Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/258034262?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Friday, October 26, 2012
Retiring Early by Working with a Financial Planner | Quality Life ...
The idea of early retirement often seems like an impossible dream. With necessary expenses, lower wages and an increasingly high cost of living, it is hard to create a budget that puts aside enough to invest and retire early. While it might seem hard, a financial planner can offer assistance to reach the goal.
Job of the Planner:
Working with a financial planner has several possible benefits because the individual is trained to help improve the financial situation. The planner has specific responsibilities that make it easier to overcome the challenges of saving and create a realistic plan to get the situation on the road to early retirement.
Financial planners must evaluate the current situation to determine the necessary steps to reach early retirement. Any planner will look at assets, liabilities, current income, current expenses and any other financial information that applies to the situation.
After evaluating the current financial health, planners will help create a budget that will work and will set realistic short and long-term goals. The goals will make it easier to set aside enough each month to reach the necessary figures to retire early.
Applying the Plan:
Working with a financial planner is about creating a budget, reaching financial goals and working out the best asset allocation to increase funding for the future. Applying the plan falls on the individual or couple because the planner is not able to stop bad spending habits.
The planner will offer advice and a plan that will work, but is not able to put the plan in motion. The individual or couple must take steps to ensure spending is minimized and that the minimum savings goal is met each month.
By following the advice of the planner, an individual or couple will put aside more money and make smart investment choices that allow the funds to grow at a reasonable rate. The growth of funds must exceed inflation to reach retirement goals, so it is important to diversify investments with the help of a planner.
Selecting the Best Professional:
Financial advisors are not in a cookie-cutter profession. An advisor will not always offer the same plan and suggestions as another, so it is important to select an appropriate professional with care.
The best way to select a professional is learning his or her personal morals, facts about his or her style of investing and any further information that will suggest the individual is a good fit for personal goals. The goal of early retirement requires the best professional.
Professionals should offer budgeting advice and a plan that diversifies investments while paying down debts. The only way to obtain an early retirement is eliminating the liabilities while increasing the assets, investments and savings. The best professional will use personal comfort levels in investing as a guide to allocating assets and diversifying investment portfolios.
Working with financial advisers is a necessary part of retiring early. The individual involved will look at the financial situation, offer advice and help make investment decisions for the highest possible return with a limited amount of risk.
This post is brought to you Susan Miller. When it came to planning her finances for retirement, she looks to Duncan Presant of Assante Wealth Management. Mr. Presant is a professional advisor offering years of experience in the industry to help his clients with retirement planning Kingston Ontario and surrounding areas.
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Thursday, October 25, 2012
CUNY AND Deputy Mayor Linda I. Gibbs Announce That ...
October 25, 2012 | The University
Innovative program more than doubles graduation rate of comparison groups
City University of New York Chancellor Matthew Goldstein and Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services Linda I. Gibbs today announced independent findings that City University of New York?s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) saves almost $6,500 per graduate, even though the initiative spends more on advisement, career services and faculty and academic support.
With 55 percent of the students in the program graduating ? compared to 24 percent in a comparison group at the same CUNY community colleges ? CUNY?s innovative approach to speeding community college students toward graduation is more effective and costs less per graduate than the traditional path toward an associate degree, according to an independent study by Professor Henry Levin of Columbia University?s Teachers College. The Chancellor also announced plans to almost double the program.
?Given ASAP?s effectiveness in helping students reach their academic goals, we plan to expand the initiative from the current 2,312 participants to more than 4,000 by fall 2014,? Chancellor Goldstein said. ?We instinctively felt that ASAP would be worth the investment. Having Dr. Levin ? a respected scholar ?
confirm and quantify that is a most encouraging affirmation.?
?CUNY ASAP is one of the most worthwhile programs we have implemented under the city?s larger anti-poverty efforts,? Deputy Mayor Gibbs said. ?Five years later, this report shows that not only is the program having a large impact on graduation rates, but it also is much more cost-effective than the alternative.?
According to Senior University Dean for Academic Affairs and Dean of the School of Professional Studies John Mogulescu, ?One of the most gratifying aspects of the ASAP program is that it has been successful at all six of our partner community colleges. This is due to the extraordinary work of our campus ASAP staff and the tremendous support and leadership of our community college presidents.?
As part of ASAP ? which also was a blueprint for many aspects of CUNY?s New Community College, which opened this semester ? students enroll full time; immediately address any developmental (remedial) education needs; take courses in continuing cohorts with consolidated schedules, which encourages development of supportive peer networks; receive intrusive advisement (meaning that advisors don?t wait to be asked for advice); take a college-success seminar; and have access to intensive tutoring services.
CUNY ASAP is funded by the Center for Economic Opportunity, which Mayor Bloomberg founded in 2006 to seek innovative ways to reduce poverty. It is one of CEO?s most successful programs to date. A partner with CUNY since ASAP began in 2007, CEO has provided assistance with implementation and evaluation. Most recently, CEO funded the cost-benefit research and outreach to help support CUNY?s plans for scaling up the program.
?CUNY ASAP has been tremendously successful in getting students to graduate within three years,? said CEO Executive Director Kristin Morse. ?The cost-effectiveness report shows that the investment has been well worth the effort and that ASAP actually saves money by significantly increasing the number of graduates.?
When the University began ASAP, it set a bold goal of graduating at least half of its initial students within three years. That represented a doubling of the existing completion rate for similar CUNY community college students and three times the national urban community college rate. ASAP did even better. Three years after its start, 55 percent of the first cohort had graduated, compared to 24 percent in a comparison group at the same CUNY community colleges, according to CUNY?s rigorous internal evaluation.
In the following years, as additional cohorts of students have gone through the program, CUNY found that:
- Remedial students graduate from ASAP at rates similar to those who start community college with proficient skills. After three years, 55 percent of both types of ASAP students earn degrees, compared to 20 percent of non-ASAP students with remedial needs and 25 percent of proficient non-ASAP students.
- Students from underrepresented groups appear to benefit more from ASAP than other students.
- Sixty-three percent of students graduate, transfer to a baccalaureate program or both three years after starting ASAP, compared to 44 percent of a comparison group.
- More importantly, CUNY found, ASAP students graduate at more that double the rates of non-ASAP students, with increases in graduation rates after three years of at least 30 percent.
The independent analysis of ASAP?s performance is the first installment of a two-part cost-benefit study by the Columbia Teachers College team led by Dr. Levin, the William Heard Kilpatrick professor of economics and education and director of the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education. The second part, expected to be completed later this fall, will examine the benefits of timely graduation for both the individual and society.
Levin predicts that as CUNY expands the program, ?the added cost of ASAP services is more than compensated for by a higher production of degrees. The larger investment will result in a lower cost per degree and large aggregated savings of degree production for CUNY community colleges ? What is also noteworthy is the likelihood that ASAP is more likely to succeed with less advantaged students rather than experiencing a high proportion? of dropouts among those who quickly see that they are not likely to complete their studies.
Looking ahead to the study?s forthcoming second part, Levin writes that the benefits of increasing graduation rates will ripple though society. ?ASAP should not be considered only as an added cost, but also as an investment in which there may be a considerable payoff or social return. Graduates experience higher employment and income than non-graduates, as well as greater social status and civic activity. Additional graduates also improve the competitiveness of the labor force and return the investment to the taxpayer in the form of higher tax revenues and lower costs for social services, including public health, criminal justice, and public assistance.?
The report concludes: ?ASAP is so much more effective in producing additional graduates in a timely fashion and ? the cost per graduate for ASAP is comparable to or less than that of the traditional approach. ASAP can increase considerably the number of CUNY community college graduates while actually reducing costs.?
Joining Levin in writing the report was co-author Emma Garcia, a doctoral candidate in the economics and education program in Teachers College?s Department of Educational Policy and Social Analysis and a research assistant in the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies in Education.?Master?s student James Morgan assisted them. CUNY?s Offices of Academic Affairs and Institutional Research and Assessment commissioned the Teachers College study. The report is available at both www.cuny.edu/asap and www.nyc.gov/ceo. ?-
ASAP also shined in a separate study in which 900 students were randomly assigned to the program, according to preliminary results released in June. MDRC, a leading public policy research organization, found that ASAP increases full-time enrollment, credits earned, completion of developmental coursework and first- to second-semester retention. ASAP?s initial effects are larger than those of most community college programs that MDRC has studied. The MDRC preliminary report is at http://www.mdrc.org/publications/637/overview.html.
ASAP cost $6.5 million a year through FY 2010 and then increased to $6.8 million in FY 2011. The New York City Center for Economic Opportunity provided additional funds to include an evening/weekend ASAP program at Borough of Manhattan Community College. The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and the Robin Hood Foundation also supported ASAP.
The City University of New York is the nation?s leading urban public university. Founded in 1847 as The Free Academy, the University has 24 institutions: 11 senior colleges, seven community colleges, the William E. Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, the Graduate School and University Center, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the CUNY School of Law, the CUNY School of Professional Studies and the CUNY School of Public Health. The University serves over 269,000 degree-credit students and 269,808 adult, continuing and professional education students. College Now, the University?s academic enrichment program, is offered at CUNY campuses and more than 300 high schools throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The University offers online baccalaureate degrees through the School of Professional Studies and an individualized baccalaureate through the CUNY Baccalaureate Degree. More than 1 million visitors and 2 million page views are served each month by www.cuny.edu, the University?s website.
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Wednesday, October 24, 2012
ESRB now supports Windows 8, introduces cost-free questionnaire for rating digital games
The Entertainment Software Ratings Board has a huge responsibility -- to rate and regulate the entire medium of video games -- but only has so many resources with which to do so. With the rise of digital delivery, it's become increasingly difficult to fulfill the task of rating every single title that comes out, but the ESRB is betting on a new initiative that'll help streamline that process. The new "Digital Rating Service" employs an online questionnaire to determine a wide variety of criteria, beyond just age-appropriateness: content, interactivity, and privacy settings (whether or not it shares your data). As the name implies, the DRS specifically applies to digital delivery services: Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network (on PS3 and Vita), PlayStation Certified devices, Nintendo's eShop (on the Wii, DS, and 3DS), and Windows 8.
That last one sounds new because it is -- Windows 8 games are now part of the ESRB's rating system. In addition to the new initiative and new platform, the ESRB is also adding more guidance to its game ratings. "Shares Info," "Shares Locations," and "Users Interact" are all now part of ESRB guidance, per the changing nature of digital, portable games. The ESRB says its new system will help to streamline its rating process for both itself and game creators, and this will resultant in faster ratings for consumers.
Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft
ESRB now supports Windows 8, introduces cost-free questionnaire for rating digital games originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/24/esrb-digital-rating-service/
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California gas prices record for Oct. 22
(LATIMES) ? California gasoline prices have dropped by an average of 24.4 cents a gallon since hitting a record for the state on Oct. 9. But the decline hardly amounts to the relief from high prices that most motorists would love to see.
Even with the drop in prices, the average cost of a gallon of gasoline in California is still a whopping 56.5 cents a gallon higher than the old record for Oct. 22, which was set last year, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.
California?s average was also still high enough to beat Hawaii ($4.424 a gallon) as the nation?s most expensive gasoline.
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Source: http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/california-gas-prices-record-for-oct-22/
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Israel to expel last pro-Palestinian flotilla activists
Israel will on Wednesday expel the last of 17 foreign activists arrested when the navy intercepted their ship during an attempt to breach Israel's maritime blockade on Gaza, a spokesperson said.
"The 17 detainees will be deported during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday depending on available seats on airlines," said Sabine Hadad, spokesperson for the Israeli immigration service.
Israeli troops on Saturday boarded the Finnish-flagged MV Estelle in international waters, ending the latest bid by activists to reach the Palestinian enclave by sea.
Among those taken into custody was 79-year-old Canadian former lawmaker Jim Manly, as well as Finnish nationals, Norwegians, Spaniards and Swedes. Five members of the European Parliament were also on board the ship.
A court in southern Israel on Monday freed from custody three Israeli citizens who accompanied the pro-Palestinian activists, according to their lawyer.
Nine foreign activists had already been expelled on Sunday ? five Greeks, three Spaniards and an Italian ? after they waived their right to appeal an Israeli judge's decision to expel them.
Israel says its blockade of the Gaza Strip is necessary to prevent weapons from entering the coastal territory, which is run by the Islamist Hamas movement.
-AFP
Source: http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=450244
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Baseball: Giants oust reigning champs to reach World Series
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QUITE A WIN. Pitcher Sergio Romo #54 and catcher Buster Posey #28 of the San Francisco Giants celebrate after the Giants defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 9-0 in Game Seven of the National League Championship Series at AT&T Park
SAN FRANCISCO, USA - Rising from the brink of elimination, the San Francisco Giants reached the World Series by beating St. Louis 9-0 on Monday, October 22, ousting the reigning champions from the Major League Baseball playoffs.
The Giants captured the best-of-seven National League Championship Series 4-3 after having trailed the Cardinals 3-1. For the second playoff series in a row, San Francisco advanced by winning the last three games.
San Francisco will face the Detroit Tigers, who swept the New York Yankees in the American League final, when the best-of-seven World Series championship series starts Wednesday, October 24 in the Giants' ballpark.
The Giants seek their second World Series crown in three seasons while the Tigers, who lost to St. Louis in 2006 in their most recent World Series, have not won the championship since 1984.
Giants dominate
Winning pitcher Matt Cain pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings for the Giants, striking out four Cardinals while surrendering five hits and a walk, and aided his own cause by knocking in a run in the second inning.
San Francisco opened the scoring in the first when Angel Pagan singled, took third base on a Marco Scutaro single and crossed home plate on Pablo Sandoval's ground out to the pitcher.
The Giants took a 2-0 lead when Gregor Blanco singled, advanced on Brandon Crawford's ground out to first base and scored on a Cain single up the middle.
San Francisco pounded in five runs in the third inning to seize command.
Hunter Pence blasted a bases-loaded double to centerfield to drive in two runs and a fielding error on the play by Jon Jay allowed a third run to score.
Pence advanced to third on Brandon Belt's single and scored when Crawford hit into a bases-loaded fielder's choice. Belt scored from third when Pagan hit into a fielder's choice and the Giants took a 7-0 edge.
Blanco scored from third base in the seventh inning when Aubrey Huff grounded into a double play and Belt blasted a solo home run in the eighth for the Giants' final runs.
St. Louis threatened in the eighth with runners at second and third and one out, but David Freese grounded out to the pitcher and Giants relief pitcher Javier Lopez struck out pinch-hitter Tony Cruz to end the inning.
The Cardinals put runners on second and third again in the ninth inning with two outs but Matt Holliday flew out to second baseman Scutaro to end the game in heavy rain. - Agence France-Presse
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