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Community Corner

How to Make the Most Out of 2012

Get fit, read more and find financial success in the New Year.

The New Year is here and although many have already compiled their resolutions, Patch put together some practical ideas deisgned to help readers make the most out of 2012.

Health and Fitness
For some, being healthier means going for an after-dinner walk or ordering salad in place of fries, but Raymond Butler, general manager of Gilroy Health and Fitness, said that spending time with a personal trainer is one of the best ways to create a healthier lifestyle. 

“I call personal training a kick-start,” he said. “Trainers are here to make sure you’re doing the proper techniques, hold you accountable to your work-out schedule, make sure you stick to your diet plan, keep you motivated and take your measurements,” he said.

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When clients see that they’ve gone from a size seven to a size five, Butler said, they get motivated to keep up the sweat. For information about personal training packages, contact Gilroy Health and Fitness.

Besides personal training, Butler recommends getting a gym membership and committing to training three to four times a week. He also said that proper nutrition is the last element toward getting fit and healthy.

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Looking into 2012, Gilroy Health and Fitness will run a mixed martial arts program for children and adults. If MMA doesn’t rev the engines, the Get Lost!! running and racing club of Gilroy just might.

The group holds both urban and natural hikes and races that get people living actively in what organizer Vladimir Gusiatnikov calls the “outernet.”

Get Lost!! sees runners aged seven to 80 scrambling through cities and navigating wilderness. The group plans on holding an adventure trek through Henry Coe National Park in early November.

What to Read in 2012
Lani Yoshimura, the community librarian for the , said that while there are a “zillion” ways residents can enrich their lives through the library, there’s one idea that trumps them all.

“Get a library card,” she said. With a new facility opening in the spring of 2012, Yoshimura recommends signing up for one now to avoid an expected deluge of applications later this year.

A library card not only lets community members check out books, she said, but also grants them access to the library’s free online resources such as genealogy, business and investment services. Cardholders can also borrow audio books and eBooks for their Kindles.

The staff at the Gilroy Library recommends two page-turners to help expand literary horizons in the New Year: Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, and The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

Zeitoun is a riveting non-fictional account of the days leading up to and following the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina as told through the eyes of Syrian-American Abdulrahman Zeitoun.

The Help tells the story of three women who are growing up with the civil rights movement exploding all around them. They start a movement of their own that will forever change the way their town and other women—black and white, mothers and daughters—view one another.

Finances
Paul Vanni, a CPA and CFP with the Seledon, Vanni, Humphrey and Kawafuchi accounting firm, offers some practical advice on how people can make the most out of their money while simultaneously securing their financial future.

“People should maximize their retirement account contributions [this year], whether in a 401K at work or an individual IRA plan,” he said. “That’s always a good idea because you get the tax deductions by putting money in and you are saving for retirement.”

Vanni also suggests organizing tax records as early as possible to catch any deductions that might otherwise be overlooked.

“Most of the income that people earn is reported to them on a W2 or a 1099, but deductions aren’t reported on them,” he said.

Charitable contributions, property taxes, business expenses and job search expenses, which many people don’t realize are tax deductible, are some of the deductions taxpayers often forget.

To keep personal financial information up to date, Vanni recommends using a computer program such as Quicken or Money.

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