Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 A 401(k) is not a retirement plan. It is a defined contribution plan that allows you to invest a portion of your salary using pre-tax money. The amount you can contribute is determined by the IRS each year. If you contribute consistently and the stock market performs well, your account balance can grow into the seven-figure range. But if you don't, your account balance will be considerably less than seven figures. #2 A defined benefit program is a true retirement benefit. It is designed to pay you an amount based on a set formula that includes your age at retirement, your total years of service and your final average salary. It is a lifetime benefit. #3 My grandparents, despite being slightly better off, still struggled to make ends meet because they had no pensions and invested all their money in materialistic things for their wives. #4 My mother, who was raised by a single mother, was able to retire at age 55 after working for 30 years, thanks to the lessons she learned from her grandmother. She invested her money in blue chip companies and bought precious metals.

Can you afford to retire and live on 50% of your current salary? Have you mapped out an actionable plan to retire with some level of security? Are you reviewing your 401(k)-account balance regularly and more importantly, do you have an investment strategy in place to generate income after you retire? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, you should read on. Like the American Dream, your retirement is based on an ideal. One that gives you freedom. You can choose to retire at 35 or 85 or somewhere in between. Making the choice is easy if you are armed with the critical information you need to know to make good decisions. But what if you only have been given part of the big picture? Will you still be able to make good decisions about your retirement benefits? “Retire Not Expire” is written from the perspective of an employee benefits professional who counsels employees rather than the perspective of a financial planner. The goal of the book is not to sell you a financial services product. The goal is to give you the information about retirement benefits so that you can ask the tough questions of yourself and your financial advisors before making the leap into retirement. We will delve into the difference between guaranteed income benefits versus tax advantageous savings accounts. We cover topics such as making the transition from an active employee to a retiree and we will demystify your benefits calculation. We will touch on the velvet handcuff known as health insurance as well as discuss the importance of asking the right questions of your retirement plan administrator, your human resources advisor and your financial advisor. Most importantly, we will give you a roadmap for making the transition into your best life. Retirement is a mindset. It is not a death sentence.

Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are needed in a number of forensic science disciplines to ensure the reliability of work, establish enforceable standards, and promote best practices with consistent application. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward provides a detailed plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community. The benefits of improving and regulating the forensic science disciplines are clear: assisting law enforcement officials, enhancing homeland security, and reducing the risk of wrongful conviction and exoneration. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States gives a full account of what is needed to advance the forensic science disciplines, including upgrading of systems and organizational structures, better training, widespread adoption of uniform and enforceable best practices, and mandatory certification and accreditation programs. While this book provides an essential call-to-action for congress and policy makers, it also serves as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies, criminal prosecutors and attorneys, and forensic science educators.

Tales of pursuing turkeys, deer, ducks, and partridges through the fields, forests, and swamps of South Carolina Henry Edwards Davis (1879-1966) began his hunting adventures as a boy riding in the saddle with his father on foxhunts and deer drives in the company of Confederate cavalry veterans. Born on Hickory Grove Plantation in Williamsburg County, South Carolina, Davis developed his taste for the hunt at an early age. In later years he became a renowned sportsman and expert on sporting firearms. Published here for this first time after a four-decade-long hiatus, his collection of southern hunting tales describes his many experiences in pursuit of turkeys, deer, ducks, and partridges through the fields, forests, and swamps of South Carolina's Pee Dee region. His memoir offers a lucid firsthand account of a time before paved roads and river-spanning bridges had penetrated the rural stretches of Williamsburg and Florence counties, when hunting was still one of a southerner's chief social activities. With a sportsman's interest and a historian's curiosity, Davis intersperses his hunting narratives with tales of the region's rich history, from before the American Revolution to his times in the first half of the twentieth century. Davis, a connoisseur of fine sporting firearms, also chronicles his personal experiences with a long line of rifles and shotguns, beginning with his first "Old Betsy," a fourteen-gauge, cap-lock muzzleloader, and later with some of the finest modern American and British shotguns. He describes as well a host of small-bore rifles, many of which he assembled himself, bedding the barrels and actions in hand-carved stocks. Edited by retired lowcountry game warden Ben McC. Moïse and featuring a foreword by outdoor writer Jim Casada, Davis's memoir is a valuable account of hunting lore and historic firearms, as well as a record of evolving cultural attitudes and economic conditions in post-Reconstruction South Carolina and of the practices that gave rise to modern natural conservation efforts.

This book describes the living-room artifacts, clothing styles, and intellectual proclivities of American classes from top to bottom.

When Steven Burd, CEO of the supermarket chain Safeway, cut wages and benefits, starting a five-month strike by 59,000 unionized workers, he was confident he would win. But where traditional labor action failed, a novel approach was more successful. With the aid of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, a $300 billion pension fund, workers led a shareholder revolt that unseated three of Burd’s boardroom allies. In The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder: Labor's Last Best Weapon, David Webber uses cases such as Safeway’s to shine a light on labor’s most potent remaining weapon: its multitrillion-dollar pension funds. Outmaneuvered at the bargaining table and under constant assault in Washington, state houses, and the courts, worker organizations are beginning to exercise muscle through markets. Shareholder activism has been used to divest from anti-labor companies, gun makers, and tobacco; diversify corporate boards; support Occupy Wall Street; force global warming onto the corporate agenda; create jobs; and challenge outlandish CEO pay. Webber argues that workers have found in labor’s capital a potent strategy against their exploiters. He explains the tactic’s surmountable difficulties even as he cautions that corporate interests are already working to deny labor’s access to this powerful and underused tool. The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder is a rare good-news story for American workers, an opportunity hiding in plain sight. Combining legal rigor with inspiring narratives of labor victory, Webber shows how workers can wield their own capital to reclaim their strength.