I don't do different things, I do things differently. Shiv Khera (Management Guru)

We are urged to form goals from very early on in our lives. Forming goals is considered important because it gives our life a direction; and the efforts taken to achieve those goals helps and leads to personal development. Though one might be inclined to think otherwise, personal development is not necessarily achieved by doing something extraordinary -- it can just as well be achieved by carrying through the most simplest and mundane acts. The only criteria that needs to be fulfilled is that it should meet the person's own needs and help propel him/her forward in life and achieve success.

Personal development can be achieved through both, self-development and the development of others. Which is to say that helping others, or being of service to others leads to personal growth as well. To give an example of the same -- mentors, teachers, doctors or managers bring about development of others along with the development of their own personality.

The Importance of Goals

Goals lead you to the path of success, allow you to take risks and set challenges for yourselves. Only if one has set goals do they keep trying to achieve them, despite obstacles and difficulties. Goals help you control your emotions and fears when the going gets tough. Achieving smaller goals helps gain and increase confidence levels and prepares you for achieving major goals.

The S.M.A.R.T. Rule

One should set meaningful, realistic and professional development goals to make progress towards an ideal life. Setting long-term goals is just as essential as setting weekly or daily goals. When it comes to setting goals, one needs to check the impact of the goal on four areas of life, namely -- body, heart, mind, and spirit. Furthermore, it is believed that goals can be successfully achieved if they are based on the S.M.A.R.T. principle. This includes goals which are:

Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Relevant. Time-Bound.

Have you ever noticed that activities such as praying, music, dance, singing, chanting, poetry, writing and sports etc., are all forms of personal development programs or tools? These tools were designed to help perform various functions such as health improvement or aesthetic satisfaction. Interestingly, they can also be linked to 'final goals' of personal development because they bring you closer to discovering the true meaning of your life or help in living a good life. Personal goals cannot be considered 'personal' forever, as they often continue to influence family values, education, and most other aspects of life.

Building your own identity. Becoming the person you aspire to be. Fixing your priorities Specifying your values. Determining your lifestyle. Defining your ethics. Improving your knowledge, potential and awareness. Enhancing the quality of your life by being more spiritual and healthy. Developing strengths, learning techniques or methods to achieve wisdom. Fulfilling aspirations. Building human capital. Defining and executing personal development plans. Developing spirituality. Improving health.

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Examples of Personal Development Goals - Buzzle

Human development is a lifelong process. People are capable of growing, learning and improving throughout their entire lives, and the ability to do so has an impact on many areas. Personal growth is necessary both in the workplace and in relationships. There are various components of personal development, including responsibility, learning, behavior and attitude. Striving to improve these areas will lead to greater opportunities in the workplace and healthy relationships.

Personal growth and development are relevant to the workplace. Employers want employees who are learning and growing. People who are becoming more knowledgeable and adept at their positions are more valuable than employees who remain stagnant. An ideal employee will be capable of handling and understanding more than one position, as this allows for greater flexibility within the organization.

Relationships often require work and effort on behalf of the individuals involved. When a person is able to grow and develop, it helps to foster healthy relationships. Additionally, having a significant other to offer support can be immensely helpful when one is looking to develop potential and grow into a more complete person.

One area for personal growth is responsibility. Being responsible is a trait often identified with adulthood and maturity. The ability to accomplish and take on new responsibilities is especially important in the workplace. Employers evaluate their employees on how well they do at completing tasks. Beyond just meeting tasks, employees who seek out additional responsibility are more likely to be rewarded with greater compensation and the opportunity for better positions. Developing the ability to be responsible helps enable one to grow in her career.

Humans grow and develop by learning new skills and acquiring additional knowledge. One way for a person to develop is to further his education. Education is a valued commodity in the business world, and institutions of higher learning provide ample opportunity for an individual to grow. Colleges and universities promote critical thinking. By using this resource, an employee can take steps towards developing his career.

By developing and growing, one's attitude can change for the better. Self-confidence will be improved with the acquisition of new skills and knowledge. The more one comes to respect herself, the more respect she can, in turn, offer others. An improved attitude can lead to further growth and development and help one achieve her full potential. The better an attitude one has, the more she is able to accomplish. Employers will notice those workers who have great attitudes and get a lot done. Employees like that are the ones who become promoted and reap greater financial benefit.

Personal Growth & Development in Critical Thinking

How to Create a Career Development Plan

How to Mount Heavy Objects to Brick

Many employers see the benefits of offering their employees opportunities to expand their skills while on the job through professional development and...

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What Is Personal Growth & Development? | eHow

by Maria Popova

The cause of and cure for the illusion of separateness that keeps us from embracing the richness of life.

During the 1950s and 1960s, British philosopher and writer Alan Watts began popularizing Eastern philosophy in the West, offering a wholly different perspective on inner wholeness in the age of anxiety and what it really means to live a life of purpose. We owe much of todays mainstream adoption of practices like yoga and meditation to Wattss influence. His 1966 masterwork The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (public library) builds upon his indispensable earlier work as Watts argues with equal parts conviction and compassion that the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination which accords neither with Western science nor with the experimental philosophy-religions of the East. He explores the cause and cure of that illusion in a way that flows from profound unease as we confront our cultural conditioning into a deep sense of lightness as we surrender to the comforting mystery and interconnectedness of the universe.

Envisioned as a packet of essential advice a parent might hand down to his child on the brink of adulthood as initiation into the central mystery of life, this existential manual is rooted in what Watts calls a cross-fertilization of Western science with an Eastern intuition.

Alan Watts, early 1970s (Image courtesy of Everett Collection)

Though strictly nonreligious, the book explores many of the core inquiries which religions have historically tried to address the problems of life and love, death and sorrow, the universe and our place in it, what it means to have an I at the center of our experience, and what the meaning of existence might be. In fact, Watts begins by pulling into question how well-equipped traditional religions might be to answer those questions:

The standard-brand religions, whether Jewish, Christian, Mohammedan, Hindu, or Buddhist, are as now practiced like exhausted mines: very hard to dig. With some exceptions not too easily found, their ideas about man and the world, their imagery, their rites, and their notions of the good life dont seem to fit in with the universe as we now know it, or with a human world that is changing so rapidly that much of what one learns in school is already obsolete on graduation day.

Watts considers the singular anxiety of the age, perhaps even more resonant today, half a century and a manic increase of pace later:

There is a growing apprehension that existence is a rat-race in a trap: living organisms, including people, are merely tubes which put things in at one end and let them out at the other, which both keeps them doing it and in the long run wears them out.

He weighs how philosophy might alleviate this central concern by contributing a beautiful addition to the definitions of what philosophy is and recognizing the essential role of wonder in the human experience:

View post:
Alan Watts - Brain Pickings

Osho urodzony jako Rajneesh Chandra Mohan Jain hindi , szeroko znany rwnie jako Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (czytaj: bhagan ri radni) (ur. 11 grudnia 1931 w Kuchwadzie, stan Madhya Pradesh w Indiach, zm. 19 stycznia 1990 w Punie) wspczesny hinduski guru, nauczyciel i mistrz duchowy. Zaoyciel ruchu religijnego Neo-Sannyas (uczniowie nazywani s sannjasinami).

y w Indiach oraz przez kilka lat w Stanach Zjednoczonych. Swoj osob zainspirowa powstanie szerzej rozumianego ruchu Osho, ktry nadal ma wielu wyznawcw i zwolennikw na caym wiecie.

Autor kilkuset ksiek wedug rnych danych ich liczba waha si pomidzy 400 oryginalnymi tytuami a 750, wczajc w to rne kompilacje. Tumaczone na ponad 50 jzykw[1], ale np. w Zwizku Radzieckim ksiki Osho byy surowo zakazane. Najbardziej znane tytuy to: "From Sex to Superconsciousness"; "My Way, the Way of the White Clouds"; "The Book of Secrets". Szczegln ksik (a przy okazji kolejn z rozmaitych prowokacji) jest "No Book" ksika z samymi pustymi kartkami.

Osho nie pisa ksiek w dosownym tego sowa znaczeniu. Zostay one spisane przez jego uczniw z tam, na ktrych rejestrowane byy jego wykady (ang. discourse), z ktrych kady trwa rednio ptorej godziny (cz z nich czy w cykle tematyczne). Osho wygasza je bez adnych przygotowa czy materiaw (z wyjtkiem wielu z opowiadanych w trakcie wykadw najczciej niecenzuralnych dowcipw, ktre zbierali dla niego uczniowie[2]). By mwc i jak sam siebie okrela gawdziarzem. Wykady dostpne s na kasetach w formie audio i wideo, a ksiek przybywa, gdy wci na angielski tumaczone s wczesne wykady Osho wygaszane w hindi.

Osho w latach 1960. uywa imienia Acharya Rajneesh, pniej, w latach 70. i 80. nosi imi Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, by w kocu, na krtko przed swoj mierci, przyj imi Osho.

(Dla uproszczenia i lepszej czytelnoci, w treci caego artykuu, w opisach rnych okresw ycia wszdzie stosowane jest imi Osho.)

Osho by przeciwnikiem jakiegokolwiek systemu wiary. Ceni natomiast i zaleca osobist religijno, a nie bycie wyznawc religii wyranie te rzeczy rozgranicza. Podkrela warto autentycznego, osobistego dowiadczenia religijnego. Ku temu dowiadczeniu prowadz (bez szczeglnej kolejnoci): bycie wiadomym, mio, medytacja, witowanie, twrcze dziaanie oraz rado i miech. Mwi, e owiecenie jest naturalnym stanem czowieka[6], ale uwaga ludzi jest zbyt rozproszona by to zauway rozproszona zwaszcza przez nieustanne mylenie i cig aktywno umysu. Powiedzia, e nie ma szczeglnej rnicy pomidzy nim a innymi ludmi, bo podobnie jak ci, ktrzy nie s teraz owieceni i on kiedy nie by owiecony, i tak samo jak on jest owiecony dzisiaj, tak inni bd owieceni kiedy.

Wyraa si bardzo sprawnie zarwno w hindi jak i w jzyku angielskim. Mwi o twrcach najrniejszych tradycji duchowych: Buddzie, Krysznie, Guru Nanaku, Jezusie, Sokratesie, mistrzach zen, Gurdijewie, jak i o sufizmie, chasydyzmie, tantrze i wielu innych. Gosi, e aden system mylenia nie jest w stanie go zdefiniowa, gdy uwaa, e adna filozofia nie jest w stanie w peni wyrazi prawdy.

Sam bdc dowiadczonym oratorem, twierdzi, e sowa nie s w stanie przekaza jego przesania[7]. Z drugiej strony gwnym powodem, dla ktrego jednak mwi, jest danie moliwoci zakosztowania medytacji suchaczom[8].

Zaprzecza sam sobie. Ale sprzecznoci dla niego nie istniej tylko wzajemnie uzupeniajce si punkty widzenia[10]. Zasadniczo by te przeciwny pojciu "filozofia" i wyraa nadziej, e owe sprzecznoci znajdujce si w jego wypowiedziach, na zawsze uniemoliwi potomnym zmontowanie na bazie jego dzie, jakiejkolwiek filozofii, jakiegokolwiek "-izmu":

More:
Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) Wikipedia, wolna encyklopedia

http://www.enlightened-sp irituality.org/rajneesh.h tml The Enigmatic "Bhagwan," Osho Rajneesh

(Last revised on Jan. 1, 2008)

Concerning India's alleged Godman "Bhagwan" (Bhagavan) Rajneesh (n?e Chandra Mohan Jain, 1931-1990), who in 1988, to clean up his PR image for better marketability, briefly preferred to call himself "Zorba the Budddha" and then in October 1989 renamed himself "Osho," there was, sadly, immense dysfunction. May his soul and all souls be in great peace and clarity in the One Divine Self!

Many thousands of disciples of Osho Rajneesh find him a beautiful enigma, and while many of these persons will openly admit as true nearly all the serious flaws and foibles pointed out by his many critics who've dared to speak publicly (such criticsincluding ex-Rajneeshee disciples James Gordon, Julian Lee, and especially Christopher Calder are quoted at some length at this webpage), these faithful disciples nevertheless gloss over the problematic aspects and still express tremendous gratitude and appreciation for all that they learned and received from Rajneesh over their months or years with this "gifted" and "remarkable" man, as several of his devotees have described him in their emails to me. (See below, further on.)

Many of these disciples and fans of Osho Rajneesh further wonder why anyone should be at all interested to critique the unwholesome and unsavory aspects of the long-deceased "Bhagwan," when the only thing really important in life is "living from freedom" and "living from the heart, not the head." Yet former disciple Christopher Schnelle, in a long post on March 3, 2006 for the generally pro-Rajneesh forum rebelliousspirit.com, has written, in part, "What is more important truth or feeling good?... I am writing about Osho because his lies and his deceit caused an enormous amount of pain for a lot of beautiful people. Most of these beautiful people have no idea that a sophisticated fraud was perpetrated on them and blame themselves for their deteriorating mental and physical health. Many of my sannyasin friends have great trouble sustaining this illusory happy fog and are taking more and more desperate measures to continue feeling good." (For the entirety of Schnelle's post, see further on, below.) At the same forum, Christopher Calder, Rajneesh's second Western disciple in the early 1970s, wrote on Oct. 19, 2005 and Aug. 18, 2007, "The Web is full of phony Osho propaganda sites that simply ignore all the scandals and the history of the cult. Most of the tell-all books are out of print and hard to find.... Will the next big cult use germ warfare as the Osho cult did, chemical warfare as the Aum Shinrikyo cult did? Or perhaps the next religious cult will graduate to nuclear warfare? Who knows? If human beings never learn that blind and unquestioning obedience to one 'perfect Master' or leader is dangerous and anti-evolutionary, then we will only have more disasters. [...] I am not saying Rajneesh was a complete fraud in the sense that he had nothing to offer. I just draw a clear line between what was good about him and where he went wrong, so that others in the future will not make the same tragic mistakes.."

In a clarifying threefold model I have presented elsewhere (click here to read more extensively), it is Absolutely true that "nothing is really happening," that all manifestation is "dream-like" and ultimately "empty" because there is only God, only Absolute Being-Awareness-Bliss, the One Alone, the all-transcending and unmanifest Spirit. One step down from this "Absolute-truth level" (paramarthika-satya) is what we might call the "psychic-soul" truth-level in which "whatever happens in manifestation is perfect," because all souls are sooner or later coming Home to perfect virtue and Divine awakening from soul-hood into Spirit, so that there's fundamentally nothing "wrong" or "problematic." Finally and more pragmatically, there is the mundane, "conventional-truth level" (vyavaharika-satya) involving the play of opposites, crucially including justice-injustice, true-false, good-evil, appropriate-inappropriate , skillful-unskillful. All three of these levels (Absolute truth, psychic-soul truth, and mundane conventional truth) are simultaneously true within this overall Nondual (Advaita) Reality. Losing the capacity to distinguish these three levels is a mark of great folly, not enlightened wisdom. And so, for instance, to excuse or overlook injustices occurring on this planet because "whatever happens is perfect" or because "this is all a dream, there's only God" is a tragic confusing of levels, and makes a mockery of the courageous work of all those who have ever endeavored to bring truth in place of lies, healing in place of harm, justice in place of injustice.

Hence, at this long webpage, various voices will be heard speaking intelligently and yes, critically, of someone who posed for nearly two decades as a "fully enlightened God-man." This webpage exists for the sake of truth and accountability, and as a cautionary for all those sincere persons who might currently or in the future be duped by similar con-men posing as God-men (or God-women).

Real spirituality, real freedom and real heart-love is invaluably precious, sublime, wholesome and holy, not at all mediocre or muddled as Rajneesh and so many others have made it and exploited it for personal profit.

=============

I first read a few of Rajneesh's earliest little books and a favorable biography (The Awakened One, by Vasant Joshi) circa 1978-1982 while in graduate school researching spiritual and psychological traditions. In the early 1980s I also saw a short film of excerpts from one of Rajneesh's talks, and was able to see first-hand his hypnotically slow, coy, seductive, and provocative manner of speech and body language, with his strange way of hissing the "s" sounds at the end of many of his words. I wasn't very impressed with Rajneesh, especially compared to some of the really tremendous spiritual masters i read about and/or met in person. I enjoyed Rajneesh's wild sense of wacky humor, often hilarious!though author Tim Guest says that Rajneesh cribbed many of his best jokes from Playboy magazine, and too many of his jokes, alas, were slurs on ethnic and racial groups or just "juvenile scatological humor," as journalist Rohit Arya has assessed it, such as Rajneesh's long comedic essay on the "magical" word "F---," and his concluding, quite silly, probably sarcastic admonition that one wake up each morning and say "F--- you" five times (the entire routine from 1984, read by Rajneesh from a script, is viewable at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6 D7rWLzloOI&feature=re lated).

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Ma Satya Priya: Reporting From The Osho Resort | Osho RS

Extropy Institute continues to support critical research and development of sciences and technologies of human enhancement. For further information on our 2004 Vital Progress Summit please follow this link: About the VP Summit

In late 2006, Extropy Institute closed. ExI's Strategic Plan explains the details of this decision and the potential for the future of ideas that were generated during ExI's lifetime.

The philosophy of Extropy continues on into the future.

This website is the "Library of Transhumanism, Extropy and the Future". The Extropy e-mail list continues to be very active and is the main venue for transhumanists and one of the best places on the Internet to meet transhumanists for challenging and creative discussions about the future. ____________________________________

Welcome to website of Extropy Institute, the original force behind the philosophy and global cultural movement of transhumanism. We welcome you to join our efforts in promoting The Proactionary Principle.

The world needs critical thinkers now! What is Extropy Institute? Extropy Institute is a think tank ideas market for the future of social change brought about by consequential technologies.Our Board of Directors, Advisors and Proactive Supporters bring together diverse ideas about the future.Our approach is proactive, our focus critical, and our ideas are principled in addressing social concerns and questions that will make or break the future of humanity. Extropy Institute has been pioneering critical and creative thinking about the future for the past 17 years.

The Mission of ExI has been to serve its members by ensuring a reputable, open environment for discussing the impacts of emerging technologies and for collaborating with diversely-skilled experts in exploring the future of humanity.

As a philosophical and cultural organization, our goals include being an international resource for strategic thinking about the future. Specific outcomes of our vision over the years have been recognized through publications, conferences, virtual summits, university courses, extropy-chat email list, and members' projects; working toward designing our future. The outcomes are located on our resources page. _______________________________________________________________]

Support the ideas vital to our future by participating in the globalcommunity and become proactive and support the Proactionary Principle.

The current project: ExI Project No. 1 - PROACTIONARY PRINCIPLE As human lives and the global environment become ever more interconnected with technology, we become increasingly responsible for making wise decisions about how to use it. We need a balanced opinion on how to apply technology to human needs. We should not reject the products of applied science; neither should we implement powerful new technologies without foresight and proactive preparation. Above all, we must not tackle the decisions of the future with the cognitive habits of the past. We need new, smarter ways to evaluate the opportunities and dangers issuing from nanotechnology, genetics, machine intelligence, climate engineering, or neurological modification. The Proactionary Principle (ProP) is designed explicitly for this purpose.

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Transhumanism's Extropy Institute - Transhumanism for a ...

You know what they say the modern version of Pascal's Wager is? Sucking up to as many Transhumanists as possible, just in case one of them turns into God. Julie from Crystal Nights by Greg Egan

Transhumanism (or H+), broadly speaking, is a futurist movement with a set of beliefs with a common theme of anticipating an evolutionary plateau beyond the current Homo sapiens. The term was coined and movement founded by the biologist Julian Huxley in 1957.

The general expectation is that in the near future greater manipulation of human nature will be possible because of the adoption of techniques apparent on the technological frontier: machine intelligence greater than that of contemporary humans, direct mind-computer interface, genetic engineering and nanotechnology. Transhumanists tend to believe that respect for human agency, even when practiced by humans in their current form, is valuable, however.

How plausible is transhumanism? In the 1930's, many sensible people were sure human beings would never get to the moon and that was just one of many predictions that turned out incorrect.[1] Early 21st century people do not know one way or the other what will be possible in the future.

While frequently dismissed as mere speculation at best by most rationalists (especially in light of the many failures of artificial intelligence), transhumanism is a strongly-held belief among many computer geeks, notably synthesizer and accessible computing guru Ray Kurzweil (a believer in the "technological singularity," where technology evolves beyond humanity's current capacity to understand or anticipate it) and Sun Microsystems founder and Unix demigod Bill Joy (who believes the inevitable result of AI research is the obsolescence of humanity).

Certain recent technological advances are making the possibility of the realization of transhumanism appear more plausible: Scientists funded by the military developed an implant that can translate motor neuron signals into a form that a computer can use, thus opening the door for advanced prosthetics capable of being manipulated like biological limbs and producing sensory information.[2] This is on top of the earlier development of cochlear implants, which translate sound waves into nerve signals; they are often called "bionic ears."[3]

Even DIY transhumanism is becoming an option, with people installing magnetic implants, allowing them to feel magnetic and electric fields.[4] Others have taken to wearing belts of magnets, in order to always be able to find magnetic north.

Sadly, a lot of the underpinnings of transhumanism are based on a sort of blind-men-at-the-elephant thinking people assuming that because it can be imagined, it must be possible. Transhumanism is particularly associated with figures in computer science, which is a field that is in some ways more math and art than a true experimental science; as a result, a great many transhumanists tend to conflate technological advancement with scientific advancement; though these two things are intimately related, they are separate things. In fact, though transhumanists strenuously deny it, a great number of their arguments are strongly faith-based they assume because there are no known barriers to their pet development, that it's inevitably going to happen. Seldom is the issue of unknowns known or otherwise factored into the predictions.

The example of the singularity is instructive; for a great many people, at least part of the singularity hinges on being able to create a true artificial intelligence. While it's reasonable to contend that the complexity inherent in the human brain is entirely the result of mundane physics, and therefore can be reproduced in principle, singularitarians tend to assume that the emulation of human intelligence not being impossible means having the ability to in the near future. However, singularitarians hit the wall when confronted with the realities of brain development research though a true AI may in fact be possible, there simply is not enough known about the brain to understand its functions to the degree necessary to create a workable emulation, meaning a prediction of such a creation is meaningless at best, dishonest at worst.

"Whole brain emulation" (WBE) is a term used by transhumanists to refer to, quite obviously, the emulation of a brain on a computer. While this is no doubt a possibility, it encounters two problems that keep it from being a certainty anytime in the near future.

See original here:
Transhumanism - RationalWiki

Many private colleges offer academic merit aid scholarships of between $15,000 and $25,000 per year based on good grades and test scores, but estimating ahead of time what your child will get isn't easy. Here are three examples of colleges offering a lot of money, but different ways of qualifying for it. read

Elite private colleges don't award financial aid based on good grades and high SAT or ACT scores. The only way to lower your cost at an elite college like the Ivies, Stanford or Duke, is for your family to show a need for aid based on your finances. If you don't, you'll be expected to write a check for sticker price. However, there are hundreds of excellent private colleges offering $5,000 - $25,000 per year based on good grades and test scores. Public universities are creating more and more Honors[...] read

Student loan rates have dropped for the 2015-2016 academic year, making borrowing for college less expensive, but students and parents should still try to avoid college debt if possible. read

Risk is an inherent part of life. read

Life settlements may seem like found money to investors, but you can get ripped off by selling your life insurance policy. Here's how to avoid trouble. read

The economy remains weak and stocks continue to rise. This cannot continue indefinitely. read

You've probably heard or read about all kinds of strategies that will make you rich investing. They go by many names, but they all follow the same basic idea: Zigging when others zag. It might be buying sectors at certain points of the business cycle. Or stocks that have been bid down to unusual lows. Or only owning stocks ahead of elections, when Congress is out of session or the moon is full. Yet any kind ofmarket timingor stock selection strategy depends on the same basic mechanism[...] read

In conversations recently with several people who are very close to retiring (within the next 3-6 months), the financial planning rule of thumb of a 4% safe withdrawal rate has come up in their discussions. It seems as though its become an almost universally accepted rule and is rarely questioned. To combat complacency and willing acceptance, I routinely question it, making it the starting point for conversations regarding retirement income. read

Today's question asks how having taken an early retirement benefit will affect the amount of a later spousal benefit. The answer explains how excess spousal and survivor benefits are calculated and reviews the effects of claiming early. read

A 529 College Savings Plans is Still a Good Idea to Avoid College Loans. Here are some of the best plans. read

Read the original here:
Forbes - Retirement Information and Retirement News ...

Sources: Social Security Administration; Federal Reserve of Philadelphia; Department of Labor.

This calculator estimates how much you'll need to save for retirement. To make sure you're thinking about the long haul, we assume you'll live to age 92. But you could live to be 100 or incur large medical bills early on in retirement that may raise your costs even further. Social Security is factored into these calculations, but other sources of income, such as pensions and annuities, are not. All calculations are pre-tax.

The results offer a general idea of how much you'll need and are not intended to be investment advice. The results are presented in both future dollars (at retirement) and today's dollars, which is calculated using an inflation rate of 2.3%.

First, we determine what your income will be at the time you retire by growing your current income at an annual rate of 3.8% (the inflation rate of 2.3%, plus the salary growth rate of 1.5%). We then assume you can live comfortably off of 85% of your pre-retirement income. So if you earn $100,000 the year you retire, we estimate you will need $85,000 during the first year of retirement. For each subsequent year, we increase your income need by 2.3% to keep up with inflation. We then factor in Social Security by subtracting your estimated benefits (more on that below) since that income will reduce the amount you will need to save.

The second step is to calculate the total savings you will need at the time you retire, in order to generate enough income for each year of retirement. To do this, we determine what it would cost to purchase a fixed income annuity, with inflation-adjusted payments, using a discount rate (or rate of return) of 6%. The cost to purchase this hypothetical annuity is your target savings goal.

To figure out how much you will save by the time you retire, we first estimate your future income by growing your current income at a rate of 3.8% (the inflation rate of 2.3%, plus the salary growth rate of 1.5%). Then, we determine what the sum of your annual contributions will be between now and retirement. We assume your current savings and future contributions are invested and will earn an average annual rate of return of 6%.

We estimate your Social Security benefits based on the assumption that you will have worked at least 35 years and will start collecting benefits at age 67. For most people who are working today, that's considered full retirement age. If you plan on retiring after age 67, we assumed the benefits are invested (along with your savings) and grown at the same average rate of return of 6%. We use your estimated pre-retirement income to calculate your estimated annual Social Security benefits, based on current benefit formulas and accounting for inflation. To better understand your actual Social Security benefits, please visit http://www.ssa.gov.

Continued here:
Retirement Calculator | CNNMoney

Background

Personal Performance is founded on the principal of providing clients education and training on whole body wellness through alternative methods of nutrition, fitness training and injury rehabilitation. Established in 1994, we have been providing superior training and rehabilitation techniques that produce consistent, progressive results. Our commitment is to provide progressive personalized service and instruction that treats each client as a whole person to help each person achieve optimal wellness.

Founders

Doug Kleberreceived his B.S. in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois. He is a Registered Kinesiotherapist and Certified Massage Therapist. Doug is a former All-American football player, collegiate baseball player and Pro NFL player. His focus in working with athletes is on more than building strength; his treatments and training plans ensure that injured players are not only ready to get back into the game, but that they do so with sufficient strength and recovery to prevent future injury.

Sue Kleberhas a B.S. in Physical Education from the University of Illinois. Sue is a seasoned teacher; she has taught health and physical education and is an experienced Junior and Senior High School volleyball coach, and former Big 10 volleyball player. Sue works with her personal training clients to develop and maintain healthy programs that will build strength and endurance in ways that also prevent future injury.

Staff

Amber Blackfordis a Licensed Massage Therapist.

DJ Homann is a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine, and has a Masters degree in sport science and rehabilitation. DJ received his Masters degree from Logan College of Chiropractic where they teach and practice holistic health care techniques, focusing on exercise, chriopractic care, and lifestyle and nutritional changes to bring about maximal health. As part of this degree, he spent a semester interning as the Strength and Conditioning Coach, overseeing 17 Division 1 sports teams.

DJ focuses on high-intensity training for athletes of all ages, helping clients achieve maximum sport performance. He also does corrective exercise rehabilitation for those clients who need it. DJ enjoys tournament bass fishing in his free time.

Helen Popeis a Nationally Certified Massage Therapist, licensed to practice in the State of Illinois. She is a CertifiedZero Balancer, and aUsui Reiki Master/Teacher.Helen is also pursuing certification in CranioSacral Therapy. She has training in Reflexology, OrthoBionomy and Deep Tissue therapies.

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