A few years ago I saw a former client (lets call her Christine) in a social setting. She had just gotten married, was about to have a baby, left her job, and moved from an urban area to a suburban one. As she updated me on things in her life, she expressed confidence in her decisions but also confessed it was rough at times. She then apologized for the latter pretty quickly, lest she sound ungrateful.

Why wouldnt it be hard? I said. Youve made a number of major changes in your life.

Her face instantly brightened and I thought she might cry with happiness.

Yes! she said. Yes. Thats true. No one wants to hear me say that because they say I have all these things I always said I wanted.

To be clear, these were still things she wanted. A life partner she loved and all that comes with building that life together.

This was really about the whole grass is greener issue. A little bit on Christines part, but more so on the part of the female friends who were pooh-poohing her for being the least bit freaked out by all the change.

Lets review. Completely different way of life in suburbia. A grinding halt to an active career (a temporary one, but a halt nonetheless). Independence vs. partnership. And on the brink of being a parent for the first time.

Hello, adjustment period.

Does anyone honestly think they can wrap their head around all that and just keep going? Yes, if youre emotionally healthy you count your blessings. But you also ask yourself over and over again if you knew what you were getting into. Because boy are you going to be experiencing some radical change.

Meanwhile, Christines friends were wondering why she wasnt hanging off a chandelier doing twirls in a blissful state. And it had her wondering, too.

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Greener Grass Requires Adjustment Periods

July 13, 2012

Kids at the Boys & Girls Club in Charlottesville spent the day learning about healthy eating and healthy lifestyles.

The 10th-annual health fair is sponsored by the University of Virginia Medical Center. A number of faculty, residents and staff took part to show the kids healthy habits.

Kids took part in a number of activities from running to CPR training and even a Zumba class.

UVa. also offered physicals for any high school students participating in sports.

"Children learn a little bit about health and nutrition in school and they learn some at home, but the more knowledge they have and learn as a child, the healthier adult they'll be," said Nancy McDaniel, a pediatrician at UVa.

The health fair is part of UVa.'s continuing efforts to make an impact in the community.

"Over the years I've been doing it, I've noticed these kids, they look healthier," McDaniel said. "They're slimmer, they're more active and it is just good for them to be able to make their own decisions about activity and food."

More than 200 children took part in the Boys & Girls Club's health fair.

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B&G Club Health Fair Focuses on Kids' Fitness

Open registration begins this week for Livingston County Health Centers 10 week Weight Loss and Wellness program for adults who would like to get educated about improving their level of health and lose a few pounds along the way.

The Weight Loss and Wellness program focuses on two of the more important aspects of a healthy lifestyle: nutrition and activity. Its not a diet but rather a comprehensive program that emphasizes a healthy lifestyle approach to weight management by integrating fitness, nutrition and the behavioral aspects of eating. Through this program, participants will experience an enhancement of their quality of life.

Each participant completes a Health Survey, Wellness Screening and receives an individual consultation, after which, educational support will be offered for a ten week session, beginning Aug. 15th.

The Wellness Screening component of the program includes a heart health screen including measurement of blood pressure, cholesterol, lipids and glucose and body mass index to determine risk for heart disease. Participants meet individually with a health center RN to review screening results and set individual goals for improvement. Each week, participants weigh in and educational classes are held every other week.

The goal for the participants completing the program is to lose 2 percent of their body weight by the end of the program and/or have established a regular activity/exercise routine of three times a week for at least 30 minutes a day. The program will continue to follow up on participants, offering a subsequent wellness screening and evaluation of continued progress after the program ends.

Basic blood work is done before beginning the program. If you would like to receive a complete panel, attend the July 25th Adult Blood Draw Clinic at the health center, from 7 to 10 a.m. If youve had blood work done in the last 6 months, simply bring a copy of those results to put on file. Those interested in being a part of the August session should call 646-5506 to set up an appointment with Program Coordinator Anita Perry, RN or come by the health center office at 800 Adam Drive to register. Registration is limited.

Please check with your doctor before significantly changing your diet or starting a new exercise regimen.

The rest is here:
Livingston Co. Health Center to offer weight loss and wellness Program

This month's enactment of the retirement plan fee disclosure law brings to mind the definition of a true professional -- someone who gives others the same advice they would follow for themselves knowing what they know about their vocation. So a whistle-blower would be someone who steps forward to point out that their fellow associates are not acting professionally. Their collective behavior is self-serving, but nobody wants to mess up a good thing.

Considering the legions of MBAs and Ph.D.s that populate the nation's financial services industry -- and purporting to help people prepare for an adequate retirement -- I find it a little strange that few had thought to calculate the true opportunity cost of retirement plan fees.

All it takes is some punching up of some compound interest figures on a calculator. What it ultimately took was the action of a few whistle-blowers throughout the industry -- starting with John Bogle at Vanguard.

For the past 20 years, the 401(k) industry and the retirement advisory community were charging participants an unconscionable amount and they were accessing their fees from retirement accounts -- the most expensive money anyone could use to pay a bill. The mutual fund industry is arguably the world's most profitable industry because buyers are not price-sensitive. When you are charged a fee but never receive an invoice, or have to write a check, it's the silent spring of stealth billing.

Moreover,

The average equity mutual fund during that 20-year period was earning about 15 percent per year. Money compounding in a retirement plan at that rate doubles every five years. But fees can take a big chunk from the fund; $100 charged in fees in the single year of 1980, for instance, would otherwise have compounded to $1,600 by early 2000 if it had been left in the fund at the beginning of that 20-year stretch.

And remember, fees taken out of your fund also reduce your return. So, for instance, a fund earning 15 percent a year actually gives you a return of 14 percent a year if the fee is 1 percent. When you calculate that missing 1 percent over long periods of time, the opportunity cost goes off the charts: $1.3 million in 30 years on a $10,000 per year annual 401(k) contribution.

Even with more normal 10 percent returns, the cost of the missing 1 percent is $355,000 in 30 years on the same $10,000 annual contribution.

The earliest published attempt to compare the cost to employees among the major retirement plan vendors occurred in 1998. A cost index was the subject of articles in the New York Times followed by Money magazine with its eight-page cover article "Beware Retirement Plan Rip-off." The Labor Department held televised hearings in Washington and then published a pamphlet that warned company decision makers to avoid high fees -- and that was it.

Finally in 2009, some 10 years after initial calls for disclosure, Rep. George Miller took action as head of the Committee on Education and Labor. His efforts resulted in what is now the new fee disclosure legislation that just went into effect this month. Your plan committee now knows what all your costs are, and you will be told along with your September quarter-end statement -- by law. I could argue that this legislation has the potential to add a trillion dollars to retirement accounts over the next 30 years -- at no cost to anyone but the financial services industry.

Continue reading here:
Retirement Planner: Counting the positives of new fee disclosure law

It seems the new mantra is that you need 100% or more of your pre-retirement income to live comfortably in retirement. But shouldn't you be able to get by with much less considering you no longer need to save for retirement and you may no longer have a mortgage? -- David Kolkebeck, Readsboro, Vt.

I agree that the "replacement ratio," or percentage of pre-retirement income advisers claim one needs to live well in retirement, seems to have crept up over the years.

When I started writing for MONEY magazine in the 1980s, people routinely referred to the "70% rule" when discussing the percentage of pre-retirement income one ought to shoot for.

Soon 70% expanded to 80% or 90%, and before long, some people began suggesting that 100% was a more realistic benchmark. A few years ago, one retirement research firm even came up with a figure of 126%.

Related: Can you trust your financial adviser?

Conspiracy theorists see something sinister in this retirement income inflation: Ah, those sly investment firms are pushing the replacement ratio higher, so we have to invest more money in mutual funds and the like, which allows them to collect bigger fees. But I think something less ominous is at work: uncertainty.

The simple fact is that it's tough to know exactly how much income you'll actually need in retirement. A recent study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that household expenditures decline later in life, dropping roughly by a third between ages 65 and 85.

But that doesn't mean your spending will follow that trajectory. Your outlays in retirement can vary widely depending on a number of factors, including: how closely you want your retirement lifestyle to mirror the way you lived during your career; how much you've saved for retirement and your kids' college expenses; whether you retire with a mortgage or other debt; whether you have retiree medical coverage from your company or will rely solely on Medicare; and how much you earned during your career.

So rather than viewing a replacement percentage as something you can pinpoint precisely, think about it as a very general guideline that can help you estimate how much you ought to be saving during your career and to gauge whether you're making progress on the retirement planning front.

As a baseline, I'd start with a replacement ratio of 70% or 75%. That should reflect the fact that many of the expenditures you face during your career -- saving for retirement, work-related expenses, the cost of raising kids -- won't be around after you retire.

Original post:
Pre-retirement income: How much you'll need in retirement

Updated: Friday, 13 Jul 2012 22:11 Perri Shakes-Drayton (bottom right) celebrate as she crosses the line in a personal best time

World champions Dai Greene and Mo Farah tonight found themselves overshadowed by British team-mate Perri Shakes-Drayton in the Aviva London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace.

Olympic team captain Greene had been hoping to break Kriss Akabusi's 20-year-old British record of 47.82 seconds in the 400 metres hurdles, but could only finish second behind Puerto Rico's Javier Culson in 48.10secs.

And although Farah enjoyed a comfortable victory over 5,000m, the performance of the night came from Shakes-Drayton in the women's 400m hurdles, with the Londoner storming to a surprise win in 53.77s.

Former Olympic champion Sally Gunnell is the only British athlete to have run faster and Shakes-Drayton's time was also joint second fastest in the world this year, taking 0.41s off her personal best set when winning European bronze in Barcelona two years ago.

European champion Irina Davydova of Russia was second and Jamaica's Kaliese Spencer third, with Beijing Olympic champion Melaine Walker more than 1.7s behind Shakes-Drayton in fourth.

The 23-year-old, who had been ranked just 21st before the race, said: "I'm over the moon with the time. I thought it was an opportunity to race the best girls which I haven't had this year.

"I thought 'Come on girl, pull your socks up, you have to go for it', and I sure went for it. I just believed in myself and reminded myself what I've done. I've had a good day at the office.

"It gives me confidence knowing that my training is going well but I'm not going to let it get to me too much. I'm still going to remain level-headed because it's not finished yet."

Greene had looked back to his best in Paris last week, clocking a new personal best of 47.84 to miss Akabusi's record by just 0.02s, but he again had to settle for second place behind Culson tonight.

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Shakes-Drayton steals limelight

By Tom Gibbs - July 13, 2012 | Tickers: BBY, CBS, COST, FB, VLKAY.PK | 0 Comments

Tom is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

Following a clearing up of Facebooks (NASDAQ: FB) IPO debacle the stock has recently risen nearly 30% from its post-IPO low there are now a slew of other enterprises with enough confidence to offer their own shares on the public market. In addition to online travel search engine Kayak Software and network-security firm Palo Alto Networks Inc., iconic guitar and other musical instrument manufacturer Fender has recently set the price of its soon-to-be offered shares. Is it worth looking into?

Company & IPO Information

Fender has had an eventful 66-year operating history. Founded in the mid-1940s by Leo Fender, the corporation was eventually acquired by CBS (NYSE: CBS) twenty years later. Put through a series of massive cost cuts and placed alongside other uncomplimentary firms during CBSs acquisition streak (also included the New York Yankees in 1964), Fenders image for quality took a huge hit from a prolonged era of uncharacteristically shoddy products. Fender company management eventually bought out the enterprise in 1985, revitalized the brand, and sold nearly half of the firm to private equity firm Weston Presidio in the early 2000s.

Finally jumping into the public arena, Fender will be selling 10.71 million shares 7.1 million issued by Fender and 3.6 million from Weston Presidios 42% ownership stake. With an estimated per share price target between $13-$15, the corporation hopes to raise as much as $160.7 million and plans to use the majority of the proceeds to pay down its ~$247 million debt burden. Total leverage should be reduced from around 4.7x EBITDA to 3.2x EBITDA (both trailing twelve months) following the debt payment.

Products & Distribution

Fender is obviously known best for its long history of outfitting musicians with quality electric, acoustic, and bass guitars, but the large breadth of its total product portfolio is rather surprising. After acquiring Kaman Music in 2007, the corporation was ample to rapidly expand with the added Jackson, Guild, Ovation, Gretsch, Eddie Van Halen, and Takamine brands. Fenders portfolio of fretted instruments, amps, percussion instruments, and accessories (strings, picks, cables, straps, etc.) now caters to beginner and professional musicians alike with price points from below $200 to the mid-$20,000s.

Fenders finished product is distributed to end-consumers through a variety of channels. Nearly 60% of the corporations sales are derived from its independent channel, which is comprised of more than 13,000 smaller and independently owned music stores. Another 25% is pushed through larger retailers and the corporations own direct channel online. Large, multi-unit musical instrument retailers like Guitar Center (which itself represented around 15.5% of sales over the past three years) and Sam Ash comprise the bulk of this secondary channel, although other big box names including Costco (NASDAQ: COST) and Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), which began rolling out in-store music centers nearly five years ago, do push product to more amateur consumers. The remainder of the corporations sales, especially in emerging markets where Fender has a small but growing presence, are driven by a distributor channel whereby equipment wholesalers sell products to smaller instrument retailers.

Recent Performance

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Will a Fender Investment Strum a Positive Chord in Your Portfolio?

Just six days after Bradley Wiggins does or doesn't roll into the Champs lyses and the history books as the first British man to win the Tour de France, the focus of a summer in which cycling fever has gripped the country like never before will be a 10-mile loop of winding road in the green hills of Surrey.

Box Hill, 15 miles east of Guildford, has for decades been a magnet for amateur cyclists drawn to the hairpin bends of its Zig Zag Road. In exactly two weeks, they will give way and watch as a five-man British team, including Wiggins and Mark Cavendish, takes on the hill in their bid to win Britain's first gold medal at the Olympic road race.

Fans of Andy Murray will never swing a racket on Centre Court. Amateur footballers will never miss a penalty at Wembley. But on a rare sunny morning last week, I pedalled my bike from London to Box Hill and back to pave the way for the pros.

What they may not appreciate as they whizz round the loop nine times on their way to the finish line on The Mall, where Cavendish is favourite to win, is what this peaceful corner of the Home Counties symbolises for a sport that has risen from niche to national obsession and what all sports can learn from its triumph.

The good news: the Zig Zag Road will be a ride in the park after Wiggins' Alpine exploits during the Tour. The newly laid tarmac takes in two hairpin bends but soon flattens out to offer breathtaking views. I was panting rather more than the pros will. Two years ago, I was cycling almost 200 miles a week. Today I consume almost that figure in biscuits.

But cycling offers a sporting stage for players of all abilities and shapes. And in the weeks in the run-up to the 156-mile road race, on 28 July, and the 87-mile women's race the next day, vast amateur pelotons have come to what will be one of the most picturesque venues at the Games.

Tony Scott is, like me, wearing Sky kit, in honour of the team that boasts Wiggins and Cavendish. The youthful 53-year-old, a Box Hill regular for 30 years, is typical of a free-wheeling demographic that has grown to such proportions it has a name. They are the "Mamils" (Middle-Aged Men In Lycra) who have 4,000 to burn on a bike and Sunday mornings to kill on rural roads.

"I've always come out here once a week," says Tony. "When I heard the Olympics were going to be on my doorstep, it was brilliant and now I'm riding more often because it's so lively."

Dave Fleming owns Cycles Dauphin, in the village of Box Hill that has benefited from the increase in traffic. "There are hundreds if not thousands of riders going past at weekends," he says. "Yesterday we had a guy with his son who'd come down from Aberdeen just to check out the course."

Thousands of spectators are expected to line the Olympic route on race day. Many will be cyclists, but the unprecedented success of British riders first in the velodrome, and now on the road is steering the sport into the mainstream.

Original post:
From the Alps to Box Hill, cycling hits summit of success

The ubiquity of digital gadgets and sensors, the pervasiveness of networks and the benefits of sharing very personal information through social media have led some to argue that privacy as a social norm is changing and becoming an outmoded concept. In this conclusion of his seven-part series, Don Tapscott argues we each need a personal privacy strategy.

The issue of personal information has been muddled with the opportunity for corporations to become more transparent. To be sure, as I wrote almost a decade ago in The Naked Corporation (co-author David Ticoll), firms can gain huge benefits from sharing pertinent information with customers, employees and other stakeholders. Corporate secrecy is highly overrated and increasingly companies will become more open in many areas simply to perform better.

We argued in the book that largely because of the arrival of the Internet, transparency is a powerful new force in business. People everywhere have at their fingertips the most powerful tool ever for finding out whats really going on and informing others. Customers can evaluate the worth of products and services at levels not possible before. Employees share formerly secret information about corporate strategy, management and challenges. To collaborate effectively, companies and their business partners have no choice but to share intimate knowledge. Powerful institutional investors are developing x-ray vision. Finally, in a world of instant communications, whistleblowers, inquisitive media and googling, citizens and communities routinely put firms under the microscope.

Overall this is a positive development. Whether youre a government or company, when youre increasingly naked, fitness is no longer optional. Transparency will force you to get buff. And if you are fit, you can open the kimono about your organization and when you do good things can happen. Appropriate transparency drops transaction and collaboration costs. It increases loyalty and trust. It speeds up the metabolism of collaboration and contributes to organizational performance.

This is not to say companies should share all their secrets. There are many areas where secrecy pays off, from your business strategy to your product release plans. But increasingly there are many areas where companies can undress for success.

The advocates of personal openness, however, err in thinking the same principles should apply to individuals. Corporations are legal entities that society allows to be created and tasks them to achieve certain societal objectives. They benefit enormously from the privilege of limited liability that society extends to them. As such, they have obligations to us, including being appropriately transparent.

Individuals have no such obligations. We abhor institutions that are secretive. But we have and should continue to respect individuals who are very private persons.

Yes, when companies become transparent they also may find themselves releasing personal information such as the compensation levels of corporate management. But senior executives control the institution and as such are not simply private individuals. In their corporate capacity they have a social obligation to reveal some personal information. This goes with the job, as it should.

Conversely they have an obligation to fiercely protect the privacy of their employees, customers and other stakeholders. Unfortunately the debate about personal openness has obscured and muddled these important differences.

As the new movement for personal openness grows there is a bizarre new danger that people who are private become stigmatized. We know nothing about her vacation location. He refuses to publish his DNA sequencing. What are they hiding?

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Corporate secrecy and personal privacy are opposites

(CBS/AP) Perhaps Facebook is an addiction after all. A California yoga instructor learned that hard way that you can't comes between one student and her social network.

Alice Van Ness, who was hired to teach hour-long yoga sessions at Facebook's Menlo Park campus, has been fired for her disapproving stink-eye glare at a Facebook employee using a cellphone in class.

Van Ness says she tells students before class to turn off their cellphones. But a female employee pulled out her cellphone in the middle of a Monday session and began texting.

The San Jose Mercury News says Van Ness didn't say anything, but she gave the student what she calls a look of disapproval.

"We're not talking about the U.S. government here," Van Ness told the San Francisco Chronicle. "We're not talking about Russia is about to bomb us. We're talking about Facebook. Something can't wait half an hour?"

The student later complained and Van Ness was fired by Plus One Health Management. The termination letter says Van Ness "made a spectacle" of the student.

Excerpt from:
Yoga teacher fired for glaring at Facebook worker