Archives for July 2021

There are millions of us in the world and all of us are unique. Because of this, retirement can mean different things to different people. Some view it as a time of quiet enjoyment where they finally get to read, garden, and have a relaxing social life with family and friends. For others, it could be an exciting time to pursue a new career, get stuck into their favorite sports, or pack the suitcase and explore another country.

Statistics show that 28.6 million baby boomers retired in the third quarter of 2020, a 12.6 percent higher figure compared to the same period in the previous year. Part of this could be due to COVID-19 job losses which led to senior participants in the labor force being made redundant before their planned retirement age. Another factor could be voluntary early retirement as they reevaluated their lifestyle choices after being affected by the pandemic. However, early retirement combined with the climbing costs of healthcare and living expenses could pose a remarkable risk to those who are not financially prepared.

When I’m 64

Just as the ideal retirement scenario is different for everyone, the state of our retirement piggy bank varies widely as well. It has been established and accepted worldwide that a gender pay gap exists and, according to the World Economic Forum, it could take up to 217 years before we would be able to eliminate gender disparity. Meanwhile, women on average are paid about 80 cents to the dollar throughout their working lives compared to men, with Hispanic women making the least at 55 cents to a dollar. In addition, women are more likely to give up their jobs to partake in caregiving duties such as looking after children and sick or elderly family members, allowing less time to earn and save.

This diminished capability to accrue savings has a heavy influence on women’s retirement resources, with women averaging just $23,000 in total retirement savings while men average three times more at a tidy sum of $76,000. Many women are also left at a disadvantage in the event of a divorce, especially if they were primary caregivers and were not in control of household finances and assets. These trends are worrying because women generally have longer lifespans and are more likely to spend a number of their senior years living alone without anyone to share the cost of expenses. This translates to an increased necessity for insurance premiums, healthcare costs, and funds for subsistence.

The glaring inequality is not merely between genders though. America’s racial wealth gap is another issue driving a great divide and a retirement crisis in some communities. For every dollar that a white person with a high school education makes, a Hispanic person of the same standing makes 89 cents, and a Black person 82 cents. For college graduates, Hispanic workers make 85 cents and Black workers 77 cents to the dollar compared to white workers. The pandemic recession has exacerbated the situation, with workers of color facing more job losses. In particular, Hispanic women experienced a devastating 21 percent decline in employment.

Since retirement funds are the results of savings and investments accumulated throughout our working lives, it is no surprise that people of color end up with less wealth and poorer retirement readiness. And because people of color have a reduced amount of disposable income to spend on property, the homes that they own are generally of lower value than that of white Americans. According to the National Retirement Risk Index of the Boston College Center for Retirement Research, the value of home equity is considered to have a high impact on retirement funds as households are assumed to extract income by utilizing a reverse mortgage.

I Did It My Way

Reverse mortgages are essentially loans that use home equity as collateral. In a traditional mortgage, borrowers make installment payments towards the loan amount. In a reverse mortgage, the lender makes payments to the borrower instead. These payments—including principal, interest, and fees—are repaid only when the borrower is no longer living in the house. This could be when the borrower sells the house, moves out, or passes away. Borrowers can choose to receive their loan payments as monthly installments, lump-sum payouts, or access to a line of credit. Reverse mortgages have allowed retirees over the age of 62 to create a stream of income based on the equity of their homes.

Retirees also have the option to refinance a reverse mortgage to make the most of their loan arrangements. In the event of rising property prices where the value of the home has appreciated significantly since the agreement was made, a refinancing option can provide retiree homeowners with access to more home equity and greater income opportunity. For retirees who found love in their senior years or whose spouse has recently turned 62, refinancing can add a spouse to the loan which will allow them to stay in the home after the demise of the primary borrower.

For retirees with most of their savings tied up in home equity, reverse mortgages are a good way to create cash reserves, supplement retirement income, and pay for healthcare services. For people of color and those who are retiring with less savings than they need, financing options such as a reverse mortgage could be a lifeline in their senior years. As the population of the United States continues to age, retirement equity is an important subject that needs to be addressed and reviewed.

The subject of online privacy has been gaining more traction over the years, especially among younger generations. However, even students who are willing and able to implement measures to protect their online privacy may have a hard time doing so if they can’t count on their campuses to work as allies in their efforts to protect their data. As university life becomes more ingrained with the use of digital tools, the choice of tools and the implementation of digital solutions on campus end up playing a big role in how well individual students can protect their data.

All of this makes it more important than ever for university campuses to take a privacy-focused approach when it comes to digital learning. Not only to set a good example for students and faculty but also to make sure that students aren’t forced to choose between keeping their data private and completing their academic education. Students should be able to do both.

Why is privacy important?

It’s important to address this point before we move forward with this discussion. Why is personal privacy important in the online world? There are plenty of good answers to that question, but here is one of the most straightforward ones: privacy is important because the internet does not forget.

Forum posts and web pages are documented and archived. Personal data obtained by governmental programs and marketing agencies are stored in bulk, with the latter group also buying and selling these bulks of data as commodities. And information leaked through data breaches often ends up becoming public and is subsequently archived in databases that anyone can access. Piles upon piles of personal information, passwords, and much more are all stored forever in the online world.
This means that anyone who doesn’t work to protect their privacy will leave an ever-increasing digital footprint behind their path, creating piles of information that may cause issues to their personal and professional lives ten, twenty, or even thirty years from now. The internet does not forget, and finding information on individuals is only becoming easier as time goes by. And even if a given student never writes, says, or does anything “wrong” online — and the definition of “wrong” can and has changed over time — their leftover data from their college years can still be used to pull off identity theft, or gain access to their online accounts.

What can universities do?

As mentioned, students shouldn’t be forced to give up their privacy to go about their academic careers. This makes it important for the universities to take good care of any online student databases they may have through the use of open-source encryption and other cybersecurity solutions, such as decentralized VPNs. Both can help make the campus network more secure, and VPNs are more affordable and easy to implement, making them a great place for campuses to start improving their digital security. The key, of course, is to choose the right VPN with a commitment to data privacy. Decentralized VPNs tend to perform better in this aspect, as privacy is built right into the network infrastructure, preventing the VPN provider from hoarding user data.

It’s also important to keep the digital infrastructure on campus updated and as safe as it can be. This means having experts periodically take a look at the university servers and public internet hotspots to make sure they are reasonably safe to use and free from outside interference.

Finally, faculty members should be mindful of student’s privacy when choosing which online tools and solutions to use. For example, students shouldn’t be forced to use online tools or social media platforms famous for selling user data just to be able to complete certain projects or to be able to stay in touch with their teachers.

In recent years, the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) has gained traction. EQ is a wide term that encompasses a person’s ability to understand and regulate their emotions and use these to better communicate, manage conflict, improve relationships and so on.

But EQ can also have important effects outside of your own personal bubble. High EQ can lead to a more diverse, inclusive society and workplace. However, the relationship between high EQ and diversity and inclusion is not just unidirectionally causal. While higher EQ can lead to higher inclusivity and acceptance of diversity, positive experiences with diversity have also been shown to contribute to high EQ.

A high EQ is also especially relevant in today’s workplaces as we are often tasked to work together with people from different cultures, with different beliefs, and vastly different backgrounds. People and teams with higher EQs are consistently shown to perform better in their jobs and report higher job satisfaction, partly due to the number of positive workplace relationships they foster.

Luckily for us, a high EQ, much like IQ, can be developed and trained so it becomes almost a habit. As such, it is important to start these behaviors off young. After all, it is much easier to form a habit as a child than it is to cultivate it as an adult.

But know that improving your EQ isn’t a one-shot success strategy for relationships. It takes effort and constant practice to maintain. Just like we take health supplements like DIM to boost our physical health whenever it wanes, so should we supplement our EQ with action and wider experience with diversity.

Developing Emotional Intelligence in Children

Children in America are very likely to encounter people of different cultures and ethnicities from a young age. In 2018, 27.2% of students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools in America were Hispanic, 15.2% were Black, 5.3% were Asian, and 4.1% identified as being of two or more races. This makes schools the perfect places for children to interact with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds, and hone their emotional intelligence.

But simply having diversity does not automatically lead to an improvement in EQ. This is because it is positive experiences with diversity that contribute to an improvement in EQ. Therefore, schools also need to provide children with an environment where diversity is respected, un-stigmatized, and un-stereotyped, so they can fully engage with children from different backgrounds without prejudice.

A positive attitude towards diversity and people of different ethnicities can also be inculcated at home by parents. This may be through speaking with your children and cultivating in them a respect and compassion for people from different ethnicities and backgrounds, but also through action.

It’s no secret that children try to emulate their parents, and a lot of their behaviors and mannerisms are learnt from direct observation and imitation of their parents. As such, the best method of teaching your children to welcome diversity would be to do so in your own personal life by visibly interacting and cultivating positive and fulfilling relationships with a number of different, diverse people.

Developing Emotional Intelligence as an Adult

Accessing diversity as an adult may be slightly trickier. It depends on the racial makeup of the organisation you work for, the neighborhood you live in, and the social circles you have chosen. While it is possible to consciously expand your social circle in pursuit of more diversity, it may be advisable to first practice a few skills that high EQ people have in your existing circles. After all, adults are often not as forgiving as children, and disputes between adults arising from misunderstandings are not as easily resolved as those on the playground.

One of the most powerful tools of the high EQ person is self-awareness. Self-awareness refers to the person’s ability to understand and acknowledge their own emotions through constant introspection. Another is the willingness and perspective to change your behavior if you find that it is harmful or detrimental to the situation at hand.

Once you have attained familiarity over your own emotions and behaviors, the final step is to use these skills to optimize the social situation for all the individuals involved. This can be done by monitoring how other people behave, and considering their emotions and point of view in order to create a space where they feel cherished, and safe to engage fully with the conversation.

Once you are familiar with these skills, try practicing these on your existing relationships and see how they affect the social dynamics and outcomes. You will most clearly be able to see the fruits of your improved EQ through interactions with existing friends. It can also allow you to modify and improve your methods to achieve better results with less chance of permanently damaging a relationship. After all, experience is the best teacher.

Some people are blessed with high EQs naturally. Others have to learn these skills consciously. But regardless of whether you exhibit high EQ skills intuitively or not, the cost of learning these skills and putting them into practice are next to nothing, whereas the benefits of success are boundless. So the next time you have a social interaction, try to be mindful of your own emotions and those of the people around you, and see how you can regulate your emotions and monitor others’ to create a meaningful and equally-fulfilling interaction.

In recent years, the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) has gained traction. EQ is a wide term that encompasses a person’s ability to understand and regulate their emotions and use these to better communicate, manage conflict, improve relationships and so on.

But EQ can also have important effects outside of your own personal bubble. High EQ can lead to a more diverse, inclusive society and workplace. However, the relationship between high EQ and diversity and inclusion is not just unidirectionally causal. While higher EQ can lead to higher inclusivity and acceptance of diversity, positive experiences with diversity have also been shown to contribute to high EQ.

A high EQ is also especially relevant in today’s workplaces as we are often tasked to work together with people from different cultures, with different beliefs, and vastly different backgrounds. People and teams with higher EQs are consistently shown to perform better in their jobs and report higher job satisfaction, partly due to the number of positive workplace relationships they foster.

Luckily for us, a high EQ, much like IQ, can be developed and trained so it becomes almost a habit. As such, it is important to start these behaviors off young. After all, it is much easier to form a habit as a child than it is to cultivate it as an adult.

But know that improving your EQ isn’t a one-shot success strategy for relationships. It takes effort and constant practice to maintain. Just like we take health supplements like DIM to boost our physical health whenever it wanes, so should we supplement our EQ with action and wider experience with diversity.

Developing Emotional Intelligence in Children

Children in America are very likely to encounter people of different cultures and ethnicities from a young age. In 2018, 27.2% of students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools in America were Hispanic, 15.2% were Black, 5.3% were Asian, and 4.1% identified as being of two or more races. This makes schools the perfect places for children to interact with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds, and hone their emotional intelligence.

But simply having diversity does not automatically lead to an improvement in EQ. This is because it is positive experiences with diversity that contribute to an improvement in EQ. Therefore, schools also need to provide children with an environment where diversity is respected, un-stigmatized, and un-stereotyped, so they can fully engage with children from different backgrounds without prejudice.

A positive attitude towards diversity and people of different ethnicities can also be inculcated at home by parents. This may be through speaking with your children and cultivating in them a respect and compassion for people from different ethnicities and backgrounds, but also through action.

It’s no secret that children try to emulate their parents, and a lot of their behaviors and mannerisms are learnt from direct observation and imitation of their parents. As such, the best method of teaching your children to welcome diversity would be to do so in your own personal life by visibly interacting and cultivating positive and fulfilling relationships with a number of different, diverse people.

Developing Emotional Intelligence as an Adult

Accessing diversity as an adult may be slightly trickier. It depends on the racial makeup of the organisation you work for, the neighbourhood you live in, and the social circles you have chosen. While it is possible to consciously expand your social circle in pursuit of more diversity, it may be advisable to first practice a few skills that high EQ people have in your existing circles. After all, adults are often not as forgiving as children, and disputes between adults arising from misunderstandings are not as easily resolved as those on the playground.

One of the most powerful tools of the high EQ person is self-awareness. Self-awareness refers to the person’s ability to understand and acknowledge their own emotions through constant introspection. Another is the willingness and perspective to change your behaviour if you find that it is harmful or detrimental to the situation at hand.

Once you have attained familiarity over your own emotions and behaviours, the final step is to use these skills to optimise the social situation for all the individuals involved. This can be done by monitoring how other people behave, and considering their emotions and point of view in order to create a space where they feel cherished, and safe to engage fully with the conversation.

Once you are familiar with these skills, try practicing these on your existing relationships and see how they affect the social dynamics and outcomes. You will most clearly be able to see the fruits of your improved EQ through interactions with existing friends. It can also allow you to modify and improve your methods to achieve better results with less chance of permanently damaging a relationship. After all, experience is the best teacher.

Some people are blessed with high EQs naturally. Others have to learn these skills consciously. But regardless of whether you exhibit high EQ skills intuitively or not, the cost of learning these skills and putting them into practice are next to nothing, whereas the benefits of success are boundless. So the next time you have a social interaction, try to be mindful of your own emotions and those of the people around you, and see how you can regulate your emotions and monitor others’ to create a meaningful and equally-fulfilling interaction.