The last five years have been tough for those in retirement. Portfolio valuations have been hammered and annuity rates have plunged. There's no sign of things improving anytime soon, either, as the eurozone and the UK economy look set to muddle through at best for some years to come.

A great way of protecting yourself from the downturn, however, is by building your retirement fund with shares of large, well-run companies that should grow their earnings steadily over the coming decades. Over time, such investments ought to result in rising dividends and inflation-beating capital growth.

In this series, I'm tracking down the UK large-caps that have the potential to beat the FTSE 100 (Euronext: VFTSE.NX - news) (UKX) over the long term and support a lower-risk income-generating retirement fund.

Today, I'm going to take a look at GlaxoSmithKline (Other OTC: GLAXF.PK - news) , the UK's largest pharmaceutical company.

Performance enhancing drugs

GlaxoSmithKline's product range includes consumer brands such as Lucozade, Sensodyne and Nicorette, as well as its prescription drugs and vaccines. It's a classic defensive stock and has been far less volatile than the FTSE 100 over the last 5 years:

Source: Morningstar (NasdaqGS: MORN - news)

(Total (Other OTC: TTFNF.PK - news) return includes both changes to the share price and reinvested dividends. These two ingredients combined are what make it possible for equity portfolios to regularly outperform cash and bonds over the long term.)

Although GSK's trailing 10 year average total return is below that of the FTSE 100, anyone holding GSK shares from 2007 until today would have seen a total return, including reinvested dividends, of 40%, compared to 12% for the FTSE 100 total return index.

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Is GlaxoSmithKline The Ultimate Retirement Share?

Last year, the average U.S. consumer carried $6,576 in credit card debt. Earlier this month, the average credit interest rate stood at 14.5 percent.

With so many people struggling with large balances and high interest rates, Money Talks News founder Stacy Johnson gets asked this question more than most: Do I pay off my debts or save for retirement? Check out his answer in the video below, then read on for details about what you should do

Click here to watch Save for Retirement or Pay Down Debt? on MoneyTalksNews.com

When youre trying to reach your financial goals, you have to decide what investment will give you the highest return. Compared to the rate of return on a typical savings account, CD, or stock investment, youll have a higher rate of return by paying off your credit cards first.

Say you have $7,000 in credit card debt and a 15 percent interest rate. If you pay the minimum payment of $157.50 (2.25 percent) on your credit card, it will take 25 years to pay it off. During that time, youll pay $8,229.16 in interest.

On the other hand, if you paid $300 a month toward your credit card balance, youd have the debt paid off in 28 months and youd only pay $1,328.13 in interest.

As Stacy said in the video, if youre paying 15 percent on a credit card, paying it off is like earning 15 percent tax-free and risk-free. Thats hard to beat.

But theres an exception to this rule: a 401(k) or other type of retirement plan that offers a company match. In these plans, your employer matches your contributions up to a certain amount, typically 50 percent of whatever you contribute, capped at 6 percent of your annual salary. So if you earn $50,000 annually and contribute $3,000 (6 percent) to your retirement plan, the company will contribute $1,500.

Thats free money: something hard to come by!

If your company matches any of your 401(k) contributions, make sure youre contributing enough to get every free penny being offered by your plan. After that, put any extra income you have left into paying off your debt. Once your debt is wiped out, then you can start contributing more to your 401(k) or looking into other investment options.

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Save for Retirement or Pay Down Credit Card Debt?

NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- John C. Bogle, Founder of The Vanguard Group, Inc., and President of Vanguard's Bogle Financial Markets Research Center is set to headline AdvisorOne's 5th Annual Retirement Income Symposium to be held on October 4-5, 2012 in Boston.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100316/SUMMITLOGO )

AdvisorOne's Retirement Income Symposium, the leading event in the Northeast, provides an established and progressive learning environment for retirement professionals who actively sell, market, support, or service retirement plans. The Symposium is geared to provide advisors with clear, actionable strategies that they can utilize to address their clients' needs.

"Simply putJohn Bogle is a legend, revered not only for his innovation in the investing space, but for his strong advocacy for always putting the clients first," says John Sullivan, Editor-in Chief of Investment Advisor. "We are honored to have a person of Bogle's character and temperament with us at our conference; someone who is clearly 'the conscience of the industry.'"

This year's event will bring together the perfect blend of industry trail-blazers looking to provide a leading-edge program for financial and investment advisors, planners and brokers. For more information on keynote presenters, CE accreditation and to view the agenda, please visit http://www.risymposium.com.

About Summit Business Media

Summit Business Media is the leading B2B media and information Company serving the insurance, financial services, legal and investment advisory markets. Summit strives to be "The Next Generation of Business Information" for executives and practitioners by providing breaking news and analysis, in-depth practice management strategies, business-building techniques and actionable data. Summit services the information needs of its customers through numerous channels, including digital, print, and live events. Summit publishes 16 magazines and 150 reference titles, operates 20 websites and hosts a dozen conferences, including the world's largest mining investment conference in South Africa. Summit's Marketing Data Group provides detail on nearly one million health and benefits plans in the U.S. For more information, visit http://www.sbmedia.com

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John Bogle to Headline AdvisorOne's 5th Annual Retirement Income Symposium

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ2GzwfjsUc

08-08-2012 10:15 Michael Phelps says he is excited to be able to enjoy just watching swimming following his reirement from the sport. Report by Sam Datta-Paulin. More Michael Phelps: Paying tribute to Usain Bolt: Phelps retires: Wins record-breaking 19th medal: Pre-Olympics interview: Sympathy for Tiger Woods: Subscribe to ITN News! Like us on Facebook: Follow us on Twitter:

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Michael Phelps talks life after swimming following his retirement after 2012 Olympics - Video

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KACU2NumrAc

07-08-2012 16:33 CDR Yamaha Josh Coppins retirement announcement.

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CDR Yamaha Josh Coppins retirement announcement. - Video

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07-08-2012 05:32 Retirement Worries Good News for Advisors, Says Accenture

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Retirement Worries Good News for Advisors, Says Accenture - Video

NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Prudential Retirement, a business unit of Prudential Financial, Inc. (PRU), today announced it will serve as recordkeeper for Las Vegas-based MGM Resorts Internationals 401(k) plan.

Prudential Retirement is pleased MGM Resorts selected us to recordkeep its 401(k) savings plan and we look forward to serving MGM Resorts plan participants, said George Castineiras, senior vice president, Total Retirement Solutions, Prudential Retirement. Through our open architecture platform which provides a broad range of fund choices and educational materials, we look forward to helping plan participants achieve superior retirement outcomes.

The plan has roughly 24,500 participants and approximately $858 million in assets, which were transferred to Prudential in the second quarter of 2012.

We selected Prudential Retirement as our plans recordkeeper because of Prudentials demonstrated results that drive successful participant outcomes, its low expenses, strong performance and excellent communications program, said MGM Resorts Executive Director of Benefits, Cindy Moehring.

Prudential Retirement delivers retirement plan solutions for public, private, and non-profit organizations. Services include state-of-the-art record keeping, administrative services, investment management, comprehensive employee investment education and communications, and trustee services. With over 85 years of retirement experience, Prudential Retirement helps meet the needs of over 3.6 million participants and annuitants. Prudential Retirement has $244.8 billion in retirement account values as of June 30, 2012. Retirement products and services are provided by Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company (PRIAC), Hartford, CT, or its affiliates.

Prudential Financial, Inc. (PRU), a financial services leader, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudentials diverse and talented employees are committed to helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth through a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and investment management. In the U.S., Prudentials iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century. For more information, please visit http://www.news.prudential.com/

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Prudential Retirement selected as recordkeeper for MGM Resorts 401(k) plan

I'm 24, make $65,000 a year and between contributions to my Roth IRA, 401(k) and the company match to my 401(k) I save 21% of my income. Am I saving too much for retirement? Do you think I should save less and spend more while I'm young? -- Matt, Hoboken, N.J.

There's no question that when it comes to saving for retirement, you, my friend, rank near the very top. Most people with 401(k)s contribute about 7% or so to their retirement accounts and the national savings rate isn't even close to double digits.

But just because you save way more than most of your compatriots doesn't necessarily mean you're saving too much.

When I plugged your numbers into one of my favorite retirement calculators, it estimated that you would have a greater than 90% chance of being able to retire at 65 on 75% of your projected pre-retirement salary. Most people would die to have those odds.

But as attractive as your retirement prospects may appear now, you need to step back and take a reality check. We're talking about forecasting 40 years into the future. So even though you manage to save more than 20% of your income now, is it realistic to assume that you'll be able to keep up that pace over the next four decades?

Maybe, but it would be tough. You're only 24, a point in your life where you probably have relatively few financial obligations. As you get older, you may want to start a family, buy a house, perhaps go back to school for an advanced degree. All of those things will place more demands on your income, possibly crimping your ability to continue salting away money at your current rate.

Related: 25 and 'scared stiff' of making an investing mistake

There are also plenty of things beyond your control: a layoff or health problems could derail your savings regimen, market setbacks might seriously impede the growth of your savings, possible changes in the Social Security system could make your benefit less generous than is currently projected.

All of which is to say that, from a purely financial point of view, I think it makes sense to stick to your ambitious savings rate while you can.

Think of it as an insurance policy of sorts, providing a bit of cushion should you find yourself unable to save as much as you'd like down the road or if poor investment performance prevents your nest egg from growing as expected.

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Retirement savings: How much is too much?

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx8Zj4lCX5s

06-08-2012 04:33 How to Calculate Your Retirement Needs

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How to Calculate Your Retirement Needs - Video

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS1cvomcDfs

05-08-2012 01:54 When it was over, Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer of all time, slipped away, sliding over the lane dividers as onlookers trained their attention on the final leg of the 4x100 medley relay. Phelps' final lap, one in which he regained the lead, buoyed the Americans back in front. He lifted himself onto the pool deck, and eyed Nathan Adrian, the American anchor, closing toward the finish wall. Phelps never looked back, instead hugging and high-fiving his other two teammates as his gilded age came to a close on Saturday. Phelps, 27, finished his competitive racing career with more Olympic gold medals (18) than wunderkind Missy Franklin has years lived (17). PHOTOS: DAY 8 AT THE LONDON GAMES He burnished his brilliant resume, replete with an Olympic-record 22 medals and engraved his legacy with strokes of genius, ensuring the afterglow would shine for years following his official retirement. His final moment in the natatorium was spent with Bob Bowman, his coach the last 15 years. The two men embraced as an oupouring of applause showered them. "I love you," Bowman said. "We did it," Phelps replied. "I know we did," Bowman said. These Olympic Games were eight days of chlorine and tears for Phelps. He failed to medal in the 400-meter individual medley at the outset, recovered to claim two gold medals as an individual and leveled the ledger with rival Ryan Lochte with a convincing win in the 200 IM. By the end, he refused to pick nits with his form, foregoing the regular ...

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Micheal Phelps Talks Retirement 2012 Olympics - Video