In short, theres a lot of rushing from one place to the next, from one task to another. And it all feels all-too familiar.

Its natural to get bored with the seemingly mundane. Its natural to dismiss your days as dull and uninteresting. Similar days will blend into each other, and before you know it, the week is up.

But it doesnthaveto be this way.

When Shonda Moraliss son was 4 years old, he asked her how babies in the womb received nourishment. After Moralis did her best to give an age-appropriate answer, her son shared his summary: So let me get this straight. You ate food, it went into yourbelly, then intomybelly button through your extension cord?

Moralis replied, Extension cord. Exactly, and there has been an invisible extension cord connecting our hearts ever since.

Moralis, MSW, LCSW, a psychotherapist and coach, shares this sweet story in her new book Breathe, Empower, Achieve: 5-Minute Mindfulness for Women Who Do It All.In it, she encourages readers to reconnect to our childhood sense of awe, curiosity, and wonder. Which is similar, she writes, to the idea of beginners mind from Zen Buddhism.

Moralis suggests exploring this idea by picking one activity, either at work or at home. She writes, Imagine that you have never encountered this situation before. What do you notice? What is most prevalent? How does this impact or shift the moment for you?

We can apply beginners mind to all kinds of activities, according to Moralisfrom driving to emailing to (even) being at a meeting.

When we bring beginners mind to everyday mundane or rote tasks, we are not only granted a fresh perspective; we will consequently reach our goals with less resistance or frustration.

When you apply beginners mind to an email, you can marvel at the technology, at your ability to connect with someone whos three thousand miles away or in another country. When you apply beginners mind to your morning, you can marvel at the sunrise and at your childs surprising questions. You can marvel at the convenience of your toaster oven, the delicious flavor of your fresh bagel, and the aroma of your hot coffeeeven as youre running out the door (and running back in, because lets be honest, you probably forgot something).

Our mindset determines our mood and our behavior. When we open our eyes (and tune into our other senses), when we take less for granted, we enjoy brighter, happier, less stressful days. We also feel alive. Energized. Invigorated. Empowered. Maybe were even kinder and more patient.

Moralis includes a beautiful quote from Maya Angelou, which we can regularly remind ourselves of (and maybe even recite every morning): This is a wonderful day. Ive never seen this one before.

And, of course, you havent.

Photo byAleksandr LedogorovonUnsplash.

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When You're Bored with the Day to Day - PsychCentral.com

Huang Yong Ping.

BRUNO BEBERT/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Huang Yong Ping, the Chinese artist whose propensity for provocation allowed him to address taboo subjects in China and beyond with audacity and wit, has died at 65. His death on Saturday was confirmed by Gladstone Gallery, which represented him in New York and Brussels. A representative for the gallery did not immediately state a cause of death.

In his sly installations and sculptural work, Huang often melded techniques derived from the history of Chinese art and international avant-garde movements alike. His ability to deftly combine seemingly opposed methods of art-making made him one of the foremost artists in an emergent group of Chinese artists during the late 1980s.

Like his colleagues, Huang chafed at the boundaries surrounding what could be presented as artwork, in the process addressing eroding traditional mores and the Westernization of the country he called home. Among his most famous works is The History of Chinese Painting and the History of Modern Western Art Washed in the Washing Machine for Two Minutes (1987), for which he put copies of Wang Bomins History of Chinese Painting and Herbert Reads A Concise History of Modern Painting (the first book about modern art history translated into Chinese) into a would-be laundry cycle. Huang then placed the pulped remains of the water-pummeled tomes atop a piece of glass, put it on a teabox, and exhibited it as an artwork.

Huang Yong Ping, The History of Chinese Painting and A Concise History of Modern Painting Washed in a Washing Machine for Two Minutes, 1987 (reconstructed 1993).

WALKER ART CENTER

What could have been a wry, ironic gesture became, in Huangs hands, an iconic statement about globalism and the merging of thought processes. It alluded to the anarchistic quality of Dadaist artworks, which proposed that reason was meaningless in modern society and placed an emphasis on concepts over aesthetics, and it also showed how Western values were colliding with non-Western onesin this case, with Chan Buddhist philosophy, which holds that everyday objects are not freighted with symbolism.

In an interview with Post, a website affiliated with the Museum of Modern Art, Huang once said, I applied Chan Buddhism because I believed that the juxtaposition of Chan Buddhism and Dadaism would create new meanings, especially since I placed an Eastern element with a Western onea term from intellectual history with one from art history. According to Huang, both Dada and Chan Buddhist philosophy have in common an interest in empty signifiers.

The washed-out history work would become a preview of some of the provocations Huang would stage throughout his career. In later pieces, he made use of live animals and politically weighty objects, incurring the wrath of officials and activists alike. But Huang often said that he did not make art with the hope of getting into trouble. First of all, I do not predetermine the works audience, he told Ocula in 2018. How can an artwork be created just to be censored? I am also against the idea of provocation for its own sake.

Huang was speaking on the occasion of one of the greatest controversies of his careerthe exhibition of a piece to involve live insects, snakes, and lizards. That work, Theater of the World (1993), was included last year in a Guggenheim Museum Chinese art survey in New York that took its name from the Huang piece, and it was one of several works on view that involved animals. (The others were by Xu Bing and the duo Sun Yuan and Peng Yu.) In the Huang work, the animals were to prey on one another in a see-through case shaped like a tortoise shell.

Huang Yong Ping, Theater of the World, 1993, wood and metal structure with warming lamps, electric cable, insects (spiders, scorpions, crickets, cockroaches, black beetles, stick insects, centipedes), lizards, toads, and snakes.

HUANG YONG PING/GUGGENHEIM ABU DHABI

After an outcry from animal-rights activists and a Change.org petition that was signed by thousands, the Guggenheim altered the work, presenting just its shellwithout the animals. It was not the first time Theater of the World had drawn ire, but it was the most high-profile instance of controversy surrounding the work. Huang, who was traveling on an Air France plane when his piece was altered, responded by writing an essay on an air sickness bag that was then exhibited at the Guggenheim.

[T]his work has repeatedly encountered premature death without ever having a chance to live, Huang wrote, adding, An empty cage is not, by itself, reality. Reality is chaos inside calmness, violence under peace, and vice versa.

The use of animals in the work was of a piece with Huangs larger interest in comparing humans to beings lower on the food chain, and his point was partly to create a microcosm that paralleled the state of modern affairs. For the installation Arche 2009, shown in 2009 at the cole Nationale Suprieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Huang created a 50-foot-long paper boat filled with taxidermy animals that alluded to the story of Noahs Ark. What may have at first glance seemed cute revealed itself instead as something darkeras some of the the animals Huang included were disfigured or partly burned (an allusion to a fire at Deyrolle, a Paris shop that had been a destination for natural-history objects).

As Huangs installations grew in size, further controversy followed. His series Bat Project involved the exhibition of Lockheed airplane fuselages that bear an almost exact likeness to an American spy craft that hit a Chinese fighter jet. (The spy plane was called a bat, but the animal is also a symbol of good fortune in China, lending the title of the series a layer of irony typical of Huang.) One work from the series was to go on view in an exhibition in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, much to the dismay of officials from China, France (which was co-sponsoring the show), and the United States. With the aim of patching over damaged diplomatic relations, the work was yanked before it even went on view.

Huang Yong Pings Monumenta commission at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2016.

JEREMY LEMPIN/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

I still dont know whether it was the Chinese or the French who put pressure on the organizers to suppress it, Huang told the New Statesman America in 2008. The U.S. embassy sent people to take pictures of it, and asked the Chinese government to do an investigation. This was later retracted.

That the work became ensnared in a global power play may have been Huangs very intention. Huang was one of the most incisive artists dealing with the complex systems of power that guide international relations todaysomething he often observed from afar while working in Europe.

In 1989, at the age of 35, Huang went to Parisand he would remain there for the rest of his career. His reasons for doing so were related to the state of China at the time: students were revolting against an oppressive regime, and it was potentially dangerous to be making art there. Huang was in Paris to show his work at the the Centre Pompidous famed 1989 exhibition Magiciens de la Terre, which is regarded as one of the first major globalist art exhibitions in the West (it has also been controversial for the way it tokenized certain cultures). France went on to become an important home for Huanghe represented the country at the 1999 Venice Biennale, and in 2016 he was commissioned for the Grand Palaiss Monumenta exhibition, one of the largest and most esteemed art projects in Paris.

While working in Paris, Huang continued to deal head-on with politics in China in ways that were nuanced and rigorous. Bank of Sand, Sand of Bank (2000), a sculpture originally shown at the Shanghai Biennale, is a 20-ton replica of the Pudong Development Bank. Many Western critics pointed out that the structure will eventually fall apart, possibly referring to the instability of institutions during the age of globalism. But Huang had in mind something different: a statement about the legacy of colonialism in China. Colonialism is closely linked to capitalism and the market, and banks are the fulcrums around which the market moves as the lever for Chinas rapid development, he said in the Ocula interview. The 2000 Shanghai Biennale presentation was an allegory of that.

Huang Yong Ping, Bank of Sand, Sand of Bank, 2000, installation view at Gladstone Gallery, New York, 2018.

DAVID REGEN/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND GLADSTONE GALLERY

The spiky, unforgiving quality of Huangs work differentiated the artist from a number of his colleagues whose work has been more readily embraced by the market. During the 2000s, as prices for work by Chinese artists such as Yue Minjun began rising, Huang often spoke of how disinterested he was in the international market. According to a W magazine profile from 2009, Huang made Franois Pinault, one of the top collectors in France, wait years before allowing him to a buy a work on view at Pinaults Punta della Dogana museum in Venice, and the artist turned down an offer to show at Pace Gallerys then-newly opened Beijing space, citing a loyalty to Gladstone Gallery.

Huang doesnt give a damn, Kamel Mennour, Huangs Paris dealer, said in that profile. Sometimes Ill point out important clients to him, but it makes no difference. He never goes to openings or parties, never reads magazines. He wears the same pants and shoes every day. Hes just obsessively focused on his work.

Huang Yong Ping was born in 1954 in Xiamen, China. While studying at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, he developed an interest in three areas that would inform the bulk of his workthe philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Zen Buddhism, and the art of Marcel Duchamp. He began by making paintings of industrial workers using spray painta boundary-pushing medium at the timethat would hint at the political leanings of his later work.

After graduating from art school, Huang returned to Xiamen, where he began working as a middle-school art teacher. Though Huang never saw the exhibition, a show of Robert Rauschenberg at the National Art Museum in Beijing radicalized many of his colleagues. Rauschenbergs fusions of art and lifethe equalization of a mattress and a canvas, for exampleoffered new ways forward for Chinese artists, and Huang took up the artists mandate starting in the mid-1980s.

Huang Yong Ping, Colosseum, 2007.

DAVID REGEN/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND GLADSTONE GALLERY, NEW YORK AND BRUSSELS

Working with his artist colleagues in the city, Huang formed a group called Xiamen Dada that staged prankish happenings. Until art is destroyed, life is never peaceful, Huang wrote in Statement on Burning, an essay that accompanied a piece in which he set fire to his paintings in front of the Cultural Palace of Xiamen. Another event held in this spirit involved Huang and his colleagues proposing an exhibition to the Fujian Art Museum, mounting it, and then, hours into its run, replacing all the works on view with found objects culled from the area surrounding the institution. (The show lasted about two hours before officials at the institution realized what the artists were up to and shuttered it.)

Huang was deeply invested in rethinking how galleries and museums ought to function. In doing so, he laid waste to longstanding notions that the art world, both in China and far beyond it, should be separate from the rest of the world, and that Western artists worked in a zone that somehow existed outside the political demands of people around the globe.

One of Huangs best and most forceful pieces is Towing Away the National Art Gallery (1988), a photo-collage in which the artist proposed a method for removing the facade of a Beijing art museum using hemp ropes. It was never realized, but the point, Huang believed, was to have merely thought of ways of overthrowing the art system. The museum is still there, unchanged, and I have never wanted to step inside it in 30 years, he told Ocula. Regarding rebellion or resistance, maybe these could be better understood in terms of Chinese phrenology: some people are born with a reverse bonea sign of rebellion or resistance.

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Huang Yong Ping, Provocateur Artist Who Pushed Chinese Art in New Directions, Has Died at 65 - - ARTnews

You're finally there: retirement. You worked hard to gain your freedom and youre enjoying it. Life is good. But you gradually notice a nagging feeling that something is missing. Then it dawns on you. You miss work.

You're not alone. A study published by Cambridge University Press revealed that about 25% of retirees return to the workforce, with half of them doing so within five years. And according to The RAND Corporation, more than half of workers 50 or older reported they would come out of retirement for a good opportunity. What's drawing people back isnt necessarily money, but non-financial rewards. Theres a gravitational pull toward meaningful work thats strong in the second half of life.

Work offers important benefits beyond pay, such as purpose, meaning and identity. Theyre easily taken for granted. Strip them away and theyre sorely missed. Once that happens, you may feel attracted to the work environment again. However, you dont want to return to a job that overwhelms your time.

How To 'Unretire' With Balance

It's surprisingly easy to decide to unretire. However, the transition takes careful planning. Work is constantly changing, and during retirement, you have likely changed as well. Your priorities are different. So, here are four steps to ensure your unretirement protects your balance:

1. Be clear about why you're going back.

Amy is an attorney who retired at 62. Retirement left her recharged but bored and antsy. After a year, she missed the impact of her pro-bono work. Amy realized she didnt really need retirement -- what she needed was a sabbatical. She decided to go back, not to the prestigious law firm in the city but to a local nonprofit organization with a mission she deeply cares about. It allows her to do good while preserving some of the flexibility she loved in retirement. Fewer hours and more impact.

Once you hop back on the merry-go-round of work, things will start spinning faster and faster. Before you return, clarify the real reasons you've decided to jump back into the game. Keep your "why"front-and-center.

2. Design your ideal workweek 2.0.

Forget your old work life, and visualize what a great week will look like now. How much time will you invest in work? Set your boundaries. While you cant control all variables, having a clear picture of what you're shooting for provides helpful guideposts.

3. Lock down the habits that keep you at your best.

What activities did you enjoy most in retirement? Unretiring doesnt mean you have to let go of all of them. What adjustments can you make to keep them in your life? List the non-negotiables and the modifications you need to make. Draft a weekly schedule, and prioritize your commitments to self-care.

One of my coaching clients, Sean, 63, returned after three years in retirement to become a consultant at a startup. He was intrigued about joining a company disrupting the industry he spent his career in. He was drawn to mentoring the younger team he would be working with. He negotiated a four-day workweek, but it meant a return to commuting.

Sean did not want to give up the workout routine he had built. By getting an agreement to start his workday later than he used to, he was able to preserve the workouts hed come to love. Then, he discovered how to optimize the commute better than he did before retiring. Instead of cranking through emails, he realized what he needed now was downtime. Hes using the time to think, not do. As he told me, he had to accept that he was no longer a superhero and that recharging was more important to him at this stage in life.

4. Seek advice.

Develop a succinct learning agenda on what you need to know in your return. Identify who in your network can help and who you can go to in your workplace. Look for opportunities for mutual mentoring. You may need help from others, but your knowledge can be very helpful to them. For example, the savviest technology person can be a great resource, but he or she could also benefit from your experience.

Going back to work is often unchartered territory, especially for those whose careers are less likely to be interrupted for childrearing. Many women, for instance, have experience returning to work after a career break. Seek out people who have navigated that transition and ask for their advice. While your circumstances may be different, you'll learn valuable tips you can use.

Retiring from retirement is a big decision. Advance planning can help you build work-life balance and create the best of both worlds in your second act.

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How To Retire From Retirement And Keep Your Balance - Forbes

Katie Brockman, The Motley Fool Published 7:00 a.m. ET Oct. 21, 2019

Buzz60s TC Newman has tips and tricks for saving money - just in time for the holidays! Buzz60

When you're trying to balance multiple financial responsibilities at the same time, saving for retirement may seem like a lesser priority than your other tasks. In fact, 42% of workers say they don't want to think about retirement planning until they get closer to retirement age, a survey from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies found.

Although retirement planning is not the most exciting topic to think about, you should be thinking about it long before you actually leave your job. If you put off saving or don't know whether you're on track, by the time you realize you're behind, it might be too late to do anything about it.

However, if you want to ensure you're as prepared as possible for retirement, there's one simple thing you can do every year: Give your savings a checkup.

6 in 10 Americans are behind on retirement savings: Here's how to catch up

If you're saving anything at all for retirement, it's easy to feel like you're on the right track simply because you're doing something. But if you're blindly throwing money in your 401(k) or IRA without knowing whether that's going to be enough to retire comfortably, you may be putting your financial future in jeopardy.

Saving for the future isn't a set-it-and-forget-it situation. To make sure you're doing enough to prepare, you'll need to check in on your savings at least once a year, then make any necessary adjustments to ensure you'll reach your goal by retirement age.

What exactly does a yearly checkup look like, though? To start, double-check that your retirement goal hasn't changed. Even if you've already calculated the amount you should have saved by the time you retire, that number isn't set in stone. Your annual living expenses could increase, meaning you'll need to save more for retirement to keep up your current lifestyle. Or you might decide you're going to move to a more expensive city once you retire, which can completely change how much you'll be spending each year in retirement.

Run your numbers through a retirement calculator to get an estimate of how much you should be saving, as well as what you'll have to save each month to reach that goal. If your overall retirement goal has changed, you might find you need to be saving more or less each month. It's better to find that out early while you still have time to adjust your plan rather than wait until you reach retirement age and realize you don't have enough saved to live comfortably.

A new apple is debuting at grocery stores: It's expected to be a game changer

Say you're performing your yearly checkup and realize you'll need to start saving more than you can afford if you want to reach your goal. It may be tempting to give up, thinking that there's nothing you can do now to catch up. But it's still important to save what you can, even if it's not much.

The hard truth is that depending on just how far behind you are, it might not be possible to save as much as you need. If you're in your 50s with nothing saved, for example, you likely won't be able to save $1 million in the next 10 or 15 years. However, that doesn't mean you can't save anything, and having even a little saved for retirement is far better than nothing.

If you're behind on your savings, you'll need to set a new, more realistic retirement goal. Think about your future expenses in retirement and consider whether there are ways to reduce them. If you'd planned on taking several expensive vacations, for instance, consider nixing those and finding more affordable ways to entertain yourself in retirement. Or if you're currently living in an expensive city, it might be worthwhile to think about moving to dramatically lower your everyday living expenses. Of course, you can't predict all your future costs, especially when retirement is still decades away. But by planning on living a more frugal lifestyle, you can get by on less during your golden years.

Next, see if there are ways you can start saving more now. If you don't already, begin tracking your spending to determine if there are areas of your budget where you can cut back. Even if you feel like you don't have a penny to spare for retirement, you might be surprised by how much room you have in your budget if you look for it. Saving even a few dollars per week in each spending category can potentially amount to hundreds of dollars per month, so it may not be as painful as it sounds to cut costs.

Finally, make sure you're investing your money wisely. When you don't have much extra cash to put toward retirement, every dollar counts. If you're throwing your money in a savings account earning 1% annual interest, your savings won't go nearly as far as if you're investing it in a 401(k) or IRA earning a, say, 8% annual rate of return.

Managing your money can be tough, but it's even more challenging when you don't know whether you're on the right track to reach your goals. To ensure your financial situation is as healthy as possible, make sure you're regularly giving yourself a checkup. It can only help you save more for retirement, but it can also give you peace of mind that your finances are in order and that you're doing everything possible to be successful.

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Doing this simple thing once a year can help you save more for retirement - USA TODAY

The latest research paints a grim picture of what retirement could look like for millennials and we should all be concerned. In the developed world, no country has a higher concentration of millennials than the United States. They represent Americas future, but many have gotten off to a worse start than previous generations.

Millennials earn less annually on average ($40,500) than similarly aged individuals just a decade ago ($43,300). They have less wealth than previous generations at the same age and more debt than young workers owed 30 years ago.

The Urban Institutes Retirement Security in 2050 report takes a close look at how todays retirees compare to projections about millennials when they begin to hit retirement age 30 years from now. It is anticipated that millennials will have higher average annual lifetime earnings ($50,000 versus $37,000 for those who have already reached retirement). Retirement incomes are also projected to rise from an average of $60,000 a year now to $73,000 for millennials.

But while these forecasts may be cause for optimism, the fate of some millennials probably wont be as rosy. Current retirees face an already-alarming 24% poverty rate. As bad as it is today, that number is projected to rise to 30% for Generation X and millennial retirees, according to the Urban Institute. Those without college educations and with lower lifetime earnings will be the ones who find their outcomes much less secure.

Millennial workers tend to have high levels of education, typically associated with better savings rates and longer careers, due to less-physically demanding jobs. Working more years also postpones retirement dates and allows a longer time horizon for savings accumulation.

Yet many millennials dont have a great comfort level with financial matters. More than half of women in the millennial generation say they feel overwhelmed by their financial situations, with 29% of men agreeing with that sentiment, according to research by the Society of Actuaries.

Read: Why is it still so hard for women to save for retirement?

Millennials also face many obstacles. The Brookings Institution explores the negative impact for many of this generation who started their careers during the Great Recession (from which GDP growth has still not recovered) and increasingly work in contingent jobs made popular by the gig economy, which often offer fewer benefits, including no way to save for retirement. Many also took out substantial student loans to pay for higher education. A typical graduate with $30,000 in school debt stands to risk having $325,000 less in savings when it is time to retire.

Millennials are increasingly choosing to delay major life milestones like Homeownership, marriage, and having children. Although they will work longer, they will also live to be older than their parents and grandparents meaning their retirement savings will have to last longer.

Minorities face significant additional disadvantages when it comes to preparing for retirement. Only just over one-third of blacks and Hispanics have retirement accounts, compared with nearly two-thirds of white Americans, according to the Brookings Institution. Even when they have access to employer-sponsored retirement plans, less than half of Hispanics are expected to participate, as compared with two-thirds of blacks and three-quarters of whites.

Not only are Hispanics less likely to have retirement accounts, but they are also projected to work fewer years than whites, leaving less time to accumulate savings. Estimates suggest 82% of whites will work for more than 30 years, compared with 58% of Hispanics.

Although nonwhite families have seen some progress, experiencing larger income and wealth gains than their counterparts, they still have less income and wealth. More concerning is that whites are still projected to be more likely to experience upward income mobility than other ethnic groups.

According to the National Institute on Retirement Security, only 55% of millennials are eligible to participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, compared with 77% of Gen X and 80% of baby boomers. For those who do have access to retirement savings plans, they will largely depend on defined-contribution plans that mean they will have to make their own decisions about saving and investing for the future.

This lack of access to simple retirement planning options helps explain why 66% of millennials have nothing saved for their so-called golden years. While many large employers already make defined-contribution plans available to their employees, too many small businesses do not.

State and local governments have begun to come up with their own innovative solutions to make saving easier. To date, 11 cities and states have created new retirement savings programs featuring ideas like auto-enrollment individual retirement accounts (IRAs), multiple employer plans (MEPs) and marketplaces.

The private sector has stepped up to the plate by creating simpler, lower-cost retirement savings options that reach more workers. They have also begun to leverage technology to make the process of planning and saving more convenient for millennials who have become accustomed to such solutions to everyday challenges. The financial industry is also increasing available lifetime income solutions to help make sure that the retirement nest egg lasts for the rest of the retirees life.

Increased access to savings plans is essential, especially for gig economy workers and minorities who are far less likely to be able to use an employer-sponsored retirement program.

Fortunately, millennials still have the advantage of time to get themselves on track for a secure retirement and avoid retiring poorer than their parents. The key is to get started now. Every $1,000 that a worker sets aside at age 35 becomes $3,240 by retirement. Waiting five years and putting that same money into savings at age 40 reduces the return to just $2,670 by the time retirement comes around.

There will be plenty of opportunities to adjust a plan, but theres no way to turn back the clock and start saving in the past. When it comes to retirement savings, there are no do-overs.

Original post:
Are millennials destined to live longer and retire poorer than their parents? - MarketWatch

A study found millennials are dipping into their retirement savings to either buy their first home or to pay down personal debt.

When he achieved financial independence at the age of 30 in 2015, Grant Sabatier knew his story was extreme.

The now-34-year-old had saved more than $1 million in just five years - after starting with a balance of $2.26 in his bank account.

Im an outlier, Sabatier told FOX Business. I am the exception to the rule.

Sabatier is a follower of the F.I.R.E. Movement -- which stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. However, he still works and makes money by writing financial advice for his blog, Millennial Money and through speaking engagements and sales of his book, Financial Freedom.

I think the traditional concept [of retirement] is really outdated and I think within the next 10 years we wont even talk about it the same way that we talk about it now, Sabatier said. All it means for me is, once I became financially independent at 30, I started paring off all those things in my life that I didnt enjoy doing and started focusing my life around the things that I really wanted to do.

I still work really hard, [but] its mission-driven work as opposed to making money work, he added.

Grant Sabatier (pictured) saved more than $1 million in just five years and became financially independent. (Cory Vanderploeg;Courtesy of Grant Sabatier)

Most importantly, Sabatier gets to do the things that make his life richer -- but not in the financial sense.

Ultimately, money only matters if it helps you live a life you love, Sabatier said. Are you designing your life in a way that your work and your money is supporting that? And are you enjoying your life? Thats the most important thing. Its not about the million dollars, or when can you traditionally retire.

After saving for five years, Sabatier started a personal finance blog called Millennial Money and wrote a book called Financial Freedom. (Houston Bass; Courtesy of Grant Sabatier)

However, this mindset around money wasnt how Sabatier viewed financial independence when he got started in 2010.

That year, he had moved back in with his parents after hed been fired from his job. He said he was really ashamedbecause his parents had invested so much in him and he felt like he had let them -- and himself -- down.

So he decided to set the extremely arbitrary goal of saving $1 million as quickly as he could, which he realized about two and a half years in, would be about enough to live on for the rest of his life.

Even though he still technically works, Sabatier said that for him, "retirement" just meant that he stopped doing the things he didn't enjoy. "I think this idea of work, the idea of retirement, all these things are so fluid now," he told FOX Business (Courtesy of Grant Sabatier)

At that point, he decided he wanted to save the $1 million within five years -- but that turned into the only thing he did for the next two and a half years.

I just stopped doing everything, he said. All I was doing was making money and saving money I was just singularly focused on that goal.

Even though Sabatier still makes money through his blog, his book and speaking engagements, he told FOX Business that he donates or invests most of it to other people and projects in order to "keep my taxable income as low as possible," he said. (Courtesy of Grant Sabatier)

However, that came at its own cost. During those few years, he said he almost broke up with his girlfriend, who is now his wife, he didnt take good care of his health - gaining50 pounds -and he lost several friendships along the way, too.

Even though he was excited about hitting his goal, he admitted he had made a lot more sacrifices than in hindsight I probably would have made. However, the experiencewas a "net positive" overall because now he can do whatever he wants.

"But certainly I should have just chilled out a bit," he said.

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I realized somewhat later on that it wasnt about the million dollars or about becoming financially independent. What I was really seeking was just more peace in my life and more space and time and the ability to take a deep breath, Sabatier explained. I also didnt realize that so much of that freedom that I was craving, I already had access to so much earlier on.

Most of the things that make me happiest in life are pretty inexpensive or even free, he added. And so, once I started designing my life around how to have more time to do those, I realized that I needed a lot less money than I ever thought I would.

"I think the personal finance world and the money world, they always ask how much money do you need, how much money do you spend, how much money do you make, how much money do you want? When the first question should be, what kind of life do you want (Courtesy of Grant Sabatier)

Now, Sabatiers goal is passing that message on to other people throughout the F.I.R.E. Movement, including alongside one of the founders, Vicki Robin, who co-wrote the book Your Money or Your Life.

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If somethings not making your life better or richer, you should discard it, Sabatier said. And pursuing F.I.R.E. can just become money addiction in another form. People are so religious about their spreadsheets and their savings rates that it just ends up becoming just like any form of money addiction.

A lot of the work that I do or try to do in the movement is to humanize it a little bit more, he added. Lets make sure its always life before money. Its always life before money. Thats all building on Vickis work.

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Millennial millionaire who retired at 30 explains the sacrifices he made to get there - Fox Business

Dear Catey,

Were 69 and 68 respectively, and are presently retired in Las Vegas. Our net worth is about $5 million, so money is not an overriding issue.

We moved to Vegas to be near family, and for the vibrancy we didnt have in Cleveland. Seven years later, the family is gone and weve had some health issues. Las Vegas is fun and a great place to vacation, but as you get older, the availability and competence of a medical system means much more than shows and casinos.

My wife likes the weather, but that said, summers here are hellish. California is out for the political and its ridiculous tax situation. Phoenix seems to have the big city feel and the amenities that come with that, but not only do you get oppressive heat, you get sandstorms.

I know no place is perfect, but any suggestions you make would genuinely be appreciated.

Thanks for your consideration,

D.S.

Dear D.S.,

Good health care and weather and more reasonable taxes are three of the most common requests I get from readers of this column. Plus, it sounds like youd like a large-to-medium-sized city with lots to do and a more politically moderate spot than California to spend your golden years.

Its a challenging checklist but I think Ive got some options for you. (Admittedly, its hard to beat California weather, so you might have to endure some humidity, but I wont place you in a spot with cold winters.) Heres what Id suggest.

Honolulu

Great beaches, friendly locals, and plenty of museums (dont miss the Honolulu Museum of Art) and restaurants are just some of the perks of living in Honolulu. Another bonus: Though the city is cosmopolitan, it has a slower pace of life than many large cities in America.

The weather and the health care will likely be big pluses to you too. Honolulu boasts two five-star rated hospitals, and landed on The Streets list of best cities for health care in retirement. And the weather tends to stay between about 50 and 90 (though winters can be a bit rainy) and theres a low risk of hurricanes here.

While its certainly not cheap to live in Honolulu (median homes will set you back more than $650,000), with your nest egg, you can likely swing it. Added bonuses for you: Its a more tax-friendly spot for retirees than California, though its still not as great as a spot like Florida. One potential downside for you is that it might be a bit far from friends and family.

Sarasota, Fla.

OK, admittedly, summers are humid and brutal (with that $5 million nest egg, you can get out of town during August though) and there is a hurricane risk, but hear us out on Sarasota: It consistently lands on best places to retire lists for good reason. Its got tons of cultural offerings, including a ballet and opera, as well as art museums and plenty of performing arts options. It also has great beaches, and a plethora of restaurants.

And it checks a lot of boxes on your list too: Theres a five-star hospital in town, and The Street named it as one of the best places to retire for health care, writing five hospitals in Sarasota and another in Bradenton provides the kind of security that even competing Florida retirement communities are hard-pressed to match. Plus, the tax situation in Florida is pretty great, as the state does not have income tax.

While its not exactly cheap to live here, its more reasonable than Honolulu.

Dallas

The Big D, as Dallas is known, has good health care, with two five-star hospitals, the North Central Surgical Center and the Baylor Scott and White Heart and Vascular Hospital. And the weather checks a lot of boxes too, with mild temperatures for most of the year (though summers are hot and humid, but with your sizable nest egg, you can travel during the worst of it if you like).

U.S. News & World Report recently ranked Dallas-Fort Worth one of the 10 best places to retire, noting that it offers both big-city excitement and quiet, suburban living as well as an interesting mix of Texas pride and cosmopolitan offerings. Youll find thousands of restaurants (barbecue and Tex-Mex are particularly good), tons of shopping (its the birthplace of Neiman Marcus) and a bustling arts and culture scene, which includes the renowned Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center.

Though money isnt a huge hurdle for you, the cost of living in Dallas is only a bit above average, and the tax situation is much more reasonable than in California (one big perk of Texas is no state income tax).

Original post:
Im 69, worth $5 million and want great health care and a good climate but refuse to move to California. Where should I retire? - MarketWatch