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Scores of people sat on folding chairs, snacking on free doughnuts and coffee and re-reading the poems or stories they’d scrawled on crumpled paper. It was a cold evening, and many of them stayed wrapped in their worn coats.

“It’s almost 5 o’clock, and we always start on time,” boomed a voice from the front of the Tenderloin community room. It was the Rev. Cecil Williams, and he was calling “Speak Out,” the weekly Wednesday open mike night at Glide Memorial Methodist Church, to order.

“We know if we start on time, we will live on time,” he continued. “We will be on time, and we will eat on time!”

He burst into laughter and called the first speaker to the microphone at 5 p.m. sharp, listening raptly for precisely an hour. Williams, who sticks to his busy schedule with the help of an assistant, is keenly aware of time. Yet he has no time for the one event perhaps most expected of any 80-year-old: his retirement.

Forty-five years ago, Williams – whose father cleaned the all-white Methodist church in their segregated west Texas town – was sent by the Methodist church to lead a tiny, struggling church at Taylor and Ellis streets in the Tenderloin. He has since turned Glide into Northern California’s most famous congregation, which counts 11,890 people – including Hollywood stars, hookers and high-society – on its membership rolls.

Vast array of services

The Glide Foundation, which encompasses the church and a vast array of social services, has an annual budget of $17.5 million. But critics say Williams’ reputation is so outsized, some of Glide’s negative impacts on the neighborhood go ignored by City Hall.

While Glide has spent years bracing for his departure, Williams finds the idea alternately funny and offensive.

“It’s not over for me – it’s never over for me,” he said during an interview in his office, surrounded by African art, sculptures of him and his wife, Janice Mirikitani, 68, a large painting of himself, and photos of him with Nelson Mandela, President Obama, Maya Angelou and Oprah Winfrey.

“How do you give up something you helped create?” he said. “You don’t throw up your hands and say, ‘OK, you take over.’ No, no, no.”

The Methodist church requires that ministers retire at age 70, but Williams said he bypassed that rule by officially leaving his role as minister of the church and being hired the next day by the Glide Foundation.

“They can’t touch me now,” he said, laughing some more. “My last breath might be in the doorway of Glide.”

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Women face special challenges when planning for retirement.

Because their careers are often interrupted to care for children or elderly parents, women may spend less time in the work force and earn less money than men their age.

As a result, their retirement plan balances, Social Security benefits and pension benefits are often lower. In addition to earning less, women generally live longer than men and face having to stretch limited retirement savings and benefits over many years.

To meet these financial challenges, women need to make retirement planning a priority.

To maximize the chances of achieving a financially secure retirement, start with a realistic assessment of how much money will be needed. If the figure is substantial, don’t be discouraged – the most important thing is to begin saving now.

Although it’s never too late to save for retirement, obviously, the sooner the start, the more time investments have to grow.
If an employer offers a retirement savings plan, such as a 401(k) or a 403(b), join it as soon as possible and contribute as much as possible. It’s easy to save, because contributions are deducted directly from pay and some employers will even match a portion of the contribution.

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State and local government workers in Virginia enjoy a generous pension program. The state repeatedly has expanded retirees’ benefits over the years, while making sure employees paid nothing toward their retirement.

The economy’s recent nosedive pulled the retirement program’s investment portfolio down with it. Now some state and city officials worry that the pension system’s largess cannot be sustained.

The investment losses were significant enough that the state may have to inject nearly $400 million more into the system over the next two years. South Hampton Roads cities are also having to ante up more money during a period when they, like the state, face budget shortfalls.

Virginia Beach alone has 16,000 city and school employees in the retirement program. Since 2006, the city’s annual payments to the Virginia Retirement System jumped by nearly a third, to $107 million last year from $83 million in 2006. The same is true of Chesapeake, which has 9,000 city and school employees in the system. Its VRS payments ballooned to $57.5 million last year from $43.6 million in 2006. Both cities expect their contributions to increase again this year.

“We’re all paying the piper,” said Vicki Lucente, a Chesapeake assistant superintendent and a former finance official for Virginia Beach schools. “Everything kind of collapsed at the same time.”

State and city officials are considering adjustments to what some view as an unsustainable system. Beach Mayor Will Sessoms, for example, formed a task force to investigate changes. “The private sector cannot afford a pension system like the city and state offer,” he said. “The question is, can the city and state afford it?”

In 1983, the General Assembly wanted to increase take-home pay for employees, many of whom, such as teachers and police officers, were notoriously underpaid. Rather than set aside money for raises, lawmakers allowed the state to pick up the 5 percent contribution to the retirement fund that employees had been paying out of their salaries. Many localities followed suit.

“Because of the tax-efficiency of that approach, it seemed like a novel and clever way to reward public employees,” said Robert P. Schultze, the director of the VRS. “Now, we find ourselves sort of alone in that approach. We are an outlier.”

Virginia has 350,000 active teachers and workers in its retirement system. It is only one of eight states that does not require government workers to contribute to their retirement plans and one of three that pays contributions on behalf of employees, a House Appropriations Committee analyst said.

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As shortly as their child is born, kin can begin gripping up for their children’s college education.
With fee fees taking flight up yearly, it is improved to have a receptive to advice monetary devise so which it would not be formidable for we to send your kids off to college when they grow up.

Aside from a income which we have saved yourself, here have been a tip 3 references which can assistance we get your kids through college:

1. Scholarship grants
2. Part-time jobs
3. Financial aids

These have been great pick references for your young kids to begin off upon their college education.
But as a parent, we would not wish to tumble in those prolonged lines for monetary assist or let your child work himself to finish usually to have income for fee as well as alternative expenses.

Here have been some ways upon how we can have a burst begin during shred off those hard-earned bucks for your kid’s college education:

1. The earlier, the better.
Start investing your income as shortly as your child is born.
First, put a assets or investments underneath your name.
Later on, confirm either we wish to send a comment to your kid’s name by a time he or she turns 15. This way, we will have minimal taxes, if during all.

However, we need to be clever when transferring comment names.
Some states need a total turnover of supports once your child turns eighteen or 21. This is additionally ineffectual if, in a future, you request for monetary aid.
Also recollect which fee fees 10 or fifteen years from right away might stand in or even 3 times a stream rates.

2. Establish a certitude account for your child.
This is a really correct module for a child’s kin or kin to dedicate in.
A certitude account is identical to a time-deposit where a income will be since to your child after a certain series of years.
After a directed towards time, a account might be taken in a single pile total or by an monthly payment basis.
When creation up a certitude fund, check out points similar to a seductiveness rates, taxes as well as withdrawal restrictions.
All in all, we need to estimate a costs of fee fees, dorm room, meals, books, as well as alternative losses which might come up.

Make certain which we dedicate income wisely as your child grows.
By a time which there have been usually dual or 3 years to go prior to we send your son or daughter off to college, “lock” an plenty series of a supports by investing them in low-risk holds to safeguard which we will get to have sufficient for them to start their college education.

It is easy to get held in a pour out of things when we have been in college. In a surrounded by of studying, part-time jobs, socializing as well as extracurricular activities which we have, we have been many expected to dont think about a single of a many critical things, which is straightening out your finances.

Here have been some Hints upon how we can save income as a student:

1. Plan ahead.
If possible, do this even prior to we pierce in to your dorm room.
Check if we have been authorised for scholarships as well as alternative grants prior to signing up for any form of tyro loan.
Construct a income flow. First, where do we design to get income from? Make a list of your “income”, be it from your parents, your student loan or your part-time job.
Then foresee your expected monthly or weekly losses for food, books, etc. Once we have set in reserve a budget, be strict with yourself as well as hang to it.
You will never know what astonishing losses would come your approach so it is improved to have a rain for financial emergencies.

2. Save upon food.
One of a vital losses which we have as a educatee which we competence have ignored when we were still vital with your relatives is your food allowance. Avoid eating during quick food outlets, as this is many expected to hurt your budget. Pack your lunch as well as devise your dishes as many as we can.

3. Take full value of educatee discounts.
Those ID’s in your wallet have been not usually for show. educatee ID’s as well as memberships in organizations have been respected in several establishments which suggest discounts.
Also, condescend a sure investiture continually as well as we have been firm to get reward cards for being a constant customer.

4. Use your income as many as we can.
Since we already have a breeze of a details where we will outlay your money, it is easier to guard your income flow. Avoid regulating your withdraw label when we have income with you. Use your credit cards or write checks usually in emergencies. Having withdraw cards, credit cards as well as checks accessible competence lead we to overspend.

5. Keep yourself busy.
Join clubs according to your margin of interest.
Keeping bustling will let your thoughts ramble as well as assistance we stay divided from things which we have been expected to outlay income upon when you get bored. Examples of these have been snacks, film tickets or diversion rentals.

You will be astounded during a volume of income which we will essentially save by spending reduction upon oppulance items, following your bill devise as well as Preserving for monetary emergencies which we have been many expected to get as a college educatee.