Feel relieved that retirement savings are up?
Posted: August 18, 2012 at 9:12 am
(MoneyWatch) You might have heard some sound bites lately that report good news about retirement savings:
-- Fidelity recently revealed that average contributions to IRAs have increased by 15 percent since 2007, from $3,420 to $3,930.
-- A recent bulletin from the Social Security administration shows that retirement savings have been understated in previous analyses on retirement resources, due to underreporting of savings in IRAs and employer-sponsored plans such as 401(k)s.
-- Another recent report from Fidelity on combined 401(k) and IRA retirement savings shows that for investors on the verge of retirement -- those between ages 65 and 69 -- the average combined retirement savings is $359,999.
While this is indeed good news, don't breathe a sigh of relief just yet and think that we've solved the significant retirement savings challenge facing most Americans. Perhaps the image to keep in mind is that of a person running down the deck of the Titanic who finds an inflatable inner tube and says "Look what I found! Heck, this situation isn't as bad as I thought."
Let's dig deeper into these numbers so you can see why I believe we're not out of the woods yet. Let's start with the IRA numbers: If you contribute $4,000 per year for 20 years and earn 6 percent interest each year, you'll accumulate a little over $150,000. While that's not bad, you'll only generate a lifetime retirement income of about $6,000 per year with that amount of savings if you use the popular four percent withdrawal rule. Of course this is better than nothing, but your retirement years won't exactly be golden with this amount of retirement income, even when you add in your Social Security benefits.
Now let's address the Social Security bulletin, which documents inadequacies in income amounts of the aged as reported by the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS includes pension income, but it under-reports distributions to retirees from IRAs and employer-sponsored savings plans such as 401(k)s. As we shift from relying on traditional defined benefit pension plans to 401(k) plans as our primary retirement delivery system, this under-reporting presents a problem to analysts who want to determine if our retirement system generates sufficient retirement income.
Make no mistake -- I'm all for improving the accuracy of data analyses on retirement resources. But the improvements cited by the Social Security bulletin will barely make a dent in the problem. It reports that ownership of IRA and 401(k) accounts among people aged 65 and older has increased from 24.3 percent in 1998 to 37.4 percent in 2009. While that's a nice improvement, it still means that barely more than one-third of Americans own such an account.
The Social Security bulletin also reports dramatic increases in the median account value of all tax-advantaged accounts, including IRAs and 401(k)-type savings. The median value for people ages 55 to 64 increased from $43,400 in 1992 to $100,000 in 2007. Again, this is a significant increase, but the annual retirement income generated by $100,000 will be about $4,000 per year if you again use the four percent rule for annual withdrawals.
It's a little more encouraging to consider the numbers reported at the beginning of this post by Fidelity on the average combined 401(k) and IRA accounts held at their firm. Retirement savings of $360,000 could generate a retirement income of almost $15,000 per year, using the four percent rule. Such an investor could generate an even higher retirement income if they bought an annuity. Combine this amount with a Social Security retirement income of $44,400 per year for a couple aged 70, and they might be able to retire with enough money to live on.
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Feel relieved that retirement savings are up?
Dublin Personal Trainer and Expert Running Coach, The Fit Potato, Now Training Clients for Upcoming Races
Posted: at 9:12 am
Dublin, CA (PRWEB) August 18, 2012
Dublin personal trainer and running coach, The Fit Potato, is currently offering to train clients for upcoming local races through coached running group sessions, one-on-one personal training and running coaching, and online running coaching through e-mail, Skype, text messages and phone call sessions.
We are currently training our clients for races like the San Francisco Marathon and 5k, the San Jose Half Marathon, Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco and California International Marathon in Sacramento, Francisco Gomez of The Fit Potato said.
Upcoming racing dates include Susan G. Komen San Francisco on Sept. 9, Back to School Scholarship Run on Sept. 15, The Giant Race Half Marathon on Sept. 16, Rock 'n' Roll San Jose Half Marathon on Oct. 7, Primos Run for Education on Oct. 10, Nike Women's Marathon on Oct. 14, Fremont Run for Education on Oct. 14, Grape Stomp Half Marathon on Oct. 21, New York Marathon on Nov. 4, Bah Humbug on Dec. 1 and California International Marathon on Dec. 2.
The Dublin personal trainer and expert running coach is offering his training guidance and specialized running training to cover the demand of the new running boom in the U.S. So many people want to train for a race, but they don't know where to begin or how to improve their times and performance.
I want to offer my running expertise to them so I can help them improve and stay injury free. Just as the number of runners that are signing up for these races is increasing so are the number of injuries they suffer. Stay healthy by getting your own expert running coach! Gomez said.
Running helps people fight diabetes, health problems, weight issues and overall health. Without direction or guidance, the chances of suffering injury and stopping improvement increases.
The Fit Potato offers running training at coached running group sessions in Dublin, San Ramon, Danville and Pleasanton; one-on-one personal training and running coaching in Dublin; and online running coaching.
The great news with online running coaching is that you get your very own expert running coach and a personalized training plan, Gomez said.
For more information about its running coaching services or any of The Fit Potato's services, call 925-241-5235 or view the training expert on the Web at http://www.thefitpotato.com.
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Dublin Personal Trainer and Expert Running Coach, The Fit Potato, Now Training Clients for Upcoming Races
World records, national records, personal bests and season bests abound on Mondotrack surface at London Olympic Games
Posted: at 9:12 am
LONDON, Aug. 17, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- From the first day of the track and field competition--when athletes posted 12 national bests and 52 personal bests--the state-of-the-art Mondotrack track surface at London's Olympic Stadium helped the world's greatest track and field athletes perform their best. When the Games were over, three world records*, four Olympic records, 64 national records, and a slew of personal and season bests had been set on the track.
"These amazing results and the comments we heard throughout the Games about Mondotrack being 'super fast' and a 'magic carpet' are extremely gratifying," Federico Stroppiana, CEO, Mondo Group. "Our efforts to develop tracks that are both soft and fast result in surfaces that provide the optimum blend of comfort and speed, making the tracks ideal for both training and high-speed competition and resulting in record-breaking athletic performances."
Topping the list of London 2012 track and field highlights on Mondotrack was Usain Bolt becoming the first man in Olympic history to win the 100- and 200-meter races and the men's 4x100-meter relay in two consecutive Games. The Jamaican's gold medal performances at the 2008 Beijing Olympics also were on Mondotrack.
The Games also produced the fastest 100-meter race of all time, with seven of the eight participants in the final crossing the line in less than 10 seconds. (The eighth, Jamaica's Asafa Powell, was slowed because of an injury.) That race also saw four of the seven competitors establish or equal personal or season bests.
The three world records established during the Games on Mondotrack were:
The four new Olympic records set during the Games on Mondotrack were:
Track and field Olympians also posted numerous national records, personal bests and season bests on Mondotrack, including:
Mondotrack is the newest track surface by Mondo, the global leader in the sport flooring market. Mondotrack builds on the success of the company's world-renowned Super X Performance track, which was the world's top track for more than 30 years and was an official track of eight Olympic Games through 2004. Designed for superior athletic performance, Mondotrack provides optimal traction and a greater contact area than other tracks. It converts the maximum amount of force generated by athletes' foot strikes to energy for maximum energy return, which helps athletes achieve faster times compared to running on other surfaces
More than 230 world records have been set on tracks made by Mondo, including five at the 2008 Olympics and three at these London Games.
About Mondo
Online Teaching Techniques (College of the Redwoods Workshop) – Video
Posted: at 9:10 am
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Online Teaching Techniques (College of the Redwoods Workshop) - Video
Strides in online education pave way for virtual charter schools in N.J.
Posted: at 9:10 am
NEWARK In just over a week, 80 sixth-graders will walk into a brick office building in downtown Newark, flip open their wireless laptops, and log on to class in one of the states newest schools.
Merit Preparatory Charter School will begin classes Aug. 27 on one floor of a Broad Street building, with walls removed to create a large open space, glass partitions defining classrooms, and wireless routers dotting the ceiling.
Students have been using computers to learn for years, but Merit Prep, and Newark Prep, a new charter high school, are unique in that students will primarily learn math, language arts, social studies and other subjects online. They will spend only half the school day working with one of seven instructors in small groups to sharpen their knowledge of the class material.
At a time when online learning has become commonplace in workplaces and colleges, and when students routinely use Powerpoint for homework or collaborate with classmates online, many say virtual teaching seems like the next step in education.
"I think New Jerseys overdue. Colleges are starting to insist students take online courses to help prepare them for the global economy," said Sr. Elizabeth Dalessio, assistant superintendent of Monmouth Ocean Educational Services Commission, which provides online classes for grades 6-12 through the New Jersey Virtual School.
Dalessio said students from 100 districts across the state that use the commissions courses work at their own pace, and even get more teacher contact, often via e-mail.
"I had one student say I feel like Im in the first row of the classroom," she said.
Merit Prep and Newark Prep are not the first in the state to try virtual teaching; a few districts run online alternative schools or summer schools and a "hybrid high school operated briefly in Newark, but they are leading a wave of charter schools planning to offer online education in New Jersey including several proposed full-time virtual schools.
New Jersey is one of only 10 states that does not yet have a statewide virtual school, which would allow students to take classes from home. That may soon change.
Next year, the Monmouth Ocean commission hopes to open New Jersey Virtual Charter School, one of two virtual charter schools awaiting final approval from the state whose students would take all classes at home.
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Strides in online education pave way for virtual charter schools in N.J.
Families explore online education
Posted: at 9:10 am
By Matthew Stolle The Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
This fall, for the first time, Rochester parent Lizzi Clobes plans to "send" one, if not two of her three school-age children, to an online school.
The biggest reason: an online school, Clobes says, offers a more conducive environment for the unique learning style of her eldest son, Dawson, who has special needs and was occasionally overwhelmed by the sheer size of the Rochester middle school he attended. He was also occasionally bullied at school, she says.
Clobes reached her decision Thursday after attending an open house hosted by three public online schools whose growth has mirrored the growing popularity of virtual education. Thursday's event was held at the Ramada Hotel and Conference Center in southwest Rochester and drew about 80 parents and children, organizers say.
The open house, called "Discovery Day," underscores the changing landscape of K-12 education. Parents today have a diverse array of educational options to choose from. Where once parents were limited to public or private schools, that menu of options now includes choice schools, charter schools, online schools, home-schooling or schools outside their home district.
"I think it's absolutely phenomenal," Clobes said about the online options now available to parents.
Online schools capture only a tiny fraction of the students who reside within the Rochester School District. According to figures compiled by Rochester Public Schools, only about 100 Rochester students attended a virtual school in 2010-2011, the latest year for which figures are available. While only a small demographic blip, it stands in contrast to the fact that eight years ago there were no Rochester kids going to online schools.
Online options growing
Events like the one held Thursday attest to the potential for growth among online schools. Jennifer Houghton, marketing manager for K12, the Virginia-based company that supplies curriculum to the three online schools, said that when she first hosted open houses four years ago, "no one came to my visits." Now an average turnout at metro-area events is between 400 and 600 people.
The three online schools represented Thursday were the Minnesota Virtual Academy, Insight School of Minnesota and iQ Academy Minnesota. The virtual academy, a Houston-based school that opened in 2001 with 30 students, enrolled 2,100 students last year, Houghton said.
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Families explore online education
Capella Education Company and Brandon Hall Group Announce Series of Webinars on Online Training Solutions for Businesses
Posted: at 9:10 am
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Capella Education Company, a provider of online post-secondary education through its wholly owned subsidiary Capella University, has partnered with Brandon Hall Group to offer a series of free webinars on how online learning solutions enable critical training programs to move from the physical classroom to the virtual classroom.
The four-part series, titled Distance Learning for High-Stakes Applications: Beyond eLearning to Online Learning Institutes, will cover the following topics:
Our recent research clearly demonstrates this growing global trend towards distance-learning institutes, said Mike Cooke, CEO, Brandon Hall Group. Organizations need to find more cost-effective ways to meet their critical learning goals for large, geographically dispersed workforces.
The webinar series begins on August 23, 2012, with the remaining sessions following at approximate two-week intervals concluding on Oct. 10, 2012. Details about specific dates and times, along with registration details, will be available at http://www.brandonhall.com/events/webinars/categoryevents/1.html.
About Capella Education Company
Founded in 1991, Capella Education Company is a leader in online education, primarily through our wholly owned subsidiary Capella University, a regionally accredited online university*. In addition, Capella Education Company offers online education through Resource Development International Ltd. (RDI), an independent provider of United Kingdom (UK) university distance learning qualifications; and owns Sophia, a first-of-its-kind social education platform that offers students many ways to learn by making free, credible, academic content available to anyone, anywhere, at anytime.
Capella University offers online graduate degree programs in business, counseling, education, health administration, homeland security, human resource management, human services, information technology, nonprofit management and leadership, nursing, psychology, public administration, public health, public safety, and social work; and bachelor's degree programs in business, information technology, nursing, psychology, and public safety. These academic programs are designed to meet the needs of working adults, combining high quality, competency-based curricula with the convenience and flexibility of an online learning format. Currently, Capella University offers 44 graduate and undergraduate degree programs with 149 specializations. More than 36,000 learners were enrolled as of June 30, 2012, from all 50 states and 59 other countries. For more information about Capella Education Company, please visit http://www.capellaeducation.com. For more information about Capella University, please visit http://www.capella.edu or call 1.888.CAPELLA (227.3552).
* Capella University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), http://www.ncahlc.org. Capella University, Capella Tower, 225 South Sixth Street, Ninth Floor, Minneapolis, MN 55402, 1.888.CAPELLA (227.3552), http://www.capella.edu.
About Brandon Hall Group
Prescribing yoga on the NHS could slash annual £1.37billion back pain bill, say experts
Posted: at 2:16 am
Bad back sufferers taking part in the yoga programme had far fewer days off work than those in the control group
By Claire Bates
PUBLISHED: 07:33 EST, 17 August 2012 | UPDATED: 07:33 EST, 17 August 2012
Most people will experience back pain during their lives, but for some it can become a chronic debilitating condition.
In 2011, just over 35million sick days were taken for musculoskeletal problems - the majority for back and neck problems.
Now a team from the University of York have found that specialist yoga classes could slash the number of days taken off work for the agonising condition.
Good practice: Alison Trewhela (right) partly designed the yoga classes that focus on strengthening the back
What is more, they say that if the cost could be kept below 300 per patient it would save the NHS money. Back pain is estimated to cost the NHS 1.37 billion and the health care sector 2.10 billion a year.
The team evaluated a 12-week group yoga intervention programme compared to conventional GP care alone.
The results, published in the journal Spine, revealed that those taking part in the yoga programme had far fewer days off work than those in the control group.
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Prescribing yoga on the NHS could slash annual £1.37billion back pain bill, say experts
Yoga Could Be A Cost-effective Treatment For Back Pain
Posted: at 2:16 am
Editor's Choice Main Category: Back Pain Also Included In: Sports Medicine / Fitness Article Date: 17 Aug 2012 - 1:00 PDT
Current ratings for: Yoga Could Be A Cost-effective Treatment For Back Pain
4 (1 votes)
The specially-developed 12-week group yoga intervention program was observed and compared to conventional general practitioner (GP) care alone.
In order to decide if this was an appropriate use of NHS resources, the cost of the program needed to be checked out. There are currently no available yoga classes through the NHS which is why the team wanted to find the likely cost of a program.
After much examination, the experts, from the University of York's Department of Health Sciences and the Centre for Health Economics, and the Hull York Medical School, concluded that there was a high chance (around 70%) of the yoga intervention being cost effective if the cost remained below 300 per patient (for a cycle of 12 classes).
Results also showed that participants in the control group had more days off work than those in the yoga program. After reporting back pain, a control group participant took an average of 12 days off. The cost associated with this control group participant's time off was 1,202, as opposed to 374 for a yoga group member.
Professor David Torgerson, lead author and 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."
He continued to explain how there has been little research on yoga's cost effectiveness, even though evidence has shown the benefits for people with chronic and low back pain. "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 one of the most common medical conditions treated in primary care in the U.K., costing the NHS about 1.37 billion and the health care sector 2.10 billion a year. Each year, an estimated 2.6 million people suffer with back problems and turn to their GP for advice.
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Yoga Could Be A Cost-effective Treatment For Back Pain
Auriemma: No interest in coaching at 2016 Olympics
Posted: August 17, 2012 at 9:20 am
By By PAT EATON-ROBB
STORRS, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said he has no interest in returning as head coach of the U.S. national team for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Auriemma met with reporters at UConn, five days after coaching the U.S. team to a fifth straight Olympic gold medal.
He said he was honored to get the job and ecstatic with the results, but described his interest level in doing it again as "zero."
"If you ask me right now, today, I would say it is somebody else's turn," he said.
Mike Krzyzewski returned as coach of the men's team after the 2008 Games to lead them to another gold medal in London, but the USA has traditionally switched women's basketball coaches after each Olympics.
Tara VanDerveer, Nell Fortner, Van Chancellor and Anne Donovan each led teams to Olympic gold before Auriemma took the job as national coach in 2009.
USA Basketball spokeswoman Caroline Williams said it is too soon for the organization to begin thinking about the coach of the 2016 team.
"USA Basketball generally doesn't even begin the process until at least the winter after the Olympics," she said in an email. "We still have many competitions this year and the next major competition for our USA National Team isn't until 2014, so the coaching staff for the next squad hasn't even come up for discussion yet."
Auriemma said he believes it will be more difficult for the women to win in 2016. Other countries such as France and Turkey are making great strides with their programs, and some key players for the U.S. are aging, he said.
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Auriemma: No interest in coaching at 2016 Olympics