There are various ways to plan and save for retirement, but for some, that advice is about 40 years too late. Even if you're starting late or have faced numerous setbacks, retirement is possible. Here are some tips from industry professionals on how to make your last-minute retirement dreams a reality.

The most important thing is taking the first step and sticking with it, according to Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies in Los Angeles.

"Achieving a sense of retirement readiness is a lot of small steps that can lead to a quantum leap," she says.

The first step

To prepare for retirement, Collinson first suggests taking "a financial look in the mirror." Understand what your personal balance sheet is and calculate a savings goal. Collinson notes that this needs to be a real, calculated goal and not just a spitball estimate.

Wade Mayo, president and CEO of Life Insurance Company of the Southwest in Dallas, says that the amount of money a person needs to retire varies depending on the person, the type of lifestyle they want to live, medical expensesand their dependents.

"It is important to estimate Social Security benefits and other sources of income and what a person expects to spend annually in retirement," Mayo says.

Many experts say it takes about 70 to 85% of your pre-retirement income in order to maintain your lifestyle during retirement, according to Mayo.

People should also plan on having enough to live on for another 25 to 30 years when estimating what they'll need to retire, he adds.

Start saving

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It's Never too Late to Plan for Retirement

COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Nationwide Retirement Solutions (NRS), Nationwide Financials public-sector retirement plan business, today announced that it will continue to serve the Cook County, Illinois, deferred compensation plan for another five years. Under the agreement, NRS will provide the recordkeeping, marketing and education for the plans nearly 18,000 participants.

Nationwide looks forward to continuing our successful partnership with Cook County, said Anne Arvia, president of retirement plans for Nationwide Financial. We place the highest priority on providing our plan partners with a comprehensive defined contribution plan that provides their participants with the service, support and resources they need to prepare for a financially secure retirement.

Since 1997, NRS has served as the exclusive administrator for Cook County and the new contract extends this partnership until 2017, with two one-year optional extensions. The Cook County plan has approximately $961 million in assets.

Nationwide offers robust education for participants in all stages of retirement planning, including personalized account information available through one-on-one conversations with licensed financial professionals.

Weve had a successful relationship with Nationwide for the past fifteen years, and we look forward to continuing to work side-by-side with them to ensure our participants have the resources they need to prepare for retirement, said Tariq Malhance, the Countys Chief Financial Officer.

About Nationwide

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the U.S. and is rated A+ by both A.M. Best and Standard & Poors. The company provides customers a full range of insurance and financial services, including auto insurance, motorcycle, boat, homeowners, pet, life insurance, farm, commercial insurance, annuities, mortgages, mutual funds, pensions, long-term savings plans and specialty health services. For more information, visit http://www.nationwide.com.

Nationwide, Nationwide Financial, the Nationwide framemark and On Your Side are service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.

Information provided by licensed financial professionals is for educational purposes only and not intended as tax, legal, or investment advice. Retirement Specialists are registered representatives of Nationwide Investment Services Corporation, member FINRA.

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Nationwide Retirement Solutions Renews Contract with Cook County

WD 2go Mobile App Combines Collaboration Benefits of Dropbox with Performance, Security and Capacity of WD Personal Cloud Solutions

THAILAND, Bangkok July 25, 2012 WD (NASDAQ:WDC), a world leader in external storage and connected home solutions, today introduced powerful new collaboration and file management features, including Dropbox integration, in the next generation of its popular WD 2go mobile app for their personal cloud products, the My Book Live and My Book Live Duo.

WDs personal cloud products provide shared storage on the home network, letting customers centralize their important documents, photos, videos and music in one place as well as automatically backup all the computers in their home. With the WD 2go app customers can access and share that content from outside the home on their mobile devices.

The new version of WD 2go lets customers move, copy and share content between their mobile device, their Dropbox and their WD personal cloud combining the benefits of personal and public cloud storage into one, easy-to-use app. For example, if a user has a small number of photos they want to share with their friends, they can copy them from their personal cloud into their Dropbox using the WD 2go app. But if they have a very large number of photos, or files that are too big for their Dropbox, they can use WD 2go to send a secure link to the files via email. WD 2go is available for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch or Android compatible mobile devices.

WD is committed to providing consumers with secure storage of digital content and access to it on any screen, on-the-go or at home, said Jim Welsh, executive vice president for WD's branded products and consumer electronics groups. By combining access to Dropbox and personal cloud storage into a single intuitive mobile app, WD is empowering consumers with the flexibility and control of anytime, any-device management of their growing libraries of digital content.

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PR Center

Devices record diet, sleep and exercise patterns The US track cycling team are using glucose monitors, sleep trackers and genetic reports Data will be used to improve products for the amateur health and fitness market

By Emma Reynolds

PUBLISHED: 07:14 EST, 23 July 2012 | UPDATED: 03:34 EST, 24 July 2012

Olympic athletes are providing fitness data in exchange for high-tech gadgets that record sleep, diet and exercise patterns to help improve their performance.

Health technology companies are using the athletes results to develop tracking devices for the burgeoning fitness and weightloss markets.

The track cycling team from the US are testing a sleep monitor, a glucose monitor - which can help diabetics manage blood sugar - and genetic reports on their nutritional needs and muscular capacity.

Setting records: Athletes taking part in the Games are sharing information on their sleep, diet and exercise patterns to help improve fitness gadgets

The companies are hoping the Games will increase the exposure for their products, many of which have only been recently developed.

Sky Christopherson is a consultant to the team and founder of the Optimized Athlete - which analyses patterns in health data to improve athletes' results.

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London 2012: Olympic athletes swap personal fitness data for latest gadgets in bid for 2012 edge

Settled her differences ... Genevieve LaCaze. Photo: Getty Images

The athlete and the coach who said she shouldn't be on the team have finally met and shaken hands at the athletics team's camp south of London.

Steeplechaser Genevieve LaCaze met team high performance manager Eric Hollingsworth and spoken briefly to remove the awkwardness of her arrival on the team after Hollingsworth had taken a hard line that she should not be selected as she had achieved the A-standard time for the 3000 metres steeplechase after the Athletics Australia cutoff date.

Just like any other team member she is a member of the team and she is treated as such and I have no problem with Genevieve whatsoever and the focus is on this Australian team doing well and that is how we will set up

LaCaze ran her sought-after time two days after that deadline but still more than a week before the Australian Olympic Committee's deadline. AA initially refused to consider her time as Hollingsworth said should be the case, but the sport's body was pushed into overturning that decision by the AOC which insisted all athletes be given the most time possible to qualify and they didn't want an athlete to be punished by an arbitrarily early deadline.

Eric Hollingsworth, right, pictured here with John Steffensen, says he has no issue with LaCaze. Photo: Jason South

"He [Hollingsworth] did introduce himself when I collected the uniform the other day. I have been introduced and that's all it's been so far," LaCaze said.

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Hollingsworth said he had never had a problem with LaCaze personally but he had been adhering to strict rules on selection in order to be fair to all athletes.

"Just like any other team member she is a member of the team and she is treated as such and I have no problem with Genevieve whatsoever and the focus is on this Australian team doing well and that is how we will set up," he said.

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Nothing personal: steeplechaser LaCaze thrilled to wear the green and gold

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Fitch believes personal bankruptcy filings are likely to decline by 11% for the current year. The expectation follows data indicating that filings in first half of this year were running well below initial expectations. According to The National Bankruptcy Research Center (NBKRC), U.S. personal bankruptcy filings decreased by 13% in the first half of this year

The drop in bankruptcy filings is having a direct and positive impact on consumer asset-backed securities (ABS), particularly in the credit card sector, by holding many risk measures at cyclical lows. We expect performance to hold at or near current levels through the end of the year. Bankruptcy filings typically comprise approximately 30%-40% of overall credit card chargeoff results and the improvements are helping offset unemployment pressures for consumers.

We believe the pace of improvement will level off later this year, as banks appear to have begun loosening underwriting standards recently. Consumer borrowing rose by $17.1 billion in May from April, according to the Federal Reserve. That pushed total borrowing to a seasonally adjusted $2.57 trillion, approaching the high reached in July 2008. Increases over the previous 18 months had been attributed to auto and student loans, while credit card usage declined or stayed the same. That abruptly changed in May when credit card debt increased by $8 billion, its largest one-month jump in nearly five years.

The decline in bankruptcy applications began in 2011, after four years of increases. In 2010, NBKRC reported 1.5 million filings. That was the highest level since 2005, when the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act reduced the likelihood and amount of discharged debt in personal bankruptcy cases. In 2011, amid signs of slow improvement in the labor and real estate markets, personal filings declined by 11.6% to 1,353,186. The improvements in bankruptcies have come amid a pullback in consumer credit usage and overall reduction in household debt.

Additional information is available on http://www.fitchratings.com.

The above article originally appeared as a post on the Fitch Wire credit market commentary page. The original article, which may include hyperlinks to companies and current ratings, can be accessed at http://www.fitchratings.com. All opinions expressed are those of Fitch Ratings.

ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: http://FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEBSITE 'WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM'. PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE AT ALL TIMES. FITCH'S CODE OF CONDUCT, CONFIDENTIALITY, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AFFILIATE FIREWALL, COMPLIANCE AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE 'CODE OF CONDUCT' SECTION OF THIS SITE.

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Fitch: U.S. Personal Bankruptcy Expected to Drop by 11% in 2012

OXFORD, England, July 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

The debts associated with a University place are persuading a growing number of would-be professionals to find alternative routes to career success. This year 50,000 young people have decided they will not go to University. However, many astute young people are exploring the option of taking a job in their field of interest and undergoing professional training to get the academic background they need for promotion.

They are earning while they are learning - rather than incurring mountains of personal debt. Even better, many of them are finding that switched-on employers are willing to support them with their studies.

This proven route to career success is perfect for self-starters who want an independent life at 18 and beyond - and don't want to burden themselves or their parents with debt. It is a highly winning formula.

The Oxford College of Marketing has seen many students with 'A' levels go on to do the Professional Certificate in Marketing, followed by the Professional Diploma in Marketing and finally the Professional Postgraduate in Marketing. From there they can become Chartered Marketers -the most prestigious marketing title in the world and a recognised rank generating status and income.

One of our own tutors is an example of how this can work. She came to the Oxford College of Marketing with A Levels. Having worked her way up to postgraduate level she is now a Chartered Marketer and is running her own company - as well as training other ambitious marketers.

But it's not just marketing where this route can work. Many professional institutes offer professional training - for instance the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Of course career success is as much about position as salary. Many non-graduates are concerned that their pay levels will always be behind those of their graduate colleagues. However, by the time most of our self-starters get three years' work under their belt and the Professional Diploma, they are at the same level as their graduate counterparts - some even earning more.

Now isn't that something worth working for?

How to work your way to career success

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Learn While you Earn - The Professional Qualification Route to Career Success

CHICAGO, July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Sodexo and Unilever today celebrate Feeding Our Future, an annual summer program that provided more than 22,000 free meals to local youth this summer. Volunteers from Sodexo, Unilever, and The Campus Kitchens Project gathered at Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center with more than 125 area children to celebrate the program's success and educate the program participants on the benefits of healthy eating.

At the celebration, children ages 4 to 12 joined with Sodexo nutritionists and chefs in an educational tasting program to learn about healthy food choices, perform taste experiments, and sample healthy foods to identify their personal food preferences. Nutrition education activities took students through 6 different learning stations where they made yogurt parfaits from fresh fruit and dairy; sampled vegetables prepared in different ways; experimented with whole grains; learned about healthy protein alternatives; gained understanding about sugar in snacks and beverages; and even participated in a MyPlate relay race as a way to incorporate physical activity. Healthy lunches were also served, which included whole wheat wraps with red pepper hummus, grilled veggies and black beans with a side of fruit and cheese.

Since 1997, Sodexo's Feeding Our Future program has provided more than 268,000 summer lunches to youth from low-income households in Chicago who rely on free and reduced-priced meals during the academic year. The Feeding Our Future program at Northwestern University is run by a team of dedicated college students and Sodexo employees through The Campus Kitchens Project. Feeding Our Future now operates in 24 cities in the United States and is made possible in Chicago by a grant from Sodexo Foundation, the anti-hunger charitable arm of Sodexo, Inc., and matching funds from Unilever. Across the nation, Sodexo employees work closely with local hunger-relief organizations, partnering vendors and clients to prepare and distribute the meals to children at local feeding sites.

"The Campus Kitchens Project and Sodexo Foundation agree that young people play a critical role in the fight to end childhood hunger," said Michael Curtin, CEO, The Campus Kitchens Project. "By participating in Feeding Our Future, student volunteers at the Campus Kitchen at Northwestern University develop valuable leadership skills while making a meaningful impact in their community."

Childhood hunger continues to be a growing problem in the U.S. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, approximately 16.2 million children in America struggle with hunger. Findings from a 2011 study conducted by Feeding America, a national hunger-relief charity, show that the child food insecurity rate in Illinois topped 22 percent, with more than 350,000 children at risk of hunger. The resulting impact of that hunger frequently includes health issues, poor academic performance, and limited future employment opportunities.

"There is one simple thing that any of us can do to offer our children a leg up in the world. Feed them," said Robert A. Stern, chair, Sodexo Foundation. "Feeding Our Future does just that, helping to fill the gap of the 19 million U.S. children not reached by other supplemental nutrition programs during the summer months."

This summer, Feeding Our Future will provide 400,000 summer lunches to youth in Atlanta; Boston; Buffalo, N.Y.; Camden, N.J.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Chicago; Denver; Detroit; Fort Worth, Texas; Honolulu; Houston; Indianapolis; Los Angeles; Miami; New York; Norfolk, Va.; Oklahoma City; Pittsburgh; San Jose, Calif.; St. Cloud, Minn.; St. Louis; Syracuse, N.Y.; Terre Haute, Ind. and Washington.

Programs like Feeding Our Future exemplify the positive contributions that large corporations are making in support of local communities. Working in collaboration with Sodexo are 26 of its vendor partners, including The Coca-Cola Company, Unilever, Sysco and The Schwan Food Company. Together they are providing more than $103,000 in funds which allows Sodexo Foundation to implement these essential supplemental nutrition programs in cities nationwide. Thanks to these efforts, by the end of this summer Feeding Our Future will have provided more than 3 million free summer lunches to children since the program began in 1997.

"Unilever Food Solutions proudly partners with Sodexo on the Feeding Our Future program, as it ties in so closely with our own beliefs and vision to make a difference. Our goal is to have an impact on the vitality and nutrition of millions of people, and childhood hunger is certainly a part of that," said Ted Skodol, director of customer marketing.

To make a contribution to the fight against hunger or for more information, please visit http://www.sodexofoundation.org.

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Sodexo, the Campus Kitchen at Northwestern University and Unilever Celebrate Success of Annual Summer Feeding Program

Photo by Jason A. Smith Connie Dodgen (right), of Hampton, was recently joined by several individuals who spoke out against placing additional restrictions on personal-care homes in Henry. Dodgen said such restrictions would limit the care given to people with special needs.

McDONOUGH Efforts are ongoing in Henry County to clarify requirements for operating personal care homes.

A pending ordinance on the subject has generated debate regarding whether to allow such facilities in residential neighborhoods, according to Henry County Planning & Zoning Director, Cheri Hobson-Matthews. Currently, personal-care homes can have up to three clients in a residentially-zoned district as a home occupation, or up to four clients in residential-agricultural district, as a non-home occupation, she said.

Officials are seeking to determine if the original intent of the countys personal-care home ordinance was to allow the homes to operate inside a subdivision, and to discern how many clients and employees are appropriate in those areas.

With some inconsistencies regarding the utilization of properties for a personal-care home as a home occupation, versus a non-home occupation, Hobson-Matthews said she and her staff felt that it was pertinent to clear up any ambiguities that the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC) presented.

A moratorium, enacted in March, remains in place that gives staffers the opportunity to review and revise the ULDC and Comprehensive Plan, as they relates to the location of personal-care homes within single-family residential districts. It also regulates the development and standards of personal-care homes located anywhere within unincorporated Henry County.

We have not accepted any applications for personal-care homes in unincorporated Henry County, Hobson-Matthews said. The cities have not enacted a moratorium.

Hobson-Matthews said prior to the moratorium, the county did not have adequate licensing measures in place for personal-care home applications.

We wanted to make sure that were incorporating rules and regulations that would protect not only property owners, but individual clients and citizens who utilize personal-care homes for their personal-care services, she said.

A personal-care home can go into an area where they apply for a business license, and there is no further notification, said Hobson-Matthews. Its not like an alcohol license, where you have notify property owners. Its not like a zoning matter, where we have to notify all the affected property owners.

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Where to place personal care home debated in Henry

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire -07/23/12)- MMRGlobal, Inc. (MMRF) ("MMR"), a leading provider of Personal Health Records (PHRs) and electronic document management and imaging systems for healthcare professionals, today announced that The RHL Group, Inc. will increase the credit line of MyMedicalRecords, Inc. by $1.5 million to a total of $4.5 million. The increased credit facility will help the Company with sales and marketing of its MyMedicalRecords (www.mmrvideos.com) patented Personal Health Record and MMRPro (www.mmrprovideos.com) professional products and services as well as continue ongoing talks with potential strategic partners to add to and exploit its biotech portfolio. The Company is also working on identifying a Chief Science Officer to help manage and license existing biotech assets including patents, patient samples and other related intellectual property and other opportunities. Robert H. Lorsch, MMRGlobal's Chairman and CEO, is also CEO of The RHL Group, Inc. Details of the financing will be disclosed in filings with the SEC later this week.

Mr. Lorsch said, "eHealth is clearly becoming the standard for the future of healthcare. Based on the Company's eHealth and biotech patent portfolios, I believe the Company is severely undervalued at this time. I cannot think of a better way to communicate my support and enthusiasm for MMR's future than to increase its RHL Group credit line by 50%. As a result of the passage of the HITECH Act, having a Personal Health Record will someday be as important as having a credit report."

The Company sells its Personal Health Record products and services direct to consumers and healthcare professionals, employers, affinity groups, nurse advocates, senior care providers and retailers. The Company sells its MMRPro document management and imaging systems to physician group practices, ambulatory surgery centers and small hospitals.

MMRGlobal is considered to be a leading provider of Personal Health Record services. The Company is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the rapid growth of health IT and the national and worldwide adoption of eHealth solutions and services as it owns the underlying technology and numerous patents issued pending and applied for globally in the healthcare IT sector.

About MMRGlobal, Inc. MMRGlobal, Inc., through its wholly-owned operating subsidiary, MyMedicalRecords, Inc., provides secure and easy-to-use online Personal Health Records ("PHRs") and electronic safe deposit box storage solutions, serving consumers, healthcare professionals, employers, insurance companies, financial institutions, and professional organizations and affinity groups. The MyMedicalRecords PHR enables individuals and families to access their medical records and other important documents, such as birth certificates, passports, insurance policies and wills, anytime from anywhere using the Internet. MyMedicalRecords is built on proprietary, patented technologies to allow documents, images and voicemail messages to be transmitted and stored in the system using a variety of methods, including fax, phone, or file upload without relying on any specific electronic medical record platform to populate a user's account. The Company's professional offering, MMRPro, is designed to give physicians' offices an easy and cost-effective solution to digitizing paper-based medical records and sharing them with patients in real time through an integrated patient portal. MMR is an Independent Software Vendor Partner with Kodak to deliver an integrated turnkey EMR solution for healthcare professionals. Through its merger with Favrille, Inc. in January 2009, the Company acquired intellectual property biotech assets that include anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies and data and samples from its FavId/Specifid vaccine clinical trials for the treatment of B-cell Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. To learn more about MMRGlobal, Inc. visit http://www.mmrglobal.com. View demos and video tutorials of the Company's products and services at http://www.mmrtheater.com.

Forward-Looking StatementsStatements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature, whether or not such statement relates directly to The RHL Group, Inc. credit facility, and to the Company's future performance, management's expectations, beliefs, intentions, estimates or projections, constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some can be identified by the use of words (and their derivations) such as "need," "possibility," "offer," "development," "if," "negotiate," "when," "begun," "believe," "achieve," "will," "estimate," "expect," "maintain," "plan," "intend" and "continue," or the negative of these words. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the prosecution of our patents; defending, protecting and maximizing the value of our biotechnology and health information technology intellectual property; timing of milestone payments in connection with licensing our IP; the risk the Company's products are not adopted or viewed favorably by the healthcare community and retail market; business prospects, results of operations or financial condition; risks related to the current uncertainty and instability in financial and lending markets, including global economic uncertainties; timing and volume of sales and installations; length of sales cycles and the installation process; timing of new program launches; market acceptance of new product introductions; ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships; relationships with licensees; competitive product offerings and promotions; changes in government laws and regulations and future changes in tax legislation and initiatives in the healthcare industry; undetected errors in our products; possibility of interruption at our data centers; risks related to third party vendors; risks related to obtaining and integrating third-party licensed technology; acceptance of the Company's marketing and promotional campaigns; risks related to a security breach by third parties; litigation matters; risks associated with recruitment and retention of key personnel; uncertainties associated with doing business internationally across borders and territories; and additional risks discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company is providing this information as of the date of this release and, except as required by law, does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Originally posted here:
MMRGlobal Announces Increase in RHL Group Line of Credit to $4.5 Million