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The Charlotte Knights (Class AAA; International League) unveiled new logos and branding to coincide with a move to a new ballpark for the 2014 season.
In keeping with a medieval theme, the Knights new image showcases gold and silver, colors synonymous with royalty. The team's four on-field caps feature a base color of black with white accents, creating a classic combination of colors unique within Minor League Baseball. The font-style in the team's word emblem "Knights" has an Olde English look similar to professional baseball's Charlotte Hornets circa 1950.
"We are very pleased to reveal to our fans our team's new identity as we prepare for our exciting move to Uptown Charlotte," said Charlotte Knights Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Dan Rajkowski. "We wanted to take elements of Charlotte's rich baseball history and celebrate the next era of our franchise. We are committed to the 'Knights' name and wanted to re-brand it as we take our next major step forward."
The Knight returns as the centerpiece of the team's primary logo visible on the home cap. This design starts with a metallic gold-colored letter "C" in the form of a horse's tail wrapped around a Knights armored helmet topped off with a crown signifying the Queen City of Charlotte. Queen Charlotte's crown appears again in the team's name in the letter "H."
The road hat incorporates a jousting Knight on horseback oriented horizontally across the front of the cap crown. Both the alternate and batting practice caps feature artistic versions of the letter "K" with swords. The alternate cap also introduces a dragon into the team's portfolio.
"We view Charlotte as a big league city and spent more than six months working to find the right balance between a classic Major League look and the creative flair Minor League Baseball is known for," said Knights General Manager of Baseball Operations Scotty Brown. "We're thrilled to introduce a new look that includes symbolism and historical elements of the Queen City that our fans can be proud of."
The Knights new look was brought to life by Brandiose. The development process began in February 2012 when company founders Jason Klein and Casey White met in Charlotte with fans, Knights staff and community members to learn about the region and the Knights. With input from all of these groups, Brandiose developed the new look like they have done for dozens of MiLB clubs and Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds.
"With the excitement of the Knights returning to Uptown Charlotte, it's the perfect time for a modern look," said Brandiose's Casey White. "Fans will love the clean, progressive look that celebrates the Queen City's can-do spirit."
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Another twist in the Jørn Utzon Søvaernspendel debate
The identity of the designer of the Søvaernspendel, the light produced first by Nordisk Solar Compagni and later by Louis Poulsen, has been the subject of an ongoing debate on this blog over the past couple of years. Our previous posts and the valuable insights contributed by our readers on the issue can be read here, here and here.
To summarise the key points of the debate so far:
• Three versions of the light were produced, as pictured below. The first, pictured to the left, is the larger Nordisk Solar Compagni version; the second, pictured centre, is a more compact Nordisk Solar Compagni production; and the third, pictured right, is the Louis Poulsen version, a later production and the one most often seen today.*
• The July 1956 issue of Mobilia magazine carries a picture of the smaller Søvaernspendel, attributing its design to Jørn Utzon. But the following month's issue includes an erratum retracting that attribution.
• Alternative suggestions as to the identity of the lamp's designer have included Jørn Utzon's naval architect father Aage, an anonymous member of the navy's technical office, and architect Henning Klok.
But a new contribution from one of our readers brings us back full circle to considering Jørn Utzon. Amongst the exhibits currently on display at the Utzon Centre in Aalborg, Denmark, Hans Jakobsen discovered two drawings for the Søvaernspendel's design, one of them dated 3 March 1952 and labelled Søvaernspendlen, and the other including the Søværnets Bygningsdistrikt (Navy Buildings Department) logo. Hans took pictures of the drawings on his cameraphone and has kindly given us permission to reproduce them here.
* UPDATE 8 October 2012: a reader from Denmark, Kurt Christensen, tells us that the Louis Poulsen version of the Søvaernspendel (discontinued circa the 1980s) is now back in production under a new name – the Doo-Wop!
Related posts:
2 Responses to "Another twist in the Jørn Utzon Søvaernspendel debate"
Why not ask Søværnet (The Danish Navy)? In spite of the last few decades perhaps less flattering history of The Danish Navy they must still have archives over work/designs done by the Building Department.
I seem to have come across a (slightly different) fourth version of this pendant. Or have I? The upper lip look wider and the "skirt" seems to cover more of the inner one. Pictures below for your referemnce


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Morgan Grenfell, one of the most noble names in the old City of London, has been resurrected by a cheeky former employee, triggering a dispute over the ownership of the company name. Lawyers say the new claimant may be able to keep it.
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Banco Santander's scrip dividend diet is unhealthy
Spanish banks have been compensating for a lack of capital by feeding investors an unhealthy diet of sweet-tasting scrip dividends
From The Wall Street Journal


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JC Penney makeover still bloody painful
The retailer's struggles continue, and it must act fast to stop the hemorrhaging.
By Susan Aluise
"Genius is an infinite capacity for giving pains," Oscar Wilde wrote. That just about sums up how J.C. Penney (JCP) shareholders are starting to feel about CEO Ron Johnson's strategy to transform the struggling 110-year-old retailer by fusing competitors' merchandising and pricing strategies with the vibe of Apple's (AAPL) Genius Bar.
Just six months into Penney's extreme makeover, one thing is abundantly clear: Ron Johnson's experiment is not going well.
Last week's sudden departure of JCP president Michael Francis, the highly regarded former Target (TGT) executive charged with drawing up a new merchandising and pricing strategy to compete with Wal-Mart (WMT) and others, is just the latest tremor to shake the retailer since it unveiled its new strategy on Jan. 25.
In a tersely worded statement, the company said little more than that Johnson is assuming Francis' duties and will not seek a replacement.
However, Johnson was more candid about the changing of the JCP guard in an interview with Women's Wear Daily's David Moin: "The marketing I largely left" to Francis, Johnson told the fashion industry newspaper. "The fact that it hasn't resonated -- I had to get involved."
Francis' departure was the company's second high-profile executive exit in the past 70 days. CFO Michael Dastugue, a 21-year JCP veteran who had held the CFO job for only 15 months, left the company in mid-April.
So last month, it fell to his interim replacement, COO Mike Kramer, to help Johnson explain JCP's colossal first-quarter earnings miss. The company reported a $163 million loss, compared with a $64 million profit for the same quarter last year -- more than double the loss analysts had expected. The top line was ugly, too. The $3.2 billion revenue is 20% lower than last year's.
And it gets worse: Same-store sales during the quarter fell by nearly 19%. Its margins and store traffic also fell markedly.
After hitting a 52-week high of $43.13 two weeks after Johnson unveiled the new strategy, shares have hemorrhaged half their value. JCP currently is trading around $21.50, having dropped 4% since news of Francis' exit broke last Tuesday. Another pain for investors: JCP suspended its dividend.
Penney's performance was hardly what Johnson had in mind when he and Francis launched the extreme makeover at a posh party in Manhattan in January. That makeover included taking a page from Target's playbook by launching new budget collections from designers like Nanette Lepore (whose real brand graces the racks at Neiman Marcus) and featuring Martha Stewart's home collection.
Penney stores would also be revamped to look like the retail stores Johnson launched at Apple, including a variation on the tech retailer's Genius Bar concept.
But at the core of Johnson's transformation strategy was JCP's new three-pronged Fair and Square pricing scheme: everyday regular prices, "monthlong values" and "best prices" available on the first and third Fridays of every month. JCP customers traditionally have been attracted to the retailer's many sales and coupons. Johnson believes they need to be "weaned off" of those old habits and retrained to buy products at everyday prices.
JCP planned to pony up $80 million a month to advertise the new pricing scheme, the centerpiece of which were TV ads featuring comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. But many customers found the ads confusing, and the absence of sales and coupons were a good reason to shop elsewhere.
The company has since reintroduced the once-taboo word "sale" into its vocabulary, replacing "monthlong values."
Bottom line
Johnson remains committed to his strategy, attributing the early disappointments to a failure to "communicate pricing strategy to customers."
But here's the thing: Customers loved the sales and the coupons. Johnson admits they "were a drug" that drove traffic. But that hasn't dampened his determination to force JCP shoppers to give up their coupon addiction and go cold turkey.
Forcing change is an epic achievement, if you can accomplish it. The task is far easier if you've cornered the market on a hot tech toy like an iPod or iPad. Johnson had that advantage when he was in the fast and frenzied process of launching Apple Stores. He doesn't have that edge at Penney.
It's only logical that shareholders are getting more than a little antsy about Johnson, who was paid a whopping $53 million last year simply on the promise of turning the company around, as InvestorPlace editor Jeff Reeves discusses here.
Trying to make consumers "realize" that what they want to buy and how they want to buy it is wrong and is, at best, like herding cats. Shareholders will be better served if Penney's "genius" hits pause on his new mantra and replays that time-tested retail motto "the customer is always right."
But until that happens, I'd avoid JCP and all the pains that go with it.
As of this writing, Susan J. Aluise did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
More from InvestorPlace
Penny's is a decent store but what pisses me off is when they do their overhead announcements in beaner speak, spanish
When I hear that **** I drop whatever I was thinking of buying and walk out of the store.
This is America, damn it, stop pandering to illegals and making US citizens listen to some foreign invader language. I'm sick of it.
I will not shop there because of it.
So if anyone reading this is a higher up at Penney's, tell your moron boss to stop with the pandering to illegals and I might shop there again. Same with Sears.
I knew from the beginning that this was going to bomb. As a guy, I really like the JC Penney brand of dress shirts, but I will only buy them if they are a buy one get one sale, or if there is another sale advertised. As a result, no shirts for me.
One other thing turns me off...why does JC Penney have to market toward a certain social position? Why can't companies be neutral when it comes to social issues like gay marriage? Their overt advertising during mother's day and father's day was unnecessary.
Right now, I think JCP is being defiant and Johnson's ego is running the show. I don't know that this can be saved
I was a JCP shopper for nearly all of my adult life and my mother use to shop there with me when I was a child. We LOVED it! The merchandise was upscale enough to look like you were getting something from expensive stores, while at the same time affordable for the working family. When the buyers for the company started replacing the "good" stuff with "cheap" WalMart type of stuff, I quit going. If I want Wal-Mart, I'll go to Wal-Mart and not pay the "good store" price. Then they did away with the catalogs, sales and coupons. It's no longer a treat for me to shop there. I have a news flash for the Bd. of Directors....YOU don't DICTATE how I'm going to spend my money--esp. if you want me to spend it with your company! Suggestion: Fire Johnson...after all.. there's a REASON he's no longer at Apple--esp. if he were all that fabulous!!! No one lets the "golden goose" get away....
The CEO came into a woman's market thinking like a man. Instead of thinking like a man, he needed to think like a woman. Most women brag that they never buy anything full price, thus the sales and coupons motivate them to spend, we don't want you to give us an everyday price and expect us to buy it at that price. I'll wait a few weeks and hope it goes to your best price racks. Men, don't try to change how we shop, just change the way you market your products and prices to us!
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Flatt Lonesome to perform at Lakes Bluegrass Festival
The Lakes Bluegrass Festival will host Flatt Lonesome, a rising star in the bluegrass music genre, when the event occurs Aug. 21-25 at the fairgrounds in Pine River.
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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
National Association of Women Business Owners to install officersby jmaloni
Mon, Jun 3rd 2013 07:00 am
The Buffalo Niagara Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners has announced its 2013-14 officers and board of directors will be inducted on Wednesday, June 12, at the chapter's annual meeting.
They include Marilyn Coté-Miller, president; Donna Scalfaro, president-elect; Nancy Eckerson, secretary; Celeste DiStefano, immediate past president; directors will be Kristine Buchband, Amy Christieson, Jennifer Cooper, Mary Eicher, Dolores McCarley, Suzanne Novelli, Leanne Oldenbrook and Sabina Ramsey.
Categories: ~ NFP ~


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In a large skillet or wok, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and ginger; stir-fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add tofu; stir-fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Add red and yellow peppers; cook, stirring, until peppers are crisp-tender, about 3 minutes.
Add rice and soy sauce; cook, stirring occasionally, until rice is heated through, about 3 minutes. Stir in sesame oil. Season with salt and pepper; garnish with scallions. Serve hot.
It's really more of a "technique" than a recipe ... since it's so simple. That said, I loved it. This is the first time I have really enjoyed brown rice, and tofu. They have the baked tofu at Trader Joe's. I want to eat less meat & I am happy to have this. I used carrots & shredded brussels sprouts instead of bell peppers. Yum!Reply


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Signs of light from the deep Go
Titan of the deep Go
A depth gauge for maximum safety Go
Perfect for the ascent Go
The moon phase display on the Portuguese Perpetual Calendar, Reference 5023, is a grand-scale theatre on a tiny stage.
The Portofino Chronograph brings a sporty touch to the Portofino family. The striking push-buttons are reminiscent of the cockpit of 1960s Italian sports cars.
The Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph has all the precision of a nautical instrument in its genes.
IWC's Concierge Service is here to provide you with the the high quality customer service we are known for within our boutiques, anywhere you might be in the United States.
Our Philosophy, which is based on a passion for watchmaking, [is to preserve] untiring enterprise and perfect craftsmanship
—CEO of IWC Schaffhausen, Georges Kern
For more than half a century, the Charles Darwin Foundation has been researching the flora and fauna of the famous Galápagos islands and acting as adviser to the Ecuadorian Government's efforts to preserve this unique, natural paradise.
With the video series "The Man's Guide to Haute Horlogerie", IWC gives you an insight into the world of Haute Horlogerie made in Schaffhausen.
Preserving the great adventurer's humanist legacy.


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A new T-shirt by a Durham clothing company pokes fun at Cary, boldly proclaiming, "I'd rather be shot in Durham than die of boredom in Cary."
"It's playing into the stereotypes," said Gabriel Eng-Goetz, founder and designer of Runaway, a Durham clothing company. "But everyone knows Durham has changed."
The shirts went on sale for $20 on the company's website Thursday.
Durham has long chaffed at its violent image, while people in Cary are quick to say the town is more lively than outsiders think.
"We know it's controversial but it's really just a joke," Eng-Goetz said. "Even people I know from Cary thought it was funny."
Eng-Goetz, 27, grew up in Durham and lives there now. And he hopes the T-shirts appeal to the young crowd now finding a home in the Bull City.
"This one's definitely a little edgy," he said. "We'll see how it goes."
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Telephone: 813.228.8888
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About one-third of the millions of people who have epilepsy continue to experience seizures, even with the use of medication. New brain stimulation technology now offers hope to those with forms of epilepsy that are resistant to medication.
This summer, neurosurgeons at Rush were the first in Chicago to implant a neurostimulator in the brain to treat epilepsy. The neurostimulator delivers small electrical pulses to the affected area of the brain at the first sign of a seizure to prevent one from happening.
"Ideally, the patient would never even know a seizure was on the way," says Richard W. Byrne, MD, neurosurgeon at Rush and member of the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch Medical Group, who performed the first implant.
Doctors at Rush continue to research innovative technologies for people living with epilepsy. Recently, Rush conducted a study to see if similar neurostimulator technology could help those with severe epilepsy. In the study, a device is implanted in the chest with threaded leads and extensions placed in the brain.
If successful, the study will introduce a new treatment option for people who do not respond to epilepsy medications.


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- Detail Images
Hard-charging standard.
There's a reason the K2 T1 Men's Boa Snowboard Boot is the go-to choice for heavy-hitting backcountry rippers like team riders Lucas Debari and Shaun McKay. It combines the reliability of traditional lacing on the shell and the speed and convenience of Boa Conda on the liner. A stiffer flex enables all-mountain domination with a snug, supportive feeling throughout that has been designed to greatly reduce boot breakdown.
Traditional lacing allows you to adjust the tightness in specific places so you can keep it looser for mellow pow turns and tighten it up when you're pointing it down. The Boa Conda liner lacing system adjusts the liner from the outside to securely lock your foot in place to prevent heel lift and foot fatigue, and Endo construction uses a urethane structure with flex zones that increase in stiffness toward the spine of the boot to provide additional support and a lively feel. An Intuition Pro Foam 3D liner molds to the shape of your foot for a comfy, custom fit, which improves response and board feel by making the boot feel like an extension of your foot.
The Vibram ProLite outsole is rugged and tough to ensure traction and durability whether you're crossing icy traverses mid-winter or scrambling up rocks for late season corn shredding. High-rebound Harshmellow cushioning in the heel and forefoot dampens vibrations for a smoother ride and absorbs shock to make landings softer and more controlled. Harshmellow is also featured in the dual-density EVA footbed for even more cushioning so your feet can take a beating and still get up for more.
- Traditional lacing system
- Boa Conda liner lacing
- Intuition Pro Foam 3D liner
- 3D-formed dual-density EVA footbed with Harshmellow
- Endo construction
- Moldable internal J-bars
- Integrated power strap
- Dual-density 3D-formed tongue
- Vibram ProLite outsole with Harshmellow cushioning


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2014 Ferrari 458 Spider My14 FOR SALE!!! Finished in Gloss White exterior over Black interior. With only 500 Miles this car is flawless, all original,... More
Local Canadian Vehicle, Full History Available - Yellow Brake Calipers - Scuderia Ferrari Shields - Front and Rear Parking Sensors - 20in Diamond Finish Sport Wheels - Special Stitching... More
Carrozzeria Scaglietti: Ferrari CPO Warranty Available, Red Brake Calipers, 6 CD Changer, Electrically Operated Seats, HiFi Sound System, Yellow Instrument Panel, 'Scuderia Ferrari' Shields,... More
2010 Ferrari 458 FOR SALE!!! Finished in a Solid gloss BLACK exterior over an all BLACK interior. Some options on this 458 include: Carbon Steering wheel with LEDs Navigation Bluetooth iPod Scuderia... More
Just in a beautiful and iconic 1998 Ferrari 550 Maranello. A true front engine V12 Grand Tourer, this car has recently undergone a major... More
AFS Front Lighting System, Brake Calipers in Yellow Color, Carbon Fiber Outer B-Pillar Trim, Carbon Fibre Center Console, Cruise Control, Color Upon Request for... More
CLEAN CARFAX--OVER $15K WORK DONE JULY 2014 LOCALLY--3.5L V8 FI DOHC 40V 8CYL--6 SPEED MANUAL--CALL SALES 205 716 1269.... More
Clean 1988 Ferrari Mondail Cabriolet with very low mileage! Sports only 20,700 miles! Features the classic gated 5-speed manual directing the harmonic 3.2L V8,... More
Just in a beautiful 2007 Ferrar F430 Spider F1 with just 6,115 miles. Optional Challenge Wheels, Yellow Calipers, Scuderia Shields, Daytona Seats, Yellow Rev... More
1972 Ferrari 250GT 250TR Pontoon Bodied Testarossa, FOR SALE to the discerning Ferrari Testarossa Buyer. A 250 TR including FIA Certificate of Description and... More
AFS Front Lighting System; Alcantara Upholstery for Headliner; Brake Calipers in Yellow Color; Cruise Control; Colored Safety Belts; Leather Lower Zone Upholstery; Color Upon... More
Just in a beautiful 2001 Ferrari 456m GTA with just 8,711 miles. This car runs and drives like new and is a rare automatic... More
Unique and gorgeous color combination, Gregio Silverstone with Nero interior. Car is in immaculate condition and leather still smells brand new. I have owned... More
2001 Ferrari 360 Spider (US model). ZFFYT53A310125458. Tour de France blue/tan interior. Rare 6 speed manual. Only 11,900 miles. The car underwent a major... More
Ferrari 2002 360GT s/n 007M one of 16 Michelotto's. JMB raced in 2002 FIA GT, second overall in championship, raced 2003 ALMS. Restored and in... More


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Created: 09/20/2013 7:24 PM
By: Ashley McElroy, KOB Eyewitness News 4
A little rain can be good for the track, but last week's storms didn't help the Aztec Speedway.
"It was going to allow the moisture to go through it and when I came back the next day the whole infield was under water were talking about at least 12 inches of water," said Mike Tenski, Aztec Speedway Manager.
The water didn't just damage the track. It also knocked out a stairway to the upper parking lot, making it unsafe for people to use.
"It's a fifteen-foot drop from where you stand to the bottom of the hole," said Tenski.
Speedway officials decided to call off a race last weekend.
And since they couldn't reschedule in time to make repairs, they decided to cancel the rest of the season.
"It's not the way we wanted to do it. We wanted to finish the season on points and have all the championship decided on the track," said Tenski.
But after looking at the points, the last race wasn't likely to change the outcome.
Even though the competitive races are over, the speedway will still host its charity race October 5. The season will then start again in May.
KOB welcomes a lively and courteous discussion as long as you follow the rules of conduct set forth in our Terms of Use. Comments are not pre-screened before they post. You agree that anything you post may be used, along with your name and profile picture, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the license you have granted pursuant to our Terms of Use.
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10 U.S. Code § 333 - Interference with State and Federal law
The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by any other means, shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, if it—
(1) so hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or
(2) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.
In any situation covered by clause (1), the State shall be considered to have denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution.
Source(Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 15; Pub. L. 109–364, div. A, title X, § 1076(a)(1),Oct. 17, 2006, 120 Stat. 2404; Pub. L. 110–181, div. A, title X, § 1068(a)(1),Jan. 28, 2008, 122 Stat. 325.)
|Revised section
|Source (U.S. Code)
|Source (Statutes at Large)
The words "armed forces" are substituted for the words "land or naval forces of the United States". The word "shall" is substituted for the words "it shall be lawful for * * * and it shall be his duty".
Act Apr. 20, 1871, ch. 22, § 3,17 Stat. 14.
2008—Pub. L. 110–181amended section generally, substituting provisions directing the President to suppress certain insurrections and domestic violence in a State for provisions authorizing the President to employ the armed forces during a natural disaster or terrorist attack or to suppress an insurrection in a State and requiring notice to Congress during the exercise of such authority.
2006—Pub. L. 109–364amended section catchline and text generally, substituting provisions authorizing the President to employ the armed forces during a natural disaster or terrorist attack or to suppress an insurrection in a State and requiring notice to Congress during the exercise of such authority for provisions directing the President to suppress certain insurrections and domestic violence in a State.
Effective Date of 2008 Amendment
Pub. L. 110–181, div. A, title X, § 1068(d),Jan. 28, 2008, 122 Stat. 326, provided that: "The amendments made by this section [amending this section and sections 334 and 12304 of this title and repealing section 2567 of this title] shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act [Jan. 28, 2008]."
The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 3, 2012, for this section. Updates to a broader range of sections may be found at the update page for containing chapter, title, etc.
The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Tuesday, August 13, 2013
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A lawsuit and inaction by Congress threaten federally funded embryonic stem cell research at UCSF and across the country.
Latest News
December 01, 2010
November 19, 2010
The UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine has received a matching-gift challenge to spur other philanthropists to contribute to the center's new endowment.
November 17, 2010
Scientists are reporting the first direct evidence that a subtle change in the physical properties of a tissue can affect its function.
November 16, 2010
UCSF and Pfizer, Inc. have formed a new partnership to accelerate the translation of biomedical research into effective new medications and therapies for patients.
November 08, 2010
A tiny, translucent juvenile zebrafish, on the hunt for even littler prey, has offered up a big insight into how a specific circuit of nerve cells functions in the brain.
September 30, 2010
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) on September 30 announced 52 highly competitive awards for high-risk, high-payoff research for young biomedical scientists, and UCSF tops California institutions with four recipients.
September 28, 2010
UCSF research-doctorate programs have ranked among the nation's best in a survey released today by the National Research Council (NRC).
September 27, 2010
Researchers at UCSF have been awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a rapid, pan-viral microarray diagnostic for detecting viruses of extreme outbreak and pandemic potential.
September 02, 2010
UCSF researchers today unveiled a prototype model of the first implantable artificial kidney, in a development that one day could eliminate the need for dialysis.
July 29, 2010
Sally Marshall has received the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) 2010 Wilmer Souder Distinguished Scientist Award.


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Child birth is a completely transforming event in every sense of the word. Our bodies, our values, our entire lives are turned upside down by this one tiny creature. But the one thing that hopefully remains consistent is our husband's love. After all, it is the base of the family and the reason these babies are in creation at all.
Writer Martin Daubney claims seeing his wife give birth put him off sex for a year and nearly cost him his marriage. The changes to her body and the act of giving birth to HIS son were so shocking, they made him no longer want her.
Well dude, here's a clue: grow up. My heart aches for his poor wife who probably has no idea that her husband is a flaming horse's ass. Well let me assure her: he is. There are plenty of real men out there for whom child birth is actually a turn ON (go figure) and I pity a man who feels otherwise.
Sure, child birth is shocking and it changes a woman's appearance, sometimes permanently. But it is also beautiful and special. It is a mark of the bond you share and a deeply intimate thing two partners share.
My heart breaks for his wife and the love she missed out on. Both of my births were so amazing, such beautiful and powerful experiences that brought my husband and I so close together. I loved him before kids, but going through that transformation together was SO powerful. I felt like he loved and honored my body in a whole new way. It's when we became a family for God's sake!
If he ever said something like this, I would truly question his character and depth. Because, really. Come on. This is LIFE. If you can't see that as the biggest turn on the world, then you are a blind, shallow person.
This is sort of like men who won't have sex with women on their periods. If you reject the very thing that makes me most female, then how can I possibly believe that you truly love women?
Having a baby together is a joint, powerful experience that is meant to be shared in love. The fact that this man can't see that makes me sad, both for his wife and for him. Open your eyes, dude. You are missing all the best parts.
Did your husband say anything like this to you?
Image via Tony Fischer Photography/Flickr
I think you are right Rebecca, This man is not an ass but he too is suffereing from a Traumatic Birth. :(
I have a friend who was so horrified at her breast feeding that she quit after a few days. He consistntly says things like "you don't know what it's like to see your wife get all fat" I think the way he behaves is repulsive and I would never marry a man who feels like that. My husband expressed and sense of acomplishment when I was pregnant with his children. He said felt kind of exhilerted that I was regnant with his children and he supported me in breast feeding even though due to a medical reason I was not fully successful at breast feeding. When I gave birth to our second daughter with no pain killers he expressed he felt a huge sense of pride for me. No one is saying they have to get "turned on" by it but there are other positive emotions men can feel associated with pregnancy/child birth/childcare. Oh and he still remains attracted to me even though I got all fat. My husband is not perfect but he's not an ass hat who acts like I'm a repulsive person and ruined because I've had his children.
I don't think most men act like "ass hats" just because their wife got pregnant and gained weight. Most women (most normal women, anyway) are average to plus size and our men must accept us as we are anyway... so I really don't think the post-pregnancy body affects that to a large degree. At any rate, the blogger says that husbands should be "turned on" by child birth, and the fact that she paraphrases a man saying he couldn't have sex for year because he was "turned off" by childbirth says to me that the expectation isn't just with bonding/positive emotions from pregancy and childbirth... she is saying that, men especially, creating life should be a huge turn on... Ya know, childbirth is messy, ugly, sometimes traumatic, and always hard - just because it is the act of bringing your creation into the world doesn't mean that men should find that to be a "turn on".


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Downloads for The Sims 3Downloads
The Sims 3 Patch 1.24.3
Customize everything about your Sims and then you can share it Online. Will your Sims be good or will they disobey?
Download Now
Patch: The Sims 3 Patch 1.24.3
File Info for The Sims 3 Patch 1.24.3
- Title:
- The Sims 3 Patch 1.24.3
- Author:
- Matt Liebl
- Download type:
- Patch
- File size:
- Downloads:
- 1108
- Created:
- July 25, 2011
Description of The Sims 3 Patch 1.24.3Customize everything about your Sims and then you can share it Online. Will your Sims be good or will they disobey?
The Sims 3 lets you immerse truly unique Sims in an open, living neighborhood just outside their door! The freedom of The Sims 3 will inspire you with endless possibilities and amuse you with unexpected moments of surprise and mischief.
· Fences that were designed to be transparent will no longer be opaque when Advanced Rendering is turned off. · The Downloads Dashboard will no longer ask you to log in after already being logged in. · Children will no longer float when sitting on certain fountain sculptures. · Bookshelves in Library venues will correctly stock books when the venue is placed from the Edit Town bin. · Additional bug fixes and polish to existing features


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New for 2014: WAVE START & strollers allowed! RACE DAY is May 4, 2014! Register online at www.TKPK5K.com.
The Takoma Park Safe Routes to School 5K Challenge 2014 promises to be bigger and better than ever, for first time 5K runners and 5 year veterans. The TKPK5K Race Committee is committed to the highest standards for safety and fun, so this year the race will feature a WAVE START and include runners with strollers. The WAVE START allows the top seeded runners to start first, the over 10 minute milers and runners with strollers have their own exciting start (runners with strollers must stay toward the back) and a third wave of walkers to start independently. Only one wave will be in the starting corral at a time.
Here is how it works:
- 8:00 AM START Wave 1: 10 minute mile and faster
- 8:03 AM START Wave 2: Over 10 minute mile and runners with strollers, in the back!
- 8:06 AM START Wave 3: Walkers
The Takoma Park Safe Routes To School 5K promotes pedestrian safety and challenges the students, parents and staff at Piney Branch Elementary School, Rolling Terrace Elementary School, Takoma Park Elementary School, East Silver Spring Elementary School and Takoma Park Middle School and City residents, to train and compete in a 5K run or walk, 1 Mile Fun Run or ¼ Mile Youth Run. Proceeds fund pedestrian safety and health programs through the school PTAs.


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Portable File and Directory Management in Java
The Apache Ant API, a rarely used feature of the tool, provides reliable and portable ways to perform command-line operations from within Java. - JVM Languages
Unified Memory in CUDA 6: A Brief Overview
The advent of a unified memory model in CUDA 6 has made GPU programming much easier by removing lots of implementation details that developers formerly had to manage manually. - Parallel
Parallel In-Place Merge Sort
A very fast, parallel, simple to implement sort makes efficient use of memory. - Parallel
Lack of Manual Labor
The lack of quality manuals and documentation for developer tools greatly diminishes our ability to work well in subtle but important ways. - Tools
Jolt Awards: The Best Books
The best books of the past 12 months. - Jolt Awards
RESTful Web Services: A Tutorial
As REST has become the default for most Web and mobile apps, it's imperative to have the basics at your fingertips. - Web Development
Continuous Delivery: The Agile Successor
Traditional Agile methods have been obliged to evolve quickly to address current programming needs. Continuous delivery mixed with select Agile practices is emerging as the preferred way forward. - Design
The C++14 Standard: What You Need to Know
New, useful features that make the language safer and more convenient. - C/C++
Working with Azure DocumentDB: SQL & NoSQL Together
Updating and deleting documents, creating queries, and managing query results in Microsoft's new NoSQL database-as-a-service. - .NET
Events of Interest
October 1-3. Santa Clara, CA. Software Developer's Workshop at ARM TechCon (Dr. Dobb's bloggers Al Williams and Eric Bruno will be presenting.)
October 9-10. Palo Alto, CA. Code Stars Summit
October 11-12. Los Altos Hills, CA. Silicon Valley Code Camp
October 14-17. Amsterdam, Netherlands. Black Hat Europe 2014
October 17-18. Austin, TX. CITCON (Continuous Integration and Testing Conference)
October 19-21. Shanghai, China. GDC China 2014
October 27-30. Santa Clara, CA. ZendCon 2014
October 27-28. Burlingame, CA. GGDevCon (Google Glass App Development)
November 3-5. San Francisco, CA. QCon
November 4-5. London, England. Code Mesh Conference
November 5-7. Berlin, Germany. GOTO Berlin International Software Development Conference
November 17-19. San Diego, CA. RubyConf
November 17-21. Budapest, Hungary. ApacheCon Europe
November 18-21. San Francisco, CA. AnDevCon Android Developer Conference
November 25-26. London, UK. IoT 2014
April 8-16, 2015. Montreal, Canada. PyCon 2015
Videos of Past Events
September 2013. JavaOne
September 2013. SpringOne 2GX
June 2013. JAXConf 2013
June 2013. Chicago Algorithmic Trading Conference
May 2013. Google I/O
March 2013. GPU Technology Conference
October 2012. JAXLondon 2012
September 2012. Strangeloop
September 2012. Intel Developer Forum
August 2012. VMWorld
July 2012. Java Language Summit
June 2012. Google I/O 2012
May 2012. Atlassian Summit
May 2012 (paid). Fluent Conference
March 2012. Multicore World
July 2011. JVM Language Summit


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Credit: Bradenton Herald-Tribune
The biggest court cases have been settled, and contractors have been working to fix houses built with defective contaminated Chinese-made drywall for years. But houses that contain the malodorous material are still appearing for sale on the Florida real estate market — with the problem undisclosed by sellers and unsuspected by buyers. That's because homeowners facing foreclosure may have lost their homes — or simply walked away — without addressing, or even knowing about, the contaminated drywall, reports the Bradenton Herald-Tribune ("Bad drywall still a problem for home investors," by Josh Salman).
"Surging demand from buyers has pushed lenders to rush distressed homes onto the market, many of which were built during the mid-2000s real estate boom, at a time when inexpensive Chinese-made drywall was abundant," the paper reports.
Estimates of the number of houses containing the bad material don't reconcile well with the amount of drywall known to have been imported into the country. "An investigation by the Herald-Tribune and the watchdog journalism organization ProPublica found that nearly 7,000 U.S. houses were built with bad drywall, yet enough material was imported to build at least 100,000 homes," the paper reports.
Now, houses are coming onto the market that have never been inspected to determine whether they have the bad material—even though left in place, it can destroy air conditioner coils, plumbing, wiring, and electronics. "I'm bidding on houses and I keep finding out they have Chinese drywall," Bob Tarlowski, an investor and contractor who buys and repairs homes in North Port, told the paper. "After I turn them down, they stay up for bid. The banks don't disclose it, and there's no recourse."
Contractor education requirements, bolts for attaching sills to foundations,...
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Earlier this week I blogged about the launch event of IXManchester, a regional Manchester peering network facilitated by the operators of the London Internet Exchange (LINX).
The event was held at the BBC's new headquarters in MediaCityUK and included presentations from a number of key players in the North West's ISP sector, as well as LINX and the BBC.
The talks were varied, but the resounding message was clear: regional peering is a necessity for the UK to continue keeping its traffic local.
At its peak, LINX has handled network traffic in the region of 1.2 terabits per second. That's nearly 155 gigabytes of data transferred across their network every second. Simply put, LINX are pushing the boundaries of what even the most bleeding-edge equipment can handle.
Right now, data sent between two servers in the North West will most likely use LINX. Why should local traffic be shipped to London just to come straight back? At Melbourne, we work around this dependancy on LINX by having transit providers with routes away from London, but that's not to say every ISP goes to the same extent that we do.
This is why regional peering makes sense. Lots of smaller, regional networks are not only easier to maintain, they offer reduced latency, redundant paths, better communities and most importantly a further reduced dependency on London.
Needless to say, we have already placed our order for IXManchester connectivity and can't wait to start peering directly with local Manchester networks.
Rob Greenwood,
Technical Director @ Melbourne


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WEDNESDAY, Dec. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists are reporting
early but promising results from a new drug that blocks HIV as it
attempts to invade human cells.
The approach differs from most current antiretroviral therapy,
which tries to limit the virus only after it has gained entry to
The medication, called VIR-576 for now, is still in the early
phases of development. But researchers say that if it is
successful, it might also circumvent the drug resistance that can
undermine standard therapy, according to a report published Dec. 22
Science Translational Medicine.
The new approach is an attractive one for a number of reasons,
said Dr. Michael Horberg, director of HIV/AIDS for Kaiser
Permanente in Santa Clara, Calif.
"Theoretically it should have fewer side effects [and indeed had minimal adverse events in this study] and there's probably less of a chance of mutation in developing resistance to medication," said Horberg, who was not involved in the study.
Viruses replicate inside cells and scientists have long known
that this is when they tend to mutate -- potentially developing new
ways to resist drugs. "It's generally accepted that it's harder for
a virus to mutate outside cell walls," Horberg explained.
The new drug focuses on HIV at this pre-invasion stage. "VIR-576
targets a part of the virus that is different from that targeted by
all other HIV-1 inhibitors," explained study co-author Frank
Kirchhoff, a professor at the Institute of Molecular Virology,
University Hospital of Ulm in Ulm, Germany, who, along with several
other researchers, holds a patent on the new medication.
The target is the gp41 fusion peptide of HIV, the "sticky" end
of the virus's outer membrane, which "shoots like a 'harpoon'" into
the body's cells, the authors said. The launch of this peptide is a
first step in the virus's bid to inhabit host cells.
Although there are two other drugs on the market, maraviroc and
T-20, which also prevent the virus from entering cells, they don't
target fusion peptides. That makes this trial the first time that
scientists have seen that fusion peptides are a worthwhile target
in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
And given that fusion peptides also provide a point of entry for
many other viruses, from measles to Ebola and hepatitis B and C,
scientists theorize that the strategy could be turned against these
illnesses as well.
The 18 patients with HIV in this small phase I/II trial took
either 0.5, 1.5 or 5 grams of VIR-576 a day for 10 days via
Those taking the highest dose saw a 95 percent reduction in
their average viral load, the amount of HIV in the blood, without
developing severe adverse effects.
"They were getting results that are similar to maraviroc and T-20 and certainly comparable to what's seen with intracellular drugs," Horberg said.
But the same factors that have limited the use of maraviroc and
T-20 are also likely to get in the way here as well, namely the
cost and the fact that they must be given by injection (because of
the large size of the molecule), he warned.
The needle-vs-pill hurdle is something patients and doctors have
to contend with in many settings, not just HIV, Horberg said. For
example, "we all know that insulin works great [in diabetic
patients] but the hard part is convincing patients to actually take
Hoping to get around the problem, the researchers are now
searching for a smaller molecule to do the same job.
"The next big step is to use the structure of VIR-576 and its viral target (the fusion peptide) to generate small molecule inhibitors that act by the same mechanism but are orally available," Kirchhoff said. "We will start to test the first compounds next year, but how long it will take such drugs make it to the market is impossible to say."
"The bottom line is, yes, any time that you can find a new mechanism to attack the virus -- and certainly if you can prevent the virus from getting into the host cells -- that's a really good thing. But this isn't near prime-time," Horberg concluded.
More information
There's more on HIV/AIDS at the
U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © EBSCO Publishing. All rights reserved.


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Melanoma Monday: 5 Sun Secrets You Need To Know
Written on May 7, 2012 at 2:01 pm , by April Franzino
Each year, there are more new cases of skin cancer than breast, prostate, lung and colon cancers combined. Arm yourself with these sun protection secrets from FITNESS Advisory Board member Mona Gohara, M.D., assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Yale University and founder of K&J Sunprotective Clothing.
1. Commute carefully: Cancer-causing ultraviolet rays can come through the windows of your car, home or office. Studies in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology show that in the U.S., left-sided skin cancers— and aging— are more common as a result of sun exposure during driving. Regardless of weather conditions, apply a light, broad-spectrum SPF of 30 or higher on your face, arms, and hands before hitting the road.
2. Get out early: Choose the morning to have (protected) fun in the sun. Research published this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that afternoon sun exposure is five times more likely to lead to skin cancer. Scientists say this is because a protein the body produces to repair damage caused by ultraviolet rays is most active in the mornings. In general, seeking the shade between 10 A.M. and 4 P.M. is best, but when this isn't possible, try to get an early start to your day.
3. Know your ABCDE…F and G's: Do monthly self skin exams and look for any spot that is new, not healing or— as gross as it sounds— bleeding, oozing or crusting. When examining moles, be on the lookout for asymmetry (one side doesn't equal the other), border/color irregularity, lesions growing in diameter, and anything evolving (itching, hurting, etc.)— but don't forget to look at your fingers/toes and genitalia. Skin cancer can come anywhere, and it's usually more dangerous in those not-so-easy-to-see spots.
4. Say no to tanning: When someone's first tanning booth exposure is in youth, their chances of developing melanoma are increased by 75 percent. It has also been shown that ladies who use tanning beds are 2.5 times more likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma and 1.5 times more likely to develop basal cell carcinoma. Additional studies have concluded that tanning can be as addictive as hardcore drugs, making it a hard habit to break.
5. Don't rely on dark skin: People with dark skin are not immune to skin cancer— fact it can be more deadly in this population. A survey in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology showed that only 17 percent of ethnic minority respondents has been to the dermatologist for a skin check. Everyone, regardless of skin type, should wear sunscreen daily and seek the care of a dermatologist for guidance on optimal skin health.
Categories: Beauty On the Go, Skin Savers | Tags: Melanoma Monday, protection, skin, skin cancer, SPF, sun, sun protection, sunscreen, UV radiation, UV rays
1 Comment
The Wonders of Wine
Written on June 6, 2011 at 8:00 am , by April Franzino
We love a glass of red at the end of the day just as much as the next gal, so we're excited to share these wine-related beauty tidbits from Jody Levine, M.D., dermatologist for Tone in New York City (their Vino Moisture Crushed Grape Shea Butter Body Wash contains potent grape extracts) and Carolyn Wente, CEO of Wente Vineyards:
- Wine has high antioxidant levels due to the polyphenols that naturally occur in grapes, so it can protect your body and skin from damaging free radicals.
- Vinotherapy treatments, like those offered both at home and in-spa by Caudalie, are a growing trend in skincare and provide anti-aging benefits.
- The pulp found in the residue from wine-making is great for gently exfoliating the skin and soothing without irritation.
- A glass of wine can temporarily cause blood vessels in the face to dilate, giving your skin a glowy flush. Don't overindulge, though—too much alcohol can cause inflammation.
Keep your eye out for another surprising skincare-related use for grapes in our October issue, on stands in September!
Categories: Beauty On the Go | Tags: anti aging, antioxidants, Caudalie, grapes, protection, skin, Tone, wine
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Book your room at Hampton Inn & Suites Salt Lake City-West Jordan
Two Queen Bed Non SmokingMax Occupancy: 5 guests (up to 4 children, 4 infants)
Two Queen Studio Sofabed Non SmokinMax Occupancy: 5 guests (up to 4 children, 4 infants)
One King Bed Non SmokingMax Occupancy: 3 guests (up to 2 children, 2 infants)
One King Studio Sofabed Non SmokingMax Occupancy: 3 guests (up to 2 children, 2 infants)
One King Bed, Non-Smoking, AccessibleMax Occupancy: 2 guests (up to 1 child, 1 infant)
West Jordan hotel with an indoor pool
Situated in West Jordan, this hotel is close to Utah Olympic Oval. Area attractions also include Gardner Village and USANA Amphitheater.
Hotel Features
Recreational amenities at Hampton Inn & Suites Salt Lake City-West Jordan include an indoor pool and a spa tub. Other amenities include complimentary wireless Internet access and a 24-hour business center.
Room Amenities
In addition to complimentary wireless Internet access and complimentary high-speed (wired) Internet access, guestrooms feature coffee/tea makers along with desks and hair dryers.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!
At your hotel
At your hotel
In addition to an indoor pool, Hampton Inn & Suites Salt Lake City-West Jordan provides a spa tub and a 24-hour fitness center. High-speed wireless Internet access is complimentary. A 24-hour business center is on site. A complimentary breakfast is offered. Event facilities measuring 3808 square feet (343 square meters) include conference space. This business-friendly hotel also offers express check-out and a safe deposit box at the front desk. Onsite self parking is complimentary.
- Indoor pool
- Total number of rooms - 106
- 24-hour fitness facilities
- Free Wi-Fi
- 24-hour business center
- Conference space size (feet) - 3808
- Conference space size (meters) - 343
- Number of meeting rooms - 3
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- Conference space
- Spa tub
- Free breakfast
- Number of floors - 3
- Express check-out
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Free self parking
Stay connected
Available in all rooms: Free Wi-Fi , Free wired high-speed Internet
Available in some public areas: Free Wi-Fi
Park your car
Free self parking
In your room
- Free Wi-Fi
- Free wired high-speed Internet
- Connecting/adjoining rooms available
- Cribs/infant beds (complimentary)
- Iron/ironing board
- Free local calls
- Coffee/tea maker
- Hair dryer
- Desk
Eat and drink
Guests are offered a complimentary hot/cold buffet breakfast.
An indoor pool and a spa tub are on site. Other recreational amenities include a 24-hour fitness center.
To make requests for specific accessibility needs, complete the "Special or Accessibility Requests" section of "Trip Preferences" when you book your hotel.
- In-room accessibility
The fine print for Hampton Inn & Suites Salt Lake City-West Jordan
When you arrive
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
When you leave
Check-out time is noon
How you can pay
Accepted at this hotel: American Express, Carte Blanche, Diners Club, Discover, MasterCard, Visa
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
No rollaway/extra beds available
We should mention
The property has connecting/adjoining rooms, which are subject to availability and can be requested by contacting the property using the number on the booking confirmation.


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The tyranny of the 401(k) industrial complex
Published on - May 1st, 2013 (by Robert Brokamp)
This is a post from staff writer Robert Brokamp of The Motley Fool. Robert is a Certified Financial Planner and the adviser for The Motley Fool's Rule Your Retirement service. Like many living beings – including turtles, snakes, and llamas — he's on Twitter.
If you never watch PBS' "Frontline," you're missing out on some of the best journalism on TV. I don't agree with every viewpoint they advocate, but each episode is thought-provoking and well done.
Recently, "Frontline" focused on "The Retirement Gamble," as they titled the piece. It can be summed up by this quote by Zvi Bodie, a professor of management at Boston University: "401(k) plans really place the burden on the individual participant to have an adequate retirement. And the vast majority of ordinary people don't know how to do that."
It's true. As if you don't have enough going on in your life, you have to become a part-time financial planner and investment manager. You need to figure out how much to save, how to invest your savings, and how to withdraw it in a way that makes it last forever or until you die, whichever comes first.
Of course, you can always get help from the financial-services industry — in particular, the mutual fund providers, since those are the type of investments in most workers' retirement plans. However, many of these folks are padding their own retirement accounts at the expense of yours. Here's how economist Teresa Ghilarducci explained it to "Frontline": "The 401(k) is one of the only products that Americans buy that they don't know the price of it. It's also one of the products that Americans buy that they don't even know its quality. It's one of the products that Americans buy that they don't know its danger. And it's because the industry — the mutual fund industry — has been able to protect themselves against regulation that would expose the danger and price of their products."
I'll add another shortfall of the 401(k) industrial complex: You don't have a choice. The 401(k) is chosen by your employer, who might be keeping costs low by passing the costs along to you. I'm on the 401(k) committee at The Motley Fool, and I can tell you that it does indeed cost an employer money and time to provide a retirement plan; it's not as easy as opening an IRA with a discount broker. The plan has to meet all kinds of government-mandated tests to make sure that the plan doesn't disproportionately benefit higher-income employers and owners. So companies that offer a retirement plan deserve some level of gratitude, especially if they match employee contributions. But that doesn't mean these companies spend the time and money necessary to make it the best plan possible.
Then there are the funds themselves. The "Frontline" episode included an interview with one of my heroes, Vanguard founder John Bogle. His best quote: "Do you really want to invest in a system where you put up 100 percent of the capital … you take 100 percent of the risk, and you get 30 percent of the return?"
Where did the other 70 percent of return go? To the fund companies, due to high fees and low performance — in Bogle's words, "The magic of compound returns is overwhelmed by the tyranny of compounding costs. It's a mathematical fact. There's no getting around it."
My picking of bones
While I generally agree with "Frontline's" call to arms regarding the malfeasance of the mutual fund industry, there are a couple of counter-points I would have liked to see them address. First off, the episode recommends index funds over actively managed funds, featuring more footage of John Bogle, one of the main figures in the birth of index funds. However, it would be interesting to ask him why Vanguard itself has had actively managed funds for decades. Perhaps even the most famous advocate for index investing sees some value in paying a fund manager to pick the investments. And, to Vanguard's credit, the expenses on their actively managed funds are very low. I know because I own a few of them, including a few of their index funds.
The "Frontline" episode also had its nostalgia for the good, old days of defined-benefit pensions, when an employer would reward an employee after decades of service with a monthly check in retirement for life. Like many shows that bemoan the state of retirement in America, they clearly argue that those are better than 401(k)s. However, the truth is that these pensions have their own issues. First off, even at their peak, most Americans didn't have a pension. At least with a 401(k), workers can save for retirement in a tax-advantaged account, something they didn't have before these accounts became prevalent in the '80s. Also, a traditional pension mainly benefited employees who worked for the same company for decades. If you left within, say, five years (as was the case when I was a teacher), you got nothing. The money in a 401(k), however, can be taken with you.
Plus, many pensions don't have enough money to pay future benefits and are assuming (nay, praying) that unrealistically high investment returns will bail them out. Private pensions are backstopped by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, but that "safety net" itself is underfunded by more than $20 billion. Government pensions are backed by taxes, and they're going to hit hard as more and more Boomers retire. So defined-benefit pensions are not the panacea as they're often portrayed, often using film footage from the '50s (as "Frontline" did).
Finally, the episode featured interviews with everyday Americans who have little in the way of retirement savings, portraying them as victims of the mutual fund companies. In many ways, they most definitely were. Yet, as these people sit in their kitchens and living rooms, explaining their predicaments to the camera, I can't help but notice that they have nice furniture, large-screen TVs and cable. I admit that this is a bit callous of me, but I do have a little less sympathy for people with little in savings but plenty of luxuries. (Yes, cable TV is a luxury.)
Carpe 401(k)-em
The good news for you is that you're taking control; you're reading this blog and probably other sources of financial education. Hopefully you're learning how to save for, and spend in, retirement, and how to evaluate mutual funds along the way. Planning your retirement is up to you; no one is doing it for you. Financial advisers have their place, as long as they're fee-only and fiduciaries (i.e., legally obligated to put your interests first — a standard that doesn't apply to the large majority of financial advisers). But however you manage your finances, ensure that it's doing more for your retirement than someone else's.
This article is about Planning, Retirement, Savings
Excellent post. The state of retirement savings and the industry should concern all of us. We spend a lot of time on personal finance and my husband has a MBA but I often feel like I'm just randomly guessing when I make my retirement investment selections. Managing your own individual pension plan, which is what we each do, is highly inefficient and costly as the author notes.
I have not had much luck with advisers, I feel like they are just guessing as well and charging a fee to me for doing so. The one time I hired someone I wasn't impressed with his results at all.
Although, one quibble, expenses are supposed to now be disclosed on your statement.
Robert, I'm curious what you think of the employer's fiduciary responsbility as a 401K administrator. Do you think most employers are dropping the ball on that by offering plans with high fees? I've talked with the folks at my company about the different options, and they've researched quite a few alternatives and have a system they think works best for most people. It's not perfect, but they really did put a lot of time and effort into it and regularly seek out feedback from 401K plan members to make sure they're meeting our goals.
In general, I look at a high fee 401K as a reason not to stay at an employer for the long term. Stay long enough to get fully vested to take full advantage of all those lovely matching dollars, then move on to the next employer and roll the old 401K into a low cost IRA at Vanguard. (Since the rollover can't happen until after you leave the company – at least at my employer I'm pretty sure that's the case.)
I generally dislike the 401K system for most of the reasons outlined above. The funds are too expensive and there's no real choice. If I had my way, I would opt out of mutual funds all together and go with individual stocks. That way, I could avoid throwing tons of money into overvalued companies.
I think that employers and the mutual fund companies are doing people a disservice by auto enrolling them in target date funds rather than the lowest cost index funds that they can find.
I agree with Sloane. The company I work for allows me to choose whatever I want for my 401k I have stocks, index funds, target date funds and I also have a small cushion of cash all in my 401k. I am allowed to choose my investments how I see fit.
My previous employer's 401k plan only gave me about 20 options to choose from and none of them were great. It is the employer, not the system.
I've never had access to a 401(k) so I use a Roth IRA with Vanguard for my retirement savings. Stories like this make me apprehensive about finally having an employer that offers a 401(k) because the fees may be higher than I'm accustomed to paying. But at least there is still the option of contributing to an IRA – for me and these "victims."
As a W2 contractor, I don't have ACCESS to a 401k plan! I would LOVE to put my money away, but the government has decided that people without access to a 401k only need to be able to put away $5500 in a 'retirement' IRA… I wish there was another option for my situation.
"The plan has to meet all kinds of government-mandated tests to make sure that the plan doesn't disproportionately benefit higher-income employers and owners."
I've never understood the purpose of this rule. I'm sure it had a good intent at one time, but if every employee is offered equal access to the same plan, why should the employer have to, in effect, penalize those who make more than $110,000 because participation is unbalanced? (That is the limit at my company, not sure if it's true nationwide). This comes from someone who is not really close to making that much money per year.
I work at a large conglomerate company with a propensity for hiring a lot of middle management (read: $$$) along with employing many engineers. We have so many people making over $110k that I believe the company doesn't even try to balance the 401k participants. Therefore, if you make over $110k, you can only contribute 10% pre-tax.
Ironically, if you make less than 110k, you're still limited to 25% of your salary. So if you make less than $70,000 or between $110,000 and $175,000, my company won't let you max out your 401k plan.
I'm so sorry I missed that Frontline! Great overview of the situation. While the structure of modern retirement plans and the lack of regulation is a complete mess, the lack of education of the workforce is an even greater mess. It's almost like people should be forced to go to a class or something so they are at least armed to face these choices.
BTW, I'm not sure why the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation didn't save the pensions that my grandfather's coworkers were expecting, but I do know they took a huge financial hit. Perhaps it was because so much of the value of a pension comes in the last few years before retirement. Perhaps it was because only part of their expected retirement was a true pension–maybe the rest was a profit-sharing plan of one sort or another. I do know that many people were hit very hard by the 100-year-old firm's closure, and what they had expected to retire on did not happen.
This is a nice article. I can understand that it would be difficult as an average American to know how much to save and where to save it, but I feel like it's something that needs to become a priority to learn. Everyone learns how to drive a car, why can't everyone learn how to invest and save? It can be very complicated, but it doesn't have to be. I think that after a couple of hours most people would know enough to be able to do it on there own. They may not get the best returns possible, but they'd at least be in a better spot than not saving at all.
I have used Fidelity and Vanguard, and both had extremely informative websites. It's no harder than picking a couple of the top-rated, low expense funds and then checking to make sure that you have a good balance of stocks and bonds in your mix (Fidelity lets you practice with a hypothetical trade so that you know how a trade will change your portfolio).
For pete's sake, don't you have any imagination? Just TRY, a little, for a second, to put yourself in someone else's shoes.
Imagine you've never heard of those companies – or any investment company. Imagine you're not very tech-savvy, and the websites confuse you. Imagine you you're intimidated by the terminology that makes no sense to you. Imagine you don't really understand how to connect your bank account to the investment account. Imagine you're scared of losing your money. Imagine you've never read a PF blog, or been offered a PF seminar, and all you have is a vague sense that you "should be saving something for retirement." (I've heard that from many fellow college grads)
Imagine you have so little money you don't think any of your effort will matter, anyway.
So yes, actually, it IS hard. This is why NO ONE in this country will have saved enough to retire on, aside from a very small minority. The 401k is a failed experiment, plain and simple.
Sometimes people may have to bite the bullet and ask for help. Friends, family members, coworkers, church, banks, ask someone. People need to help themselves by letting others know they need help.
The failure isn't with the 401(k) system, it's that the education system doesn't emphasize financial literacy. A personal finance class should be mandatory in schools (high school or college or both).
Andy and Sloane (and others in this thread), what you are advocating is an individual solution to a systemic problem. The fact of the matter is, the vast majority of people are not saving adequately for retirement. Maybe you think their reasons for not saving are stupid, they're just making excuses, and all they really need to do is get some personal responsibility and listen to YOU and they'd be just fine. But ultimately, that doesn't matter, because they're not (all) going to listen to you, and they're going to keep on not saving.
A system that works only for a small minority is a system that doesn't work. Even if you think it's totally the majority's fault that the system is failing them.
Sloane, Johanna expressed what I was trying to say much better than I did. As she said, I'm talking about the SYSTEM. It's not working for most people – shouldn't we ask why, rather than demand that everyone change?
And thanks for your kind advice, but I wasn't talking about myself. Obviously I'm on this site because I love PF and find investments and money fascinating, in general. I'm worried about the millions of people who are NOT nerds like me.
Johanna, you said "the vast majority of people are not saving adequately for retirement". I don't see how that's the fault of the system. Just because people choose to or cannot save enough for retirement, for whatever reason, good bad or otherwise, how is the system to blame? There will never, ever, ever be one system to fit all 300+million living in the USA. There won't be two, three, ten or one hundred systems either. Not everyone can, or sadly, wants to be helped. That's no reason to scrap what we have, especially when there's no alternative. I'm lucky, my company uses Vanguard and thus we have good choices in mutual funds and call me selfish but I don't want that messed with for any reason.
imelda, you said "I'm talking about the SYSTEM. It's not working for most people". Are you saying it's not working for those who participate in the system, meaning those who save in 401(k)s, IRAs or similar retirement vehicles? If so, what's not working? Do they not have enough saved, are they not getting the returns they should, what specifically isn't working?
Andy, there is a fairly simple solution that does work for everyone, called a public pension. It works in many other countries (countries that are certainly in no worse financial state than we are) and could work here.
As for why we call it a failed system – if it is failing for most people, then it is not a good system. Here's an interesting article about it: http://www.financialsamurai.com/2013/02/05/median401k-retirement-balance-by-age-is-dangerously-low/
There are all kinds of articles about why and how 401k is not working for Americans, and how most people reach retirement with very little saved; all you need do is look!
Imelda, the article is interesting and informative, but it still makes the basic point that people need to save more. The national personal savings rate is around 2% – that's the problem. Sure, the system can be reformed to make fees and fiduciary duties more transparent. That seems fair and reasonable. But until people save more, they will not have savings available to them in the future.
Public pensions are just another way of forcing people to save. In fact, we already have a public pension (Social Security), so if you want increased benefits from the government, you have to increase taxes significantly. In other words, force people to live on less now so that they can have more in the future.
The significant downside to public pensions (and any defined benefit plan, even employer or union sponsored) is that public pensions let a third party decide how much the beneficiary gets to live on (see, for example, the president's recent budget proposal where he proposed an annuity based determination of "reasonable" retirement benefits). A third party doesn't know if individual beneficiaries want to retire early, or travel, or take care of family members in their retirement. That value is not included in the government's calculation of your benefits. Given that personal finance is so very personal, the idea that I would turn my financial future over to the government's control is a non-starter.
"force people to live on less now so that they can have more in the future."
Well, yes. That's called "saving," and it's exactly what you're saying individuals need to be doing anyway. So what's the problem?
Your "significant downside" is not a downside at all. Even under a vastly expanded Social Security system, individuals are still free to save more on their own, if they want a retirement that starts earlier or is more luxurious than what the system provides.
@Sloane: Exactly. Precisely. With your usual acuity, you have hit the nail on the head!
(sorry, couldn't resist that quote)
Anyway, it strikes me that I agree with everything you said, aside from your conclusion.
You identified the problem: "But until people save more, they will not have savings available to them in the future."
People aren't saving. How can we change that?
"Public pensions are just another way of forcing people to save."
Huzzah! That's my conclusion.
You pointed out some downsides, which Johanna responded to. In my opinion, the downsides you pointed to are FAR less grave, and easier to resolve, than the downside of relying solely on the 401k system, which is mass poverty of the elderly (i.e. the epidemic we had before SS).
This article, and the Slate article it links to, really get to the heart of the problem, I think:
All the talk about "There is no one-size-fits-all solution" is nonsense. The path toward a comfortable middle-class retirement is pretty much the same for everybody, so there's no reason, logistically, why it can't be orchestrated on a large scale. To the extent that there IS individual variation, it's entirely due to individuals wanting MORE than basic comfort – which, as I said, they're perfectly free to save for and provide themselves. Anyone who says that we need to preserve individual choice in retirement savings is almost certainly trying to sell you something that almost certainly is not good for you.
The poll about fees is a really good example of the level of innumeracy we're dealing with here. Calculating percents is pretty low-level math, but putting them in context – understanding what's a percentage of what – is a skill that most people haven't quite mastered. So we need a system that doesn't require them to have mastered it.
How to save, sure, that's easy. But, saving correctly is what is at issue. I actually spent 5 years working at a major mutual fund company (although in IT, not in the funds side), and you would think I'd be an expert at saving for retirement after having so much exposure. Nope. You basically learned to "save, put money into your 401k, it doesn't matter what fund, just invest here." And I believed it. How do you know who to listen to? People want to invest at Fidelity or eTrade or wherever because they see the commercials and think they can trust them. Can they? What happens when someone who is already investing with a poor financial planner suggests that you go with them? Should you listen to them? How do you know? What does any of this mean?
When you're talking about someone who is a blue collar worker, uneducated, and makes very little money in the first place, they just don't have the skills to make these types of decisions. It can be frustrating. Assuming everyone can do it is false.
Agree. I would love to have regulation that required the investment companies to show you how much you paid in real $ every year to them as it is impossible to figure out. The number would shock most people. I definitly try to keep the expense ratios are low as possible and pretty much just do indexing becuase of it.
I think a good approximation of the fees that 401k companies charge you can be calculated by comparing your total contributions to the plan (from old W-2s or year end paystubs) to the present value of the plan. This will give you your real rate of return percentage from your 401k investments. Compare this percentage with the rate of return that the 401k plan statements say you earned. The difference is the amount you paid in fees to the 401k company.
You can also take the total expense ratio for each mutual fund you own and multiply it by the dollar amount of your holdings in each particular mutual fund to determine your annual fees for owning the mutual fund within a 401k plan.
I am sad that I missed that Frontline as I generally like their work, even if it's simply thought provoking and I don't agree. I would agree with many of your points and great catch on the Vanguard and actively managed fund issue. From my experience, I have seen that too many employers simply do not care to provide a good and beneficial 401K plan to their employees. It really is sad as it can just load it down with needless fees. That said, there's also something to be said of those that do not invest at all. I would rather earn something(even with fees0 then to do nothing and have no retirement planning at all.
You can watch it here if ya have 53 minutes to spend.
I don't think the 401k system is that bad. Yes it has it flaws but no more than most legal or financial aspects people deal with in life, buying car, house, marriage, divorce, transactions, etc… Most of the people that I know spend way more time doing things they enjoy or spending time and lots of money on luxury items. It never took me more than an hour or two to go into and look at a couple funds electronic prospectuses, to determine fees and investment strategies. From there I would usually pick the lowest index funds and do my assest allocations however I wanted, set my percentages and rebalance ocassionally. Also as income went up so did my savings rate, both in taxable and retirement accounts Meanwhile my friends spend 25 hours a week playing video games. So while there networth has barely moved, mine has sky rocketed, our income is close to the same. No one is going to care about your own financial future more than yourself. By the way, you don't need more than 8th grade Math to figure this stuff. Most of the retirement calculators are automated and i save extra to err on the side of caution.
People use the flaws of the 401k system as an excuse not to save, that combined with their own desires to spend their own money. If we used the flaws of everything in society not to take action, we would never have done anything. I don't care how busy you are, you have an hour a month to plan for your future financial self. Heck if you just saved as much as you could in a target fund over the long haul you probably would be alright. Most people will get more from the % of saving vs their actual returns.
I agree–I also think people are just intimidated by retirement accounts, so they never really try to understand them. Many people don't really get what mutual funds and index funds are. They probably think saving for retirement means choosing individual stocks, and they figure they don't have the financial education to do that so they may as well avoid the stock market altogether.
I have that Frontline episode on my DVR. Will have to check it out soon.
"By the way, you don't need more than 8th grade Math to figure this stuff."
I disagree. I mean, you don't need to do any integrals or derivatives or sines or cosines, but the numerical intuition that comes from having had a lot of advanced math classes is actually really, really helpful. So is a solid understanding of probability and statistics. There's a reason that finance companies and hedge funds like to hire math geniuses.
Plus, not everybody did well in 8th-grade math, and that's OK.
As a gen y'er (and as a witness of the portfolio crash of several gen x'ers right before their retirement) I am not putting all of my eggs into the 401k basket, and I'm putting even less eggs into the social security one. In fact, I pretend social security doesn't even exist (I'm not going to be an extremist that says that it won't….but I will say it's possible).
My plan for retirement is a mixture of 401k, Roth IRA (because I don't plan on earning much job income in my life…not counting rental income which doesn't even calculate into ss benefits anyway), high yield savings account/ cd/ bonds investments, and aforementioned rental property income/ sales of long-held, long paid off properties before retirement.
I want to always be in a situation where I can turn to multiple streams of income, if one gets dammed. I'll be buying my first income property in early 2014, and a second one in early 2015, including my house that would make 3 properties in 3 different cities. When I go back to school in 2016 in order to transition to a career that will earn me 30% less, but make me 1000% happier, I'll live in one of the properties, with roommates, and rent the other two out, and hopefully with that income plus some savings I'll be able to take up to 2 yrs off from working in order to be a full-time student without taking out student loans.
The idea of having multiple income streams in the future has relaxed my views of the "sacred" 401k and I plan on breaking my own rule of never borrowing from your 401k. In my situation it's a pre-medicated maneuver and not one of distress, plus it's going towards helping me come up with the 20% down on the first rental sooner, so I can get a tenant in there well before I need to move, and without depleting all of my liquid cash, so I don't feel guilty about it. Because I have a plan for income in retirement, I feel more comfortable treating my 401k as any other account (within its restrictions of course). I can borrow up to 50% of the amount in my 401k, with interest but the interest goes right back into my account so I'm paying my future self interest really, and I have up to 5 yrs to pay it back; though I'll be paying it back in 1 ½ or less. Of course all the while I'll still be contributing up to my employer's match.
It seems to me that a figure I read says the average American watches 4 hours of TV a day – and they don't have time to study a little investing theory? Sorry, I don't buy it. Anybody can buy a target date fund and stuff as much money as they can afford into it, it's not rocket science.
The real problem I have right now with the system is the artifically repressed interest rates – safe bonds are paying less than the inflation rate, so people are putting themselves at more risk than they really want to in order to get any sort of return. That's what chaps my hide.
I don't imagine you should base whether or not someone has the time to research their retirement accounts based on statistical averages of television viewing.
First off, the 4 hour a day number takes into account the retirees and non-workers, who presumably watch way more than this a day. It is rather unlikely that those who are actively contributing to a 401K account and could benefit from further research are spending that much time in front of the boob tube. Plus, the reality is that many Americans are exhausted after a long day of work and commuting. So what if they opt to watch the next episode of Mad Men or Dancing with the Stars when they get home? I know in my experience this behavior in the evening is coming from a point of mental and physical exhaustion.
Yes, we should all take more ownership of our investments. We can certainly agree on that, but I would not discount the reality that people are overworked and stressed as a whole and unable to take on further financial research. Plus the people who probably need it the most are the least likely to pursue it on their own time.
I am a firefighter and have a hazardous duty pension… I also contribute to a 403B plan… as a 401K… that is tax deferred to supplement my retirement… the state has just switched to a hybrid plan… a mix of both… due to the state not properly funding the pension plan for years and putting the money in a general fund. I will take my hazardous duty pension plan any day over a "Define contribution" plan. I want to know how much I am getting upon retirement…50 percent of my high 3 years not risk my retirement on wall street and the market, all the while the CEO's of Wall Street walk away with million dollar bonuses as my fees take away the power of compounding.
I'm so fortunate. My employer gives so many 401k choices it's a bit overwhelming. And I get $1 per $1 match up to 6% of salary.
My Annual return is currently 13.77%, which is pretty darn good. The last 5 years have been between 9.7-13.77
As the special pointed out, 401(k)s were created as a tax dodge for the hyper wealthy; they were never intended to be a way for average wager earners to accumulate nest eggs. As a result, they don't really do that good a job. There are two huge problems with the 401(k)s – they are only as good as the company they are tied to, which means their quality is all over the map, yet they are touted as "one size fits all." The other is that they are a lot more about making profits for the investment houses than they are about accumulating wealth for the individual. Do not be fooled. Nobody in this mix really gives a wet slap about whether you sink or swim; the people "managing" your money are in the game to get as much of it as they can get their hands on. That's the part you can never forget for a moment.
I do have a bone to pick with you Mr. Brokamp. How do you KNOW those people have cable? If you come to my house, you'll see a large screen TV. But there's no cable service attached to it. Never has been. When the change to HD broadcasts came in, I had to buy a new TV set, and it was cheaper to buy the larger set. If you look at the back of your set, you will see there is a slot marked "antennae"; people like me are why that is there. (Though the cable companies are trying to ram through legislation to end that.) So don't be so quick to judge these people as "non-savers still indulging in luxuries" just because they haven't sold their TV sets on Craigs List. There's a lot of this "blame in victim" attitude running around right now; I think it's a defense mechanism so we don't have to face how so very easily – one car wreck, one heart attack, one stroke of bad luck – we could be in their shoes. It is very human, but it is neither kind nor right.
It also strikes me as funny – in a not-laughing kind of way – when people judge others for their "luxury" purchases. So, what? These people should put off EVERY frivolous expense until they…escape poverty/debt/are financially independent?
Few people who are poor believe they will ever not be poor, let alone that saving $50 a month on cable will help them get there.
A Carter, I am vigorously nodding my head in agreement. I own a HUGE plasma TV, which I bought for $250 from a friend who's a serial upgrader. He just had to have a 3-D TV. There is no cable or even antenna hooked up to it. I get my movies from the library, yard sales, Swap-A-Dvd and the like.
My house is lovely, but most everything I own is from consignment, Craigslist, estate sales, etc. Laughing all the way to the bank and looking good doing so.
OK, so I've posted a slew of negative comments to this blog entry, and I think perhaps I should explain why.
I hate the 401k system. It's like telling everyone to go on a diet for 40+ years, and letting that serve as a substitute for health care. It's nonsensical, and unrealistic. People who are struggling to get by – and most people feel like they are struggling to get by – are not going to save the amounts of money they need to fund a retirement decades away. They're not going to invest wisely – instinct is always to buy high and sell low. They, like my mother, just figure they'll work until they're 75, without thinking about how their bodies will tolerate that.
Worst of all, the system is rigged against them – exorbitant expense ratios and commissions, lack of fiduciary duty from *anyone* they interact with, etc etc.
I'm not saying that private pensions are a perfect solution – there were flaws with that system, too. (though someone else referenced the book 'Retirement Heist', which explains how perfectly solvent pension plans were raided by corporate executives until they become "underfunded")
I don't know exactly what my argument is. But it all just feels so unfair. "Personal responsibility" increasingly becomes the watchword, as fewer jobs are available at lower wages and with less security. And god forbid anyone try to live a decent life while trying to figure things out – if they have cable TV without a fully-funded IRA, then obviously they deserve to be poor, right?
"It's like telling everyone to go on a diet for 40+ years, and letting that serve as a substitute for health care."
I like this analogy a lot. Nagging one person to go on a diet might or might not work. Nagging EVERYBODY to do the same, almost certainly will not.
Personal responsibility is just that – personal. At the individual level, when you're looking at any given person who's failing in their retirement savings, maybe there's a legitimate argument to be had about whether they could or should have been more responsible. But when the vast majority of people are failing, the problem isn't that the vast majority of people don't have enough personal responsibility. The problem is that the system is broken.
I think the solution has got to be a public pension – a vastly expanded Social Security system. The Social Security system we have is working well (to the extent that there's an entitlement spending crisis, it's almost entirely due to Medicare, not Social Security – and Medicare is still doing a whole lot better than private health insurance). People like Social Security, and they want more of it, not less of it. Unfortunately, politicians are not getting the message.
Very interesting in the Times about 401(k)s this morning. Excellent relation.
Ha! I wasn't the only person who was puzzled by the "poor" unable to retire couples furniture and very large tv.
It was a great show on 401k and you brought up some excellent points. I am currently not working by choice and one of my biggest concerns is saving for retirement.
Good post, interesting comments.
Having been involved in IRAs, 401(k)s, and now a 403(b) I helped design, a couple of observations:
• Everyone makes mistakes.
My wife's IRA was a backloaded variable annuity dog for 7 years. We moved it out into Vanguard index and made more money in two years than the previous 10.
I learned. She learned. We earned.
• Those little bits add up.
I was in a bad 401(k) plan, but I saved to get the match, and was conservative in a bond fund because of the lousy, murky funds. As I learned, I spread my wings into other funds. (Especially after the company I was working for vastly improved the plan by jumping to Fidelity.)
• As a participant, these plans are not rocket science.
Check the vesting rules. Invest to catch the match. Pick a low-fee, no-brainer fund (preferably index) that lets you sleep at night. Then leave it alone. Don't like the other choices in the plan? Get an IRA on the side in something you do like.
• The comments about weird, outdated federal rules on high earners are spot on.
There is no reason we can't have a one-size-fits-all federal template for IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s. Same rules, same limits, done and done. But politicians and bureaucrats and fund owners don't like simplicity.
• If you think the plans are complicated now, wait till you start to draw the money out.
Your federal government has big, big plans for you! Big, complex, hard-to understand plans designed to trip you into more tax liability!
• My totals have been up and down. I have won and lost.
But overall, my account is worth much, much more than what I have personally put into it.
• My two biggest mistakes:
Not starting earlier, and not plowing half of every raise into reaching the maximums sooner, regardless of my fund choices.
And not starting an IRA when 401 and 403s were not available to me. I wasted that money on whiskey and motorcycles. (Not cable.)
Do fund companies make money on this stuff, large amounts of money? You bet. Do fund companies and employers do a bad job/good job with them? You bet.
But it is the only game in town for serious, tax-advantaged saving for retirement, so learn the rules, and get going.
Self-help books like to diffrentiate between being poor and being broke.
Being broke is a temporary financial condition where you don't have enough money to buy what you want.
Being poor is a mindset, where you don't see youself as achieving any kind of success or any kind of wealth. It's a mindset where you don't look ahead to the future and are not willing to suffer delayed gratification for wealth in the future.
Consequently, poor people spend all their money now to make themselves happy now, to buy tangible things like big-screen TVs and to buy intangible things like vacations. They blame everyone else for what they don't have.
Their motto is: "WHAT'S THE USE?"
I actually think there's a kernel of truth here, which is that attitudes toward money make a big difference. But I don't think that good or bad attitudes can always be turned on or off like a lightswitch. We're all a product of our environment.
Among the advantages I've had in life is the privilege of being born to parents who are good with money. I've had a lifetime to learn by example that shopping around, questioning whether unnecessary purchases are things you really want, and saving up small amounts of money over long periods of time are worthwhile things to do. My parents didn't have super-lucrative jobs, but they retired as millionaires at age 58.
Because of the lessons they taught me and the example they set, I'm more motivated than most people to save for my own retirement. If they had been different, I would be too.