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A new survey on retirement saving suggests that too many younger Americans are relying either on wishful thinking or blind faith. There is a difference between the two, though they both lead down the same path.

A T. Rowe Price survey of investors between the age of 21 and 50 showed that most at least recognize the need to save for retirement. However, most are not taking adequate measures to finance a secure retirement.

The good news is that among the investors surveyed, 92 percent who can contribute to a 401(k) plan are doing so. However, here is where the wishful thinking and blind faith come in:

Remember, this was a survey of investors, so at least they have a leg up on people with no investments. The average American is probably even less prepared for retirement.

The alternative to relying on wishful thinking and blind faith is to have a sufficient retirement plan . While there are many details involved in financial planning, these three ingredients are essential to creating an adequate blueprint:

The T. Rowe Price survey is a valuable reminder that even people who have started saving for retirement could still be doing a few things better to prepare for the future. As for people who haven't even started to save, well, they could be doing everything better.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.

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Retirement survey reveals wishful thinking, blind faith

Are you worried about retirement? If so, that may be a good thing.

Those concerned they may not have enough money to retire comfortably have plenty of company today. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that 38 percent of Americans are not confident that they will be able to afford retirement.

Why could that level of worry be a good thing? Because savings rates in the U.S. have been deficient for a very long time, an increased level of worry might indicate a heightened awareness of the problem. That awareness could be the first step toward addressing the obstacles that future retirees face.

Certainly, the trends indicated by the survey show there is plenty of cause for concern. Here are some major points:

While it's not enough just to worry about retirement , if it's the first step toward making a plan and improving savings rates, a little anxiety might prove to be constructive. Ultimately, you will likely find that the more action you take to secure your retirement, the less you'll have to worry.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.

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The upside of retirement worries

NEW YORK (Money Magazine) -- I'm 37, make $52,000 a year and have just begun putting money into a 401(k). With thirty years until retirement, I'm inclined to believe that a somewhat aggressive investing strategy will pay off in the long run. But given the immediate uncertainty in the economy and the market, am I better off investing in less risky funds in the short term? -- Erik, Brooklyn, N.Y.

If you're waiting for uncertainty, immediate or otherwise, to die down before you embark on your long-term investing strategy, you're going to have a long wait. Things are never certain in the economy and the market.

Whether it's concerns about the ability of a new Congress and a second Obama administration to get a handle on our massive budget deficit, worries about the effect Superstorm Sandy might have on future job growth, trepidation over the approaching fiscal cliff or anxiety stemming from the European debt crisis, uncertainty is a constant.

Or, to borrow a phrase from Gilda Radner's classic Roseanne Roseannadanna character from the early days of Saturday Night Live: "It's always something -- if it ain't one thing, it's another."

So the more important question you should be asking yourself is this: What kind of investor do you want to be, given that you'll always have to deal with uncertainty? As I see it, you have two choices: you can be a reactive investor or a systematic investor.

Reactive investors spend most of their time figuring how to rejigger their investments to take advantage of new developments on the investing scene or to prevent those developments from hurting them.

Related: Worried about the fiscal cliff: Should I sell?

If they see that inflation is ticking up or interest rates are starting to climb, they may shift money out of bonds and into gold or commodities. If they believe economic growth is weakening and the economy may be slipping into recession, they might get into defensive stocks or buy long-term bonds.

If you like making lots of moves with your investments, this is the right camp for you -- for the reactive investor, investing is a never-ending guessing game. There will always be something going on in the economy or the markets that will catch your attention and require action.

The downside is that it's tough -- I would say virtually impossible -- to make the right call consistently. Very often what seems like the obvious isn't. Back in early 2009, for example, the last place most investors wanted to be was in stocks, which had just plummeted nearly 60% from their 2007 high. Moving to bonds or cash seemed a more prudent bet. Of course, we now know that since that low, stock prices have climbed more than 100%, while bonds gained about 28% and cash returned less than 1%.

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Retirement investing in uncertain times

When you finally reach your retirement date, one of your first questions will be: How much of my savings can I spend?

The standard rule of thumb for many years was 4%. Thats how much you supposedly could withdraw every year from your retirement accountseven on an inflation-adjusted basisand not run out of money.

Well, today, the conventional wisdom looks less clear. That rule of thumb, which was originally based on research done by Bill Bengen in 1994, has been scrutinized, criticized and even improved upon by many, including the likes of David Blanchett, the head of retirement research at Morningstar Investment Management.

The good part about the 4% rule is (that) it fixes your income through time, said Blanchett, who along with Farrell Dolan, a principal with Farrell Dolan Associates and John Olsen, the president Olsen Financial Group, spoke at a recent MarketWatch Retirement Adviser event in New York City. Its increased every year by inflation, but its based upon the initial value.

But the problem with that approach is that its based on a single point in time. You make the decision once, and you follow it for your entire retirement, said Blanchett, who recently co-authored a white paper on the subject of optimal withdrawal strategies for retirement-income portfolios. And thats kind of sub-optimal, because if we think about what happens when you move through time is things change. So as you age, youre going to live longer, potentially. If the markets go down, you could take out less income. ..The key to the 4% rule is that first its kind of a very basic starting point.

According to Blanchetts white paper, a significant amount of research has been devoted to determining how much one can afford to withdraw from a retirement portfolio, but surprisingly little work has been done on comparing the relative efficiency of different types of retirement withdrawal strategies.

In his study, Blanchett established a framework to evaluate different withdrawal strategies and then used that framework, in conjunction with Monte Carlo simulations, to determine the optimal withdrawal strategies for various fact patterns. Then he developed whats called the withdrawal efficiency rate, a measure that allows researchers to quantify the relative appeal of each withdrawal strategy to determine which one is best for generating retirement income.

Read Blanchetts paper.

As part of his study, Blanchett examined five different types of withdrawal strategies and found that the primary method employed by many (advisers), where a constant real dollar amount is withdrawn from the portfolio until it fails, is often the least efficient approach to maximizing lifetime income for a retiree.

So whats the best withdrawal strategy? According to Blanchett, the best one incorporates mortality probability, where the projected distribution period is updated based on the mortality experience of the retiree (or retirees) and the withdrawal percentage is determined based on maintaining constant probability of failure. Blanchett explains it this way in plain English: Every year the retiree is alive, figure out how much longer the retiree (or retirees) is (are) going to live. This is the mortality updating part. You do it every year because the longer you live the longer you are likely to live. An example is: The average life expectancy for a new born is something like 74 years. The average life expectancy for someone 65, though, is 85. This difference of 11 years (age 85 vs. age 74) is based on the fact that if youve survived to age 65 you are likely to live longer.

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Retirement income: What’s wrong with the 4% rule

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Professional Business Coaching: I didn #39;t know how to get out of the hole.
see more at: mljcoaching.com "Professional Business Coaching" "Professional Coaching" "business coaching" "Professional Business Coaching" "Professional Coaching" "business coaching""Performance Coaching" "Personal Performance Coaching"From:Lynne JacobViews:3 0ratingsTime:02:00More inHowto Style

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Companies that hire veterans employ men and women who have received some of the worlds best skills and leadership training. Theyve been pushed to achieve high personal performance and know how to work in teams theyve had to cover someones back. They bring all this to work every day, along with their personal integrity and strength of character.

We need to help more veterans make the transition to a successful civilian career.

At a time when leaders across the political spectrum agree on the need to boost employment, most of us would also agree that our veterans deserve an extra level of support in getting a job.

Today, while we collectively honor the brave men and women who have served our country, we must also commit to providing that support. American businesses and individual citizens, working with community organizations and private charities, can make a huge difference now.

It wont be easy. The challenges are immense.

Were in the middle of an unprecedented influx of veterans. Since the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan began, 2.4 million soldiers have returned home.

Coming back from war and adjusting to the civilian world can be difficult. Many veterans suffer serious combat wounds. Many more carry emotional and psychological scars. They need a range of support -- from education and re-training, to career guidance and job-hunting skills, to appropriate role models and mentors.

We cant assume that government agencies can handle this task. For example, the Veterans Affairs (VA) wing of the federal government is, like the rest of the military, under severe fiscal pressures. There likely wont be a substantial expansion in VA services over the next few years. Thats why the private sector and individual citizens need to step up to help provide the educational, professional, and mental health services veterans need to thrive.

Here are some ways we all can help.

First, recognize that this isnt a partisan issue. Whether you live in a blue state or a red state, chances are that you are connected to someone in the military -- either in your own family or that of a friend, neighbor, or co-worker. Make a commitment to do what you can to help.

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Kennedy: This Veterans Day, do your part to honor today’s heroes

Nov. 9, 2012

Complete Meet Results

UCF Complete Results

UCF Athletics Social Media Directory

By Jenna Marina UCFAthletics.com

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - The UCF women's cross country team concluded its season Friday morning at the South Region Championships, hosted by Florida State. Six of the Knights' seven competitors posted personal-best times in the 6K race as the team produced its best overall finish at the meet in four years.

The Knights finished 22nd of 29 programs, and Anne-Marie Blaney paced UCF by eclipsing her personal best and the school's freshman record for the second time this season with a time of 21:22.0 for 54th place.

"Our performance today gives us good momentum looking ahead to next year's cross-country season and immediately for track," UCF coach Paul Brown said. "It was a good effort by everyone, and I think we are so much better for this experience. As they say, experience is the best teacher. Next year we'll be losing our senior Jessica Pachay, but we have everyone else returning. We'll be a deep team and much more competitive than we already are, so I'm excited."

Freshman Heather Classe was the Knights' second finisher with a time of 22:30.7 and sophomore Shelby Blaes fell in step behind her at 22:45.9. Freshman Caroline Pauls crossed the finish line in 23:00.7, and classmate Amy Ankli made a big jump by shaving more than two minutes off her personal best with a time of 23:20.6.

Sophomore Amelia Williams posted 23:27.1, and Pachay just missed her personal best in her final meet with a time of 23:43.2.

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Cross Country. Six Knights Post Personal Bests in Cross Country Region Championships

Steven Spielberg said it was tough to persuade British actor Daniel Day-Lewis to play Abraham Lincoln -- but the result was worth the struggle, winning rave reviews and Oscars speculation.

"Lincoln," released in the United States this weekend, is an intimate portrait of the 16th US president as he struggles to change history by abolishing slavery amid the still-raging the Civil War.

The veteran director had wanted to make a film about Lincoln, probably America's most revered president, who was assassinated in April 1865, for more than a decade.

"I've just always had a personal fascination with the myth of Abraham Lincoln," he said ahead of the film's red carpet premier at the American Film Institute (AFI) festival, which traditionally starts the annual Oscars race.

Spielberg lamented that Lincoln has been reduced to "a kind of cultural national stereotype," and no-one has made a film about him since 1939's "Young Mr. Lincoln" by John Ford, in which Henry Fonda played the president.

The three-time Oscar-winning filmmaker decided from the start not to attempt to tell the Republican politician's whole life story, saying: "We would have been dilettantes as filmmakers and as actors.

"We would have just been hitting all the high points and just giving you the headlines, and not giving you any sense of the depth of this character, this man," he told reporters.

With screenwriter and playwright Tony Kushner -- who won a Pulitzer prize for the play "Angels in America" in 1993 -- Spielberg opted to focus on the final months of Lincoln's life and his battle to abolish slavery.

The result is an intimate film mostly shot in interiors, apart from an opening battle scene, where the drama is driven by dialogue and a stellar cast including Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Day-Lewis's performance has already got some talking about the possibility he could win a third best actor Oscar to go with his golden statuettes for 1989's "My Left Foot" and 2008's "There will be blood."

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Spielberg makes history personal with 'Lincoln'

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Books That Will Change Your Life | Books That Change Your Life | Things That Will Change Your Life
Click Here, free-review-tips.info ,Books That Will Change Your Life,Books That Change Your Life,Things That Will Change Your Life.Hi, my name is Derek Franklin, and I #39;d like to share with you a simple, but proven truth... "You will never change your life until you change what you do on a daily basis." This means that if you have a desire for excellence - to grow and improve, take more action, and get awesome results - in any area of your life, then every day you #39;re going to have to do things different than what you #39;re doing right now. So let #39;s talk about why, despite a lot of time and effort you probably spend trying do this, positive changes like this seems so hard to achieve (there is a reason), then I want to walk you through a simple 7-Step process for creating this kind of change using something I call a Clarity Map, which we #39;ll talk about in a little more detail shortly. But first, let #39;s look at... Chances are, like most people, you have a strong desire to change and improve some area of your life or business for the better (you want to feel and see success in your life more often than you do now). And because you were never shown a better way, this is probably your process for doing it: Consume - You read success-related books - probably lots of books (like the ones shown below), go to expensive seminars, follow experts online, read blogs and other articles, and consume anything and everything you think will improve your life at some level. Take notes - While ...From:sukotalaViews:1 0ratingsTime:10:23More inHowto Style

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Books That Will Change Your Life | Books That Change Your Life | Things That Will Change Your Life - Video