June-Marie Raw Food and Fitness Health Playing keep or give away 001 – Video
Posted: June 13, 2012 at 12:15 am
See original here:
June-Marie Raw Food and Fitness Health Playing keep or give away 001 - Video
June-Marie Raw Food and Fitness Health needs fashion advice help me yikes 006 – Video
Posted: at 12:15 am
Originally posted here:
June-Marie Raw Food and Fitness Health needs fashion advice help me yikes 006 - Video
Health plans expand services to boost members’ fitness
Posted: at 12:15 am
Health plans are making moves toward offering one-on-one, customized health coaching to members, a new benefit they say members demand.
An example of the industrys direction came from WellPoint in May. The countrys second-largest private health insurer by membership announced it will offer some members access to a full-service online personal trainer who will be at the members beck and call, offering customized meal plans and workout tips along with as much support and advice as the member wants.
The Indianapolis-based parent of 14 Blues plans will give its employer and individual customers the option to buy discounted services from FitOrbit, an online weight loss and fitness service founded in 2009 by Jake Steinfeld, who came to fame in the 1980s with his frequently aired Body by Jake infomercials.
Many insurers, including WellPoint and competitors such as Aetna and Cigna, provide health coaching that can include help with smoking cessation, weight loss and improved nutrition. Typical benefits include discounted membership to WeightWatchers or Jenny Craig diet programs as well as discounted gym memberships. Those perks have been expanded in some cases as health plans seek to define themselves as health service companies rather than just insurers.
WellPoints announcement comes as many insurers are marketing to individuals rather than just employers. As their focus moves to attracting individual business, it helps health plans entice the healthiest members, said Amal Trivedi, MD, MPH, an internist and assistant professor of community health at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Rhode Island. He was co-author of a study in the Jan. 12 New England Journal of Medicine showing that Medicare Advantage plans that offer discounted fitness club memberships were selected by a healthier and lower-cost subset of beneficiaries (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22236225/).
That bias toward what is called favorable selection is something for policymakers to keep in mind, Dr. Trivedi said, but its also true that as a physician, he likes to see patients adopt healthier eating and exercise habits.
There is a strong incentive for health plans to attract people who are healthy and therefore less expensive, he said. Wellness benefits may help patients eat healthier and exercise, but they also can have important financial implications.
WellPoint spokeswoman Jill Becher said the insurer is responding to a demand from customers. We know for both employers and individual consumers, health maintenance and improvement is important to them. As a company, we need to be responsive to that, and this is another tool for us to do that.
Steinfeld said he envisions FitOrbit trainers working with clients physicians if the client gives the go-ahead by sharing what the patient is eating, how much he or she is exercising and how much weight is lost. The end goal is to have your doctor, you and your trainer working as a team.
WellPoint is working to determine what the service will cost for members and how many will have access to the new benefit. Becher said the insurer expects to offer it in 2013. WellPoint also is a FitOrbit investor, but Becher said the company is not disclosing how much it has invested.
Read the original post:
Health plans expand services to boost members’ fitness
"Fit for Life" program targets child obesity
Posted: at 12:15 am
RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) -
Richmond Public Schools wants its students to be "Fit for Life!"The school health and fitness challenge targets the growing childhood obesity epidemic and culminated in a field day Tuesday.
The program is based on the idea healthy bodies make healthy minds. It's pioneering the use of financial incentives as motivation for kids to get fit.
12-year-old Pope is a sixth grader at Albert Hill Middle School. He puts a frighteningly common dilemma simply.
"When I was younger, I always was big, the bigger kid, and I didn't like being the bigger kid," he said."So I put myself into the work."
He put himself to work by working out his body and mind in the district's one-of-a-kind "Fit for Life" pilot program.
"We go outside, exercise, play basketball, play sports outside, do work in the classrooms," Pope elaborated.
The challenge is two-pronged: The first part provides free to the student after-school medical exams and physicals.The second is a fitness competition.
Gene Parris, who teaches Pope, said that competition has changed the kids by showing them the benefits of physical activity.
"They are aware now that they can do fun things and now fun things can also keep you healthy," Parris explained.
Read the original here:
"Fit for Life" program targets child obesity
Michael Reese – America’s Retirement Expert
Posted: at 12:14 am
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Michael Reese, CFP, CLU, ChFC, a seventeen year veteran of the financial services industry and one of the most successful retirement planners in the country, is the founder of Centennial Wealth Advisory in Traverse City, Michigan. He has trained over a thousand financial advisors across the country in post-retirement financial strategies and is often referred to as Americas Retirement Expert. Reese spent several years hosting his own financial planning radio program and now hosts The Michael Reese Show on television every Saturday morning on NBC.
Reese specializes in creating innovative tax and investment solutions to help his clients live well during their retirement years. The strategies Reese created and proved through successful financial planning with hundreds of clients over the years has catapulted him into the national spotlight. He is the featured educator at the Advisors Excel IRA College which attracts the top financial planners in the country. He has been a featured speaker at the Senior Market Advisor Expo as well as a multitude of other venues across the country. He is often the expert guest invited to financial radio and television programs across the country and has been quoted by leading publications such as Kiplingers, U.S. News and World Report, Bank Rate, Reuters, Life Insurance Seller, Senior Market Advisor, and Yahoo Finance to name a few.
Reese is the author of the book, The Big Retirement Lie: Why Traditional Retirement Planning Benefits the IRS More Than You. In addition to his current book read by retirees and financial planners alike, Reese is also working on another book, Reeses Retirement Rules 5 Simple Rules to Enjoying Financial Security in Any Economy, that will be published this year. He has also been recruited to write a chapter in Jack Canfields upcoming book, The Success Secret. A documentary about Reese is also in the making and is scheduled to be released later in the year. Reese continues to expand the geographic reach of his audience and aspires to bring his expertise to a national television audience. Reese emphatically states his mission, I want to change the way Americans invest their money during their retirement. Contact information for Reese is available at his website, http://www.michael-reese.com.
Read More: http://michael-reese.com/about-mike-2/who-is-michael-reese/
Go here to see the original:
Michael Reese – America’s Retirement Expert
Do-it-yourself retirement income
Posted: at 12:14 am
(MoneyWatch) Baby-booomers who are retiring with only their 401(k) balances to live on and no lifetime pension benefits face a daunting challenge: How do you turn your 401(k) funds into a retirement paycheck that lasts for the rest of your life?
As I previously wrote, the good news that many 401(k) plan sponsors are considering adding retirement income options to their plans in which the plan sponsor shops for viable products and services that will help participants generate a retirement paycheck. But the flip side is that more than half of all 401(k) plan sponsors won't be adding any retirement income options to their plans anytime soon. If you're in that boat, don't despair -- you still have two effective ways to develop a long-lasting retirement paycheck:
1. Generate a retirement paycheck directly from your employer's 401(k) plan, or 2. Roll your balances into an IRA that offers effective retirement income solutions.
In this post, I'll describe the first option; my next piece will describe the rollover solution.
401(k) retirement income options coming your way Active managers lag index counterparts - again IRA and 401(k) drawdown: Just tell me what to do for managed payouts
Getting a retirement paycheck from your employer's 401(k) plan
This option can be effective if your employer's 401(k) plan includes low-cost index funds that are balanced between stocks and bonds -- target date funds are a good example of this type of fund. Look for funds whose annual investment expenses are well below 50 basis points (0.50 percent). New 401(k) fee disclosure rules can help you more easily make this determination. Whatever you do, resist the temptation to use actively managed, high-cost funds that shoot for exceptional returns (My CBS MoneyWatch colleague Larry Swedroe has demonstrated repeatedly that this is a loser's game.)
Most 401(k) plans allow you to take installment payments when you retire instead of getting a lump-sum check for the value of your entire account balance. These installments are typically paid either monthly or quarterly. All you have to do is tell your 401(k) plan administrator the amount of each installment payment you want, either in dollar terms or as a percentage of your account balance, and specify the investment funds from which the payments will be made. You can make it easy on yourself by having the payments sent electronically to your checking account.
You'll want to be cautious in determining the amount of each installment payment -- withdraw too much money early in your retirement and there's a good chance you'll outlive your savings. Determining a safe withdrawal amount is the subject of much debate and analysis among financial writers and analysts. My prior post provided simple guidelines for determining appropriate withdrawal amounts, including satisfying the required minimum distribution (RMD) rules once you reach age 70-1/2. (If you have the mathematical appetite for digesting the best thinking on safe withdrawal rates, check out financial expert Wade Pfau's excellent Retirement Researcher blog.)
You should know, however, that even with supposedly safe withdrawal rates, there's always the chance that you'll outlive your savings if you live well past your projected life expectancy or if there are severe economic meltdowns in your future. If you really want the guarantee of a lifetime retirement income, no matter how long you live, then you'll need to buy an annuity from an insurance company. If that's not offered in your 401(k) plan, you'll need to use the IRA rollover solution, which is the subject of my next post.
Read this article:
Do-it-yourself retirement income
Retirement age must rise
Posted: at 12:14 am
Gradually increasing retirement ages may be the only way governments can keep up with people living longer, a report said on Monday.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As life expectancy continues to rise, a new report suggests that governments need to raise the age of retirement in order to keep up.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said that by 2050, the average woman and man can expect to live roughly 24 and 20 years beyond retirement age respectively, up from 20 and 17 years in 2010. At the same time, retirement ages across many countries have stayed the same.
Without a change, the Paris-based economic think-tank said governments won't be able to pay for more people needing retirement funds for longer periods of time.
"Extending working lives in a situation of slowly growing or declining workforces should provide an important boost to economic growth in aging economies," according to the report, which was released Monday.
The United States could use a boost. Social Security has already begun paying out more in benefits than it takes in from workers' payroll taxes. The trustees of the Social Security program reported in April that the program projects a $165 billion deficit in 2012. Social Security could pay promised benefits in full through 2033, the report said.
Raising the full retirement age gradually to 70 years-old could help plug this deficit by reducing Social Security outlays by 13 percent, the Congressional Budget Office reported in January.
"With the fact that people are living longer, they should be partly responsible for meeting the cost of longer life expectancy," said Juan Yermo, head of the private pensions unit at OECD.
Today, the full retirement age in the United States is 66, up from 65 a decade ago. It is scheduled to increase by two months a year starting in 2017 until it reaches 67 in 2022. Meanwhile, 62 remains the age at which those who retire early can collect a percentage of their full benefits.
The OECD suggested, however, that "67 or higher is becoming the new 65."
Read more:
Retirement age must rise
Retirement savers stay put when employers boost contributions
Posted: at 12:14 am
By Mark Miller
June 12 - So much for the notion that workers will drop out of their workplace retirement savings plan if employers automatically enroll them at aggressive contribution rates.
That's been the often-heard excuse for auto-enrollment rates in 401(k) plans averaging 3 percent. But a study released on Tuesday by New York Life Retirement Plan Services found that workers in plans with higher default initial contribution rates are more likely to stay in their plans, increase their contribution rate and personally manage their investment choices.
Plans with less than 4 percent default rates experienced a 14 percent opt-out rate, compared with 10 percent for plans with greater than 3 percent default deferrals, the study said.
Automatic enrollment has exploded since the passage of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which contained provisions aimed at boosting participation rates. It's having a positive impact. A record 76 percent of U.S. workers participated in a defined contribution plan during 2011, according to a new report released on Tuesday by Aon Hewitt.
Retirement readiness also is improving, Aon Hewitt found. The study projects that the average worker will need 11 times his final pay in retirement resources; average workers are on track to accumulate 8.8 times final pay, leaving a shortfall of 2.2 times pay. Still, that was a small improvement compared with 2010, when the shortfall was 2.4 times pay.
But low default initial contribution rates are a persistent problem. Sixty-six percent of workplace plans with automatic enrollment set a default contribution rate of 3 percent or less, according to Aon Hewitt. Employers know there's a problem here: 70 percent of plan sponsors recommend that workers contribute at least 9 percent of income.
WHY THE GAP?
One reason may be employer caution, says David Castellani, CEO of New York Life Retirement Plan Services. "In the early days of default enrollment, there has been some timidity - plan sponsors decided to start off with lower numbers," he said.
But a more important factor is the increased cost of employer matches that accompanies higher worker contributions, says Robyn Credico, leader of the defined contribution practice at Towers Watson, the benefits consulting firm.
Originally posted here:
Retirement savers stay put when employers boost contributions
Neil Young documentary gets up close and personal … literally
Posted: at 12:14 am
By Randy Lewis Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES Neil Young Journeys, the new concert film reuniting the idiosyncratic Canadian rocker and director Jonathan Demme, raises the notion of spitting distance to a whole new level.
While filming Young in concert last year at Massey Hall in Toronto, Demme employed microphone-mounted cameras to capture the performance from unusual angles, including close-ups of Youngs mouth. In the middle of the song Hitchhiker, which traces the musicians life story from his early years in Canada through rock stardom in the U.S., saliva lands directly on the camera lens.
1 of 48
The 25th annual Bridge School Benefit Concert featured guest performers Beck, Mumford & Sons, Los Invisibles with Carlos Santana, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, Tony Bennett, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, Arcade Fire and of course organizer Neil Young. Photos by Shawn Parker, heyreverb.com
2 of 48
The 25th annual Bridge School Benefit Concert featured guest performers Beck, Mumford & Sons, Los Invisibles with Carlos Santana, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, Tony Bennett, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, Arcade Fire and of course organizer Neil Young. Photos by Shawn Parker, heyreverb.com
3 of 48
The 25th annual Bridge School Benefit Concert featured guest performers Beck, Mumford & Sons, Los Invisibles with Carlos Santana, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, Tony Bennett, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, Arcade Fire and of course organizer Neil Young. Photos by Shawn Parker, heyreverb.com
4 of 48
Read the original:
Neil Young documentary gets up close and personal … literally
College students report changes in money management and college success behaviors
Posted: at 12:14 am
INDIANAPOLIS, June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- USA Funds surveys of students who had received personal finance education through their college or university disclose that nine of 10 respondents changed how they manage their personal finances and college life.
Among the 1,522 students who responded to the quarterly surveys, 90 percent reported changing at least one financial or college success behavior after completing lessons of USA Funds Life Skills, an online financial literacy and student success curriculum for college students. Of those students reporting changes in their personal finance behaviors, the respondents reported making an average of 10 behavioral changes.
The five behavioral changes most frequently cited by the survey respondents along with the number of respondents citing each change are as follows:
USA Funds invited all students who had completed at least one USA Funds Life Skills lesson between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2011, to complete an online survey. Respondents could choose from a list of 25 possible personal finance behavior change statements, including topics related to managing school life and student loans, managing student finances and managing personal life issues.
"These results indicate that regular exposure to personal finance education can help college students adopt habits that promote completion of their college programs, as well as sound spending and saving practices and wiser use of credit," said Denise B. Feser, USA Funds senior vice president, School and Student Services.
In addition to quarterly follow-up surveys, USA Funds assesses the impact of USA Funds Life Skills lessons in the following ways:
USA Funds Life Skills is a Web-based financial literacy and student success program designed to help students learn to manage their money and time wisely while in school and after graduation. The curriculum includes 34 lessons that cover a range of topics, including paying for college, managing student loans, managing money and credit, living on a budget, setting goals, preparing for graduation and balancing school and personal life.
Headquartered in Indianapolis, USA Funds is a nonprofit corporation that works to enhance postsecondary education preparedness, access and success by providing and supporting financial and other valued services. For more information about USA Funds, visit http://www.usafunds.org.
Continue reading here:
College students report changes in money management and college success behaviors