AllThingsD » retirement

Confirmed: Apple Security Chief Investigating Early Retirement

John Paczkowski — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 22:16:22 +0000

Apple Vice President of Global Security John Theriault has indeed left the company, as first reported by 9to5mac. AllThingsD has independently confirmed his departure and the reason behind it: Theriault is said to be retiring.

A pat explanation for the former FBI agent’s departure, which follows a bungled investigation into a lost iPhone 4S prototype earlier this year. And, indeed, sources close to Apple say that debacle — which involved allegations that Apple’s security officials impersonated San Francisco police officers — is the real reason he’s no longer with the company.

Cisco Offering Early Retirement to Workers

Roger Cheng — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:47:54 +0000

Cisco Systems Inc. is offering some of its U.S. and Canadian employees the option of retiring early, part of a series of moves to cut costs and restructure the company.

Employees who are at least 50 years old, and have a combined age and years of service of at least 60 as of July 8 are eligible for the program. The company hopes to achieve cost savings through the program, according to memos it sent to employees.

A company spokeswoman declined to say how many people were eligible for the program, or how much it would save.

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AT&T Plans $2.7 Billion Charge

Roger Cheng — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:28:35 +0000

AT&T Inc. will take a pretax charge of about $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter in a move to simplify how it accounts for pension and other post-retirement benefits.

The Dallas-based telecommunications company said Thursday it would now recognize gains and losses in the year in which they are incurred, using a practice called mark-to-market accounting, rather than spread them out over several years.

The accounting change clarifies one of the more volatile aspects of a large employer’s financial results, better tying performance to the current economic state. It would eliminate the “smoothing out” of gains and losses over several years. Under the old system, some of the pension-plan losses recorded during the stock market decline in 2008 would still be on the books for 2010.

AT&T joins a number of large U.S. corporations including Honeywell International, General Electric Co. and International Business Machines Corp. in revamping pension-accounting practices.

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Teens Take Elders to Tech Boot Camp

Sue Shellenbarger — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:00:28 +0000

Al Kouba, who lives in Bend, Ore., was told by his son in California that his family’s Christmas letter would only be posted on Facebook—not mailed. That’s when the retired systems engineer knew it was time to play catch up: “If you’re going to communicate with your family, you have to be on Facebook,” he says.

So he turned to a technology expert: his 15-year-old granddaughter, Marlee Norr. But as Marlee explained the steps to log on to the social-networking site, Mr. Kouba protested: “Look, kid, I’m 77 years old! I’m not quite as swift as I used to be.” Both laughed, says Marlee, also of Bend, and she agreed to “back up and slow down.”

Teens can be motivational teachers for the elderly because of their enthusiasm for technology and agility with gadgetry. But, oh, the eye-rolling.

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Goalkeeping Gets Easier at Mint.com

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:47:27 +0000

When most people hear the word “budget,” they groan about all the numbers and spreadsheets involved in setting financial goals. Instead they procrastinate and continue spending without any specific savings goals. Case in point: I recently postponed a meeting with my financial planner because I didn’t have the energy after a long business trip to work through my finances.

[ See post to watch video ]

Now Mint.com, a website that already offers user-friendly options for studying how one’s money is spent, has introduced an easy way to set budget objectives, link them to accounts and learn specific steps on how to reach those goals. The goals can even be personalized with digital photos, like an image of the car you’re saving up to buy. And this service, which launched Tuesday, doesn’t cost a cent.

I’ve been testing Intuit Inc.’s free, updated Mint.com service, specifically focusing on its new Mint Goals feature. The idea of adding goals that tie into real accounts has been a long time coming for the finance-management website. Mint previously offered a Planning section on its site, but it required too much manual input, including setting up personal budget categories, and guesswork about how much one should spend.

The Goals feature uses pop-up windows where users can quickly input data, like annual salary, to get estimates on how much they can afford to spend on things like a vacation, as well as how much they need to save for that vacation. Monthly savings estimates can be set to aggressive savings plans or conservative ones with just a mouse click.

Finances in One Place

Mint.com has been around for almost three years and is already used by millions of people. Its proprietary algorithms encrypt data so people will feel confident enough to input their usernames and passwords for their online financial accounts, allowing them to see all of their financial activity in one place. These accounts include those tied to credit cards, banks, retirement savings and others. Mint is known for displaying colorful visuals like pie charts and graphs, so it’s easy for people to see where they’re spending their money or how it’s being invested.

Mint.com’s new Goals tab (top right) offers users a choice of eight popular goals and one to customize. Colorful thermometers (top left) show how much progress was made toward a goal. Details of a particular goal (above) and a “Next Steps” checklist of tasks to complete.

Mint Goals is a new tab on the Mint.com site, and clicking on it directs users to a group of eight popular goals and one that can be customized (more will be added over time). The preset list includes goals to get out of debt, buy a home, buy a car, save for college, take a trip or save for retirement. A digital checklist in each goal called “Next Steps” gives people serious, doable tasks to complete, so they can actually make progress toward a goal in ways other than just putting money aside. This instant gratification saved me from doing a lot of calculating.

The Best Account

When you set up a goal for the first time, Mint suggests what type of account would work best for saving toward it. Examples include a 529 savings plan for people who are saving to put their kids through college or a Roth IRA for retirement savings. Mint will also tell you the provider with the best interest rate.

Unlike some other websites that encourage saving, like SmartyPig.com, Mint isn’t a bank, so you’ll have to leave the Mint site to create accounts and manage money transfers rather than starting them right on the site. Aaron Patzer, the company’s founder and CEO, expects the site will enable setting up savings accounts and money transfers by the end of this year.

Each goal includes the overall amount of money intended to be saved, today’s balance, planned and projected dates for reaching the goal and how much has been saved this month (like $200 of $750). I liked looking at Mint’s colorful thermometers, which quickly showed me how I was progressing in a particular goal.

For example, the Buy a Home goal checklist includes steps like finding a Realtor, getting homeowner’s insurance and getting prequalified for a loan. A panel beside each of these items also offers an educational explanation of what these steps really mean. Many explanations include links to a blog called MintLife, where blog posts from Mint employees and some freelancers offer deep explanations about financial questions.

Ads With Context

The Goals feature comes with contextual ads, which help it remain free. One checklist item suggests opening a high-yield savings account and also offers links to the Discover and American Express websites, which offer the accounts. If you’ve started a Mint Goal to save for a trip to Iceland, travel insurance is suggested, along with Web links to sites that sell trip insurance.

While these links might allow people to get started right away on a particular task, they also beg the question of whether these are the best options for users—or just the biggest advertisers on Mint. Mr. Patzer explained that companies for these ads are chosen according to what’s best for the user and are selected from a list of savings options ranked by the site’s editors.

Goals can be linked to several of your accounts on Mint so they’re updated with real-time data. A long-term retirement goal can link to a 401(k), brokerage account and retirement account. If the stock market takes a dive and money is lost in an account, that loss is automatically reflected in the overall goal’s balance. If you tie a savings account to a goal to save for a house, every dollar added to that account (on the bank’s end) is automatically reflected in the goal.

Mint already gave people a visually engaging way to know more about what their money is doing, but Mint Goals give people a real reason to come back to the site more often.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Bach and Allard Out at Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division [Internal Memo]

John Paczkowski — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:00:05 +0000

Microsoft is reorganizing its Entertainment and Devices Division and when it’s finished, the two people who largely defined it for the past few years will be gone. EDD group president Robbie Bach and J Allard, the group’s senior VP of Design and Development, are leaving those positions and Microsoft as well.

Bach is said to be retiring; Allard, who has been on sabbatical recently, is simply moving on, though he’ll remain an adviser to the company.

Interestingly, Microsoft (MSFT) isn’t replacing Bach. Instead, the company is splitting his responsibilities between Senior VPs Andy Lees and Don Mattrick, who will oversee the company’s gaming and mobile businesses, respectively. Mattrick and Lees will report directly to CEO Steve Ballmer, who is evidently taking on more of a role in Microsoft’s consumer devices efforts, which, with the exception of the Xbox 360, have stumbled in recent years.

News of the shake-up was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The full text of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s memo announcing the moves below; further details to follow:

From: Steve Ballmer
To: Microsoft – All Employees
Subject: Executive Leadership Transitions

After almost 22 years with the company, Robbie Bach has decided to retire from Microsoft. I have worked with Robbie during his entire tenure at Microsoft, and count him as both a friend and a great business partner and leader. Robbie has always had great timing, and is going out on a high note–this has been a phenomenal year for E&D overall, and with the coming launches of both Windows Phone 7 and “Project Natal,” the rest of the year looks stupendous as well. While we are announcing Robbie’s retirement today, he will remain here through the fall, ensuring we have a smooth transition.

Concurrent with Robbie’s retirement, I am making several organization changes to ensure we have the right leaders in the right positions as we set ourselves up for the next big wave of products and services. Effective July 1, Don Mattrick, who leads our interactive entertainment business, and Andy Lees, who leads our mobile communications business, will report directly to me. Don and Andy have built out strong leadership teams and product pipelines, and are well-positioned for the years ahead.

Independent of Robbie’s decision, J Allard (currently serving as senior vice president of Design and Development for E&D), will also be leaving Microsoft. Given his ongoing passion and commitment to Microsoft, he will remain as an advisor to me, helping incubation efforts, looking at design and UI, and providing a cross-company perspective on these and similar topics. With J’s change in role, corporate vice president David Treadwell will join IEB to lead the core technology organization, reporting to Don. David has a great set of accomplishments at Microsoft, most recently working on the Windows Live Platform Services team. Over the next several months, Robbie and I will work together to finalize reporting and structure for the rest of his org.

Now that Office 2010 has been launched to business customers, Antoine Leblond, senior vice president in the Office Productivity Applications Group, will take a new role as senior vice president for the Windows Web Services team. This team brings together the integral Windows services that today deliver updates, solutions, community and depth information for the Windows consumer. Kurt DelBene, senior vice president in the Office Business Productivity Group, will take on all of the engineering responsibilities for the Office business.

Transitions are always hard. Robbie has been an instrumental part of so many key moments in Microsoft history–from the evolution of Office to the decision to create the first Xbox to pushing the company hard in entertainment overall. J as well has had a great impact in the market and on our culture, providing leadership in design, and in creating a passionate and involved Xbox community, and earlier being at the center of our work seizing the importance of the Web for the company. But most important, both have been great team builders with a strong record of attracting, coaching and growing talent. As a result, their teams are primed to continue to step up and deliver great products, great services and great results for the company. Don has led the Interactive Entertainment Business since July 2007, where he’s significantly grown our entertainment footprint as well as our profitability. He can count as successes the evolution of Xbox Live, the launch of blockbusters like “Halo 3” and the much-anticipated “Project Natal.” Previously, Don was president of Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios. Andy has led the Mobile Communications Business since February, 2008, and has been instrumental in reinvigorating our mobility efforts, bringing in new business and development talent and overseeing the creation of both KIN and Windows Phone 7.

As we finalize and ship so many of our key products (“Project Natal,” Windows Phone 7, Office 2010, Windows Live Wave 4 and others) it is a natural time for us to look ahead and make sure we have the right talent in the right roles to fuel our next set of offerings. I am confident that the changes above will set us up well for the months and years ahead.

I want to close by thanking Robbie for the incalculable contributions he has made to Microsoft over the years. He will be greatly missed when he retires this fall, and I am glad that I’ll have the opportunity to continue working closely with him between now and then. And as J makes a similar transition, I look forward to working with him in a new way.

Steve

Mac Quicken Gets Deductions for Iffy Upgrade

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:04:27 +0000

Despite all of the success Apple (AAPL) has had with its Macintosh computers, the Mac has lagged behind Windows in personal-finance software.

The most popular program in the category, Intuit’s Quicken, comes in a Mac version. But it isn’t as good as the Windows version, dates from 2006, and requires an often tedious and flawed process for converting your data from the Windows version.

[ See post to watch video ]

As a result, many PC owners who consider buying a Mac but rely upon Quicken resist switching. Or, they resort to work-arounds, such as installing Windows on their new Macs or keeping around an old PC—solely to run the more robust Windows version of Quicken.

This week, Intuit (INTU) hopes to alleviate this situation with an all-new $60 version called Quicken Essentials for Mac, or QEM for short. The company describes QEM as the first version of Quicken developed specifically to run on a Mac, as opposed to being copied from a Windows product. It also says the product was influenced by a Mac-savvy team from Mint, a Web-based personal-finance service Intuit acquired late last year.

I’ve been testing Quicken Essentials for Mac, and have seriously mixed feelings about it. In general, it worked well and kept its promises, and it largely solves the crucial data-conversion problem. Unlike its predecessor, Quicken for Mac 2007, it looks and feels like a modern Mac program. It also can download transactions from over 12,000 banks, brokerages and other financial institutions—about triple the number supported by the prior Mac version and double the number supported by the base version of Quicken for Windows.

However, this program is still no match for the Windows version in the breadth and depth of its features, and is even a step backward in some features from the old 2007 Mac version. It is really a stripped-down version of Quicken, for basic tracking and managing of your finances. It isn’t likely to satisfy hard-core family financial planners, especially those who like to keep an eagle eye on investments or create detailed budgets and reports.

Most important, Quicken Essentials doesn’t display, or even allow you to enter or edit, individual transactions in investment accounts. It only shows a snapshot of the current status and value of the overall investment account and of the securities or funds it holds. It also lacks a bill-paying feature. And it can’t export your data to Intuit’s popular TurboTax program. Even the much-maligned older Mac version could do these three things.

While QEM is easy to use and has colorful, understandable charts and graphs that show your financial situation, its budget and reporting capabilities are rudimentary, and it has no planning features for helping you reduce debt or save for retirement.

The new team from Mint, now in charge of Intuit’s Personal Finance group, concedes that QEM lacks some important features, but says it hopes to add detailed investment-tracking and bill-paying to a future edition.

The company claims the new QEM will satisfy the needs of users who aren’t deeply into investment management or planning, or who are new to personal-finance software.

For my tests, I entered my own various bank, credit-card, retirement and brokerage accounts, and the program was able to automatically download transactions for my checking and credit-card accounts, and snapshot views of my investment accounts, in most cases. In a few instances, I had to go through an intermediary step of downloading a file from a bank or brokerage Web site, and then importing it into QEM.

Quicken Essentials can update each account separately, or all your accounts at once. But I couldn’t find any way to schedule automatic downloads of data.

The company boasts that one of its big advantages is that it automatically categorizes transactions you download. It knows a purchase at Safeway is probably “groceries.” It remembers these for the future, but won’t retroactively apply the categories to past transactions.

To me, the biggest plus in QEM is its greatly improved conversion ability. I was able to successfully convert files from Quicken for Windows, Microsoft Money and the older Mac version using sample data from those programs provided at my request by Intuit, since I don’t use these programs and lacked my own data.

Each conversion took 30 minutes or less. The process requires you to export your data from the other programs and then use a special conversion utility that comes on the QEM disk. You then import the files created by the converter into QEM. For conversions from Money, you need to have the program installed on your PC.

Some information, such as individual investment activity, and various reports and plans that QEM doesn’t support, won’t transfer. And, after the conversion, you have to reenter your log-in information for banks and brokerages.

Overall, I consider QEM just a start in bringing a better version of Quicken to the Mac. Devoted users of Quicken for Windows will likely still resist the Mac, or be forced to resort to work-arounds so they can keep using the Windows version.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

A Service to Make 401(k) Tweaking a Piece of Cake

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:09:04 +0000

In the current economic turmoil, with investment portfolios melting in value, it’s become harder than ever to plan for retirement. Many people lack good investment advisers, or the time and skill to do their own investment research.

So, a small San Francisco company, Cake Financial, is introducing Thursday a $99-a-year automated service that attempts to tailor a mutual-fund portfolio that will get you to retirement according to your goals. It’s designed to be simple, clear and relatively quick, using plain English, easy-to-understand graphics, and a step-by-step approach that walks you through the process. In essence, it’s a robotic, low-cost investment adviser.

[ See post to watch video ]

The service, called Cake Premium, automatically imports your investment and 401(k) account information from any of 65 major investment companies, analyzes and categorizes your holdings, and then proposes how best to reallocate your positions. It uses its own proprietary formula to rate funds, both on their performance and on their fees, and suggests substitutes that it believes would be better.

This new Premium service evolved from two earlier Cake products, a free investment-tracking service and a $30-a-year service comparing mutual funds. Both products emphasized social networking among active investors. But the new Premium version goes much further in terms of recommendations, is aimed at average folks and doesn’t focus on the social networking. Like the others, it’s Web-based and runs in all the major browsers.

Cake (cakefinancial.com) isn’t a registered adviser or broker, and doesn’t actually conduct any transactions. So, if you choose to follow its advice, you’ll have to buy or sell the necessary funds elsewhere. The company says it doesn’t receive commissions or fees, and has no financial ties to any mutual-fund company, bank or broker. It says its income from Cake Premium comes solely from consumer subscription fees.

I’ve been testing Cake Premium, using a dummy portfolio provided by the company. Because I am not an investment expert, I can’t evaluate the merit of Cake’s recommendations. You may want to ask a trusted adviser about that after test-driving it via Cake’s 30-day free trial. But I can say that I found the service clear and easy to use, and can see how it could be helpful to average people with limited time and knowledge. However, I also found that Cake Premium has some significant limitations.

Here’s how it works. After you enter a few basic facts, like age and desired retirement date, you tell the service your login information for your retirement account, such as a 401(k). But it won’t work if your account isn’t at a major investment firm like Fidelity or Schwab (SCHW). And you can’t manually enter your data from an account that isn’t covered. The company assures users this is all done very securely.

Next, Cake Premium will assess the mix of mutual funds you hold, and decide if that mix matches your goal. It rates each fund, categorizes them by type, and then labels your current strategy by degree of risk. For example, it might tell you that your current holdings are “moderately aggressive” or “conservative.” It might also tell you “you are paying way too much in fees.” All of this is displayed in very clear text and graphs.

Then, it makes an overall judgment. In my case, Cake Premium declared that the investments in my test account weren’t properly diversified and represented the wrong level of risk for my situation.

Finally, the service will suggest a new allocation of funds, propose you substitute some funds with others it considers better, and present you with a detailed listing of which ones to sell and which to buy—naming specific funds. You can, at any time, alter Cake Premium’s proposals to see how your chances of meeting your goals will change, and you can do the same by adjusting a few factors like when you might retire and what percentage of current income you’d need.

But what about those limitations? For one thing, the service is focused only on mutual funds, and can’t give you advice about CDs or money-market funds. Also, it is all about retirement, not other goals, like saving for college.

And unlike a good investment adviser, Cake Premium learns only a portion of your financial picture, so its mutual-fund recommendations aren’t made in a complete context. For instance, it includes only a single small box into which you can type a total of your other assets. The company says it plans a more detailed information-entry process in future versions.

Finally, a maddening problem: If you are trying to reallocate the mutual funds in a 401(k) plan, Cake Premium isn’t smart enough to limit itself to suggesting substitutes that are actually available in your plan. It may in fact suggest only alternative funds that your plan doesn’t offer. The company suggests you purchase such funds for a separate account, like an individual retirement account.

Overall, Cake Premium may be a helpful tool in confusing times. But its limitations make it an incomplete solution that’s no threat to a really good, honest investment adviser.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

Seniors Take Job Hunt to the Web

Elizabeth Holmes — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:57:32 +0000

It’s not just kids who are Googling “unemployment.” Grandma and Grandpa are looking for jobs online too.

Nearly 3.6 million people age 65 and older visited career-development Web sites in January, according to a Nielsen Online report released Thursday.

The majority of job site visitors–18.7 million–are still between the ages of 35 and 49. But people 65 and older were the fastest growing group by far, up 41 percent from the same time a year prior.

Chuck Schilling, research director at Nielsen Online, says the figures represent a “desire to stay employed longer” in order to “sock away more retirement savings.”

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