This post comes from Richard Barrington at partner site MoneyRates.com.

When it comes to retirement savings, many Americans seem to be "winging it" -- or heading for retirement without a realistic plan of how to fund it.

Or so suggests a recent survey (.pdf file) by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. The survey indicates that "retirement planning" is a very loose concept among Americans. In many cases, the approach could be better described as wishful thinking.

The following are some points of concern raised by the study:

Savings rates remain very low.

The median contribution level for workers in 401kor similar plans is 7%. This is up from 6% in 2011, but still too low a savings rate to fund a comfortable retirement. Think about it: Retirement is likely to last roughly half as many years as a career. How can you expect to replace most or all of your income if you are settingaside only 7% of that income each year? With diminished expectations for the stock market, and bond yields and savings account interest rates approaching zero, most people are not going to be able to grow their way to adequate funding. Saving more is the only way to make it work. (Post continues below.)

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'Winging' retirement plans

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

AppSense, the leader in people-centric computing, today announced the second release of StrataApps, an application management solution enabling users to manage personal productivity applications across multiple desktops and devices. Since the initial release of StrataApps, ongoing development of new features and enhancements have been built into solution based on existing users providing feedback on their experiences installing over 8,000 applications via StrataApps. The latest version provides an even greater user experience and delivers improved application compatibility. StrataApps bridges the gap between user demand and IT application service delivery. StrataApps enables IT to control and focus on the delivery of core business applications while enabling users to manage their own personal applications.

Enterprise users require access to their personal productivity applications across a wide range of the desktop sessions and devices they use, said Keith Turnbull, Vice President of Global Development at AppSense. As IT services face ever increasing pressures to deliver more and more applications, to more users, on multiple accessing devices, failure to provide users with the applications they require on any device, in any location, reduces their effectiveness as employees and impacts their productivity for the business. StrataApps delivers on enabling IT to implement people-centric computing.

The new application import and export features empowers users to export their StrataApps application DataStore to a wide variety of external locations such as removable USB drives, Network Shares, File Servers and even cloud based storage infrastructures such as DropBox, SkyDrive, Sharefile and Box.net. By providing the option to export your StrataApps application DataStore to a multitude of locations, users can create libraries and centrally store logically grouped applications and simply import them into any new desktop session or onto any new device with just a few clicks. StrataApps streamlines IT management and ensures users benefit from the addition of automatic update notification options as new features and enhancements are released from AppSense Labs. StrataApps is available today via afree download.

Supporting Resources

For the latest news and information follow AppSense on the web at:

About AppSense

AppSense, the people-centric computing company, is the leading global software provider of user virtualization solutions that transform organizations into productive mobile workforces securely governed by IT. AppSense works with customers to reduce IT complexity and enable enterprise consumerization with independent management of the user experience across all mobile devices and desktops. User virtualization improves the deployment, management and migration of multi-platform desktopand mobile environments. The company is headquartered in New York, NY with offices around the world. For more information visitwww.appsense.com.

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AppSense Labs Advances People-Centric Computing with New Edition of StrataApps

by Charles Horton

Manx Telecom has donated equipment to Corporate Personal Development (CPD) based at The Childrens Centres Community Farm. CPD is a professional learning and development consutancy run by The Childrens Centre which offers leadership and management programmes to corporate, public and charitable organisations across the Island.

CPD uses physical and mental challenges and scenarios to simulate business environments and bring learning to life and utilises various types of outdoor projects to put teams to the test. One of these challenges involves one team member building a tower out of beer crates while on a rope supported by their colleagues. Mark Payne, CPD Trainer and Learning Consultant, said the challenge is used as a practical example to promote discussion on the role of trust in teams, leadership, and how delegates deal with anxiety in the workplace. He thanked Manx Telecom for its support and added that the companys contribution had helped to create a valuable addition to the facilities offered by CPD.

Since CPD was established eight years ago it has developed a reputation for offering a unique on-Island opportunity for organisations from all sectors to access high-quality, bespoke, experiential learning and development for a wide range of clients. John McChesney, Human Resources Director at Manx Telecom, said: CPD offers tremendous benefits to the Island and were delighted to support the project by enhancing the facilities it has at the Community Farm.

The Community Farm, where CPD is based, is a project run by The Childrens Centre at Wallberry Farm on the Carnane Estate just off the Old Castletown Road in Douglas. The farm was opened in January 2011 with the aim of creating a community facility offering children, young people and other community groups from across the Island a chance to learn, from practical experience, the skills needed to care for animals and to grow crops.

Photo caption - Equipment donated by Manx Telecom to CPD which is based at The Childrens Centres Community Farm.

If you'd like to send any information or news releases to us then please feel free to do so and we would be more than happy to consider sharing your news with the Isle of Man!

Send your Isle of Man news to:webmaster@manx.net

Manx Telecom Ltd 2012

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Community Farm-based training project receives help from Manx Telecom

Programs from aerobics to yoga are offered by the Roseland Recreation Department this fall.

Following is the listing of offerings:

Multi-Impact Aerobics

The Roseland Recreation Department is once again co-sponsoring an adult multi-impact aerobics class in conjunction with Olympias Fitness Training, Inc. for adults 18 years and older.

This program will consist of 29 classes held from 7 to 8 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and five specific Thursday nights.

The Monday and Wednesday classes will begin on Monday, Sept. 10 and end on Wednesday Nov. 28.

The Thursday classes will be held on Sept. 13 and 27; Oct. 11; Nov. 8, and Dec. 13.

There will be no classes on Monday, Oct. 8 and Nov. 12 or Thursday, Nov. 22.

All classes will be held in the Borough Hall All-Purpose Room.

The class size is limited to the first 35 participants. The fee for the program is $145 for three days a week and $120 for Monday and Wednesday. Registration forms are available outside the recreation office

See the original post here:
Roseland Recreation Department -- Have fun, get fit, in Roseland this fall

Related story: Lucky in recovery.

According to a recent study published in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke, group yoga can be beneficial to people who have had strokes, helping them to continue improving their balance after their formal rehabilitative care has ended.

"For people with chronic stroke, something like yoga in a group environment is cost-effective and appears to improve motor function and balance," said the study's lead researcher, Dr. Arlene Schmid, a rehabilitation research scientist at Roudebush Veterans Administration-Medical Center and Indiana University.

A stroke occurs when blood flow to part of the brain is interrupted. Depending on the severity of it and what part of the brain is affected, patients can suffer temporary or permanent disabilities that include a loss of balance and coordination among other impairments.

Typically, natural and acute rehabilitation ends after six months or a year, Schmid said. But the brain can still change - in ways a medical facility would no longer be measuring or treating once the patient is discharged.

"The problem is the health-care system is not necessarily willing to pay for that change," she said.

In what one local doctor called a Cadillac type of scenario, a patient who has suffered a stroke - depending on its severity - will receive in-patient care at the hospital for a month, then be discharged and get out-patient treatment for several more months, "but it's very rare to be in therapy more than four or six months."

A stroke patient needs to continue some sort of regimen, if not to further rehabilitation then to maintain any gains that are made, said Dr. John Carment, an assistant professor of geriatrics at the OU School of Community Medicine in Tulsa.

Last year, Carment partnered with the Tulsa Jewish Retirement and Health Center to look at what impact yoga, tai chi and strength training had on older adults. The study, which included groups of 20 to 30 healthy people, found both tai chi and yoga improved the balance of the participants, but strength training had no real effect, Carment explained.

So it wouldn't be far-fetched to think tai chi and yoga would have the same effect on stroke victims, he said. Although neither are proven, he said, they would be beneficial.

Link:
Study: Group yoga can benefit people who have had strokes

ScienceDaily (Aug. 16, 2012) Specialised group yoga classes could provide a cost-effective way of treating patients with chronic or recurrent low back pain, according to the UK's largest ever study of the benefits of yoga.

Led by the University of York, and funded by Arthritis Research UK, the study provides an evaluation of a specially-developed 12-week group yoga intervention programme compared to conventional general practitioner (GP) care alone.

The results published in Spine, show that the yoga intervention programme -- 'Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs' -- is likely to be cost effective for both the UK National Health Service (NHS) and wider society.

The cost assumed for yoga intervention is important in determining whether this is an efficient use of NHS resources. As yoga classes are not currently available through the NHS, the researchers examined a range of possible costs. They conclude that if the NHS was to offer specialist yoga and managed to maintain the cost below 300 per patient (for a cycle of 12 classes), there is a high probability (around 70 per cent) of the yoga intervention being cost effective.

Researchers also found that those taking part in the yoga programme had far fewer days off work than those in the control group. On average, a control group participant reported 12 days off due to back pain, whereas those in the yoga group had four days off. The cost associated with taking time off was 1,202 for a control group member, compared with 374 for a yoga group member.

The study was carried out by researchers from the University of York's Department of Health Sciences and the Centre for Health Economics, and the Hull York Medical School.

Chief Investigator Professor David Torgerson, Director of York Trials Unit, in the University of York's Department of Health Sciences, said: "Back pain represents a significant burden to the NHS in the UK and to society as a whole. As well as the associated health care costs, it is also a major cause of work absenteeism which leads to a productivity loss to society.

"While yoga has been shown as an effective intervention for treating chronic and low back pain, until now there has been little evidence on its cost effectiveness. In our study we evaluated a specially-designed yoga class package by using individual-level data from a multi-centred randomized controlled trial. On the basis of the 12-month trial, we conclude that 12 weekly group classes of specialised yoga are likely to provide a cost-effective intervention for the treatment of patients with chronic or recurrent low back pain."

Back pain is estimated to cost the NHS 1.37 billion and the health care sector 2.10 billion a year. It is also one of the most common conditions treated in primary care in the UK with about 2.6 million people seeking advice from their GP about back pain each year.

Professor Alan Silman, Medical Director of Arthritis Research UK, said: "We welcome the fact that not only has yoga been found to help people manage their back pain, but that it is also cost effective, and results in fewer sick days. It is another option for people who are struggling to manage their condition, and one that encourages the move to self-management. Yoga is an intervention that has been proven to make their everyday lives easier and their pain more manageable.

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Yoga: a cost-effective treatment for back pain sufferers?

Bobbie Goulding is hoping that life really does begin at 40! After six long months on the sidelines, the former Great Britain scrum-half is desperate for a return to rugby leagues professional ranks.

Bobbie feels he has been the outsider looking in for far too long. He is hungry to resume a career in coaching and seeks an opening.

He has already thrown his hat into the ring for jobs at Oldham, Dewsbury and London.

Goulding feels he is now at an age where he can put something back into the game he loves and made his mark at the very top.

All I need is a chance, says Goulding. In my view, there are far too many overseas coaches in our game and thats not right.

I have confidence in my own ability. I know I can put a club on track and soon send them in the right direction. I certainly have the experience.

I feel we have far too many schoolteachers and men from similar professions now holding down key coaching jobs and thats also wrong.

To win at this game you dont need an expert knowledge of physics or mathematics you need to have been at the coal face and done it.

I have and I have a team in place who are ready to go alongside me.

Maybe it is more than coincidence to see Featherstone, Halifax and Sheffield going so well right now in the Championship with three former GB players in charge.

Continued here:
Just give me a shot: Bobbie Goulding eyes coaching role

Men's Health: tops the men's paid-for lifestyle sector with a circulation of 216,336

The two free distribution titles, Shortlist and Sport, continue to power ahead in terms of sheer numbers, at 529,010 and 305,676 copies a week respectively, in the six months to the end of June 2012.

The top paid-for title in the sector continues to be Hearst Rodale's Men's Health, with a circulation of 216,336 (down 2.2% on the period), indicating consumers' love of specialist fitness titles is here to stay and that they are now mainstream titles.

Alun Williams, group publishing director of Men's Health, said; "We are not a specialist health title. We have a lot more to offer. We have travel, sport and other content. We are a healthy lifestyle title."

Dennis' rival Men's Fitness is a smaller title, but also performed well in the period, up 5.6% to 65,201.

Simon Caney, the editor of Sport magazine, said: "In Sport, we don't do much fitness because Men's Health is doing so well, and we don't want it to be just a token thing."

Zoo and Nuts, meanwhile, continue to suffer a torrid time.

Nuts, which only four years ago was selling more than 230,00 a week, now has a circulation of just 90,314 a week, down more than 20% on the year.

While Nuts' publishers will point to the brand's digital offshoots, they must be concerned about the long-term survival of the printed title.

Nuts publisher Jo Smalley, said: "Print does play a significant part of our overall reach, but it's not the whole Nuts brand story."

View original post here:
MAGAZINE ABCs: Men's Health and Men's Fitness lead lifestyle charge

NEW YORK (BankingMyWay) -- Talk to any financial adviser about how to save for retirement and you'll get two instructions: save as much as you can, and focus on asset allocation -- your portfolio's diversification between stocks, bonds and cash.

But a new academic study finds this to be misplaced emphasis. Advisers should be preaching the bigger, more dependable benefits of working longer, trimming spending and planning on using a reverse mortgage, the research suggests.

Get alerts before Link and Cramer make every trade

On the plus side, this means many people have more control over their financial fate than they think, because they're less dependent on the whims of the stock market and can rely a bit more on safe holdings like bank savings that make it easier to sleep at night. The downside, of course, is that spending less and working to 70 isn't so appealing.

A careful look at asset allocation tools

Where to keep a rainy day fund.

Using home equity in retirement. Follow TheStreet on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

See the original post here:
Road to Retirement Shouldn't Be Paved With Stocks

The individually designed units in New Zealand's first large retirement village were pretty comfortable.

The sunny units at Parkwood, about an hour from Wellington, ranged from 70 to 110 sq m, then about the average size for a new house, with a decent-sized master bedroom and guest room. It was the early 1970s so nobody expected ensuites or wifi for their iPads. That was then.

When the newest units were built about fifteen years ago the standard floor was 142 sq m with some units reaching 160 sq m. Older units were being puffed up with ensuites and open showers and walls were being knocked out for open plan living areas.

"There is the odd bath floating around because that is what people want but they'll be whipped out as soon as the next person comes," says manager Mark Rouse.

He mentions the new shared swimming pool, the gym, and the popular yoga classes. "At some point in the future I would expect wifi in our social centre."

If Parkwood, a charity, feels the need to upgrade, the pressure is greater on stock-market-listed retirement villages such as Summerset, Ryman and Metlifecare. New developments have barely paused for breath during years of widespread slump for ordinary residential construction.

"Ryman is the fourth biggest residential builder in the country," says John Collyns of the Retirement Villages Association. "We are signing up new villages every two or three weeks."

Statistics NZ began tracking new retirement units in 2009 after it noticed an upwards surge. Since then developers have built almost 2,000 new units worth a combined $263 million. Half of them were built in the last year, says Collyns. Forget students. In some months, every new apartment built in New Zealand was for retirees.

"The whole social area of a village is undergoing quite a substantial re-think," says Collyns.

"Restaurants and cafes are now very common, and libraries and computer rooms and decent cinemas are quite standard in the new villages."

See the original post here:
Retirement villages go cool