Everyone has a personal vision of what their retirement will be. What kind of retirement lifestyle do you want? How much will it cost? Apart from the vision, it’s good to know how you will pay for your retirement quality of life and where your income will come from.
Many income strategies can be tailored for your financial situation. However, only a guaranteed retirement income plan can provide you with a game plan for secure, permanent income streams that don’t change with investment market ups and downs.
The issue with other standalone income planning approaches, such as a bucketing strategy or a systematic withdrawal strategy, is that your funds can go up and down in value with market swings. With a guaranteed retirement income plan, your income is protected and keeps coming to you like clockwork each month.
Of course, a guaranteed retirement income plan does have some limits. If the payouts from your income source are fixed, it may be hard for your money’s purchasing power to keep up with inflation. You also tend to give up some liquidity in exchange for the assurance of protected income for life, although some financial vehicles come with withdrawal provisions for a little bit of liquidity.
In this article, we will go over the lynchpins of an income plan paying a steady, guaranteed income during your retirement years: Social Security, annuities, and pensions. Let’s talk about these different income sources and how to optimize them for a financially confident retirement.
After decades of work, you want to enjoy retirement on your own terms. It’s a big deal with a lot at stake. But a quality retirement doesn’t just come together. You need effective financial strategies set for protecting your retirement financial security.
Even if you have been diligent about saving for retirement, various risks can take your plans off the rails. Unexpected financial snags could force you to work longer, downsize your retirement dreams, or settle for less in other ways. That is why having strategies that protect your retirement is so important.
With careful and well-thought-out planning, you can safeguard your financial outlook and put yourself in a better position for a comfortable, stress-free retirement. Of course, no two people are ever the same, so these strategies may look different for various situations.
Let’s get into ten simple and effective ways for protecting your retirement and making the most of your post-career years. Once you have gone through these options, consider reaching out to an experienced financial professional to see how they can assist you.
Retirement is an exciting milestone after years of work. It’s a new chapter where we can relax, spend time with family and friends, travel, support personal causes, pursue opportunity, or else define our post-career life as we would like. Indeed, many retirees are taking their golden years by the horns and enjoying it on their own terms like no generation has before.
Of course, the path to a secure retirement has challenges. Part of that is navigating the “retirement risk zone,” or the 5-10 years leading up to retirement and in early retirement itself. This period has a big influence on your retirement money, so the strategies that you put in place (or don’t) could make a difference.
Given that, it’s natural for questions to come to mind. What should you look out for in the retirement risk zone? What sort of options do you have to protect your financial future during this time? Why is the retirement risk zone such a crucial point for your retirement outlook?
In this article, we will go over more about the retirement risk zone, its unique financial risks, and some ways to help you navigate this uncertain phase of life.
Once you reach your 50s, retirement is around the corner, but you probably have many life priorities at this point. Family, work, and other responsibilities take up a lot of attention. Planning for retirement may be the last thing on your mind.
Nonetheless, it’s still important to pause and reflect on what will matter to you in this next life chapter, even if you expect that your retirement will be 10 or more years from now. Seeing where you are financially and whether you can take more steps toward your retirement goals will give you more time to get everything in place. Of course, one of those goals will be ensuring that you have enough income to last for all of your golden years.
In your 50s, there is also the risk of “sequence of returns,” or having investment losses in the years just before or in early retirement. No one can predict what the markets will do, and the unfortunate timing of investment losses is what makes this a real hazard. Even small losses can have a heavy hand on your retirement income and what sort of lifestyle that you might be able to sustain.
So, how should you plan for retirement in your 50s? In this article, we will go over some high-level steps to follow, explore your options, and set a plan so that you can have lasting financial security once you are retired.
After working for many years, people want to have the best chance that they can get in enjoying a secure retirement lifestyle and staying retired. That brings up a crucial question in retirement planning. What financial strategies are most likely to get retirees to that point?
In a study conducted by Ernst & Young, researchers looked at a variety of financial strategies to see which ones would perform best. It brought up an intriguing result: financial strategies with permanent life insurance and deferred income annuities beat out investment-only strategies, providing retirees with enhanced benefits.
EY researchers looked at five different strategies using Monte Carlo analysis. The study findings claimed that taking income from annuities and permanent life insurance in retirement could indeed create better results for retirees.
In this article, we will dive into the EV study, its findings, and explore the reasons behind why these insurance-based strategies may help retirees beat the odds.
Yes, it’s possible to buy an annuity at nearly any age. Usually there are few or no lower age limits. But annuity purchases do have older age limits. These restrictions vary based on annuity type, product, and individual contract rules.
Technically, you may be able to buy an annuity for even a child. However, most annuity purchases are with retirement money, especially IRA money. So, annuities tend to be more appropriate for people of near-retirement and retirement age. You will also see retirement savers in their 30s and 40s purchasing annuities for principal protection, safe growth, or tax-deferred accumulation in another place alongside retirement accounts. Overall, annuity buyers tend to range from ages 40-80, depending on their needs and goals.
In an old survey by Gallup of individual annuity owners, the average age for first-time annuity buyers was 51. The survey found the median age of first-time contract owners to be 52.
Since age limits can vary among annuity types, let’s take a look at those now. Read More
Saving for retirement is crucial during our working years. It’s a big part of ensuring that you have enough money for retirement. To that end, how much do you need in retirement savings at different ages?
This can be a tricky way to see if you are financially on track. If the goal is set too low, there is the risk of being overconfident and undershooting how much you will really need. If it’s set too high, then people may become discouraged and not do anything. The bottom-line is that retirement savings goals at different ages need to be practical and realistic.
In this article, we will look at simple target retirement savings goals at five key ages: 25, 35, 45, 55, and 65. That will span exploring how much the average American has saved for retirement at these ages, and how much you might want to have saved at those points. We will also go over some things to consider with your financial planning as you get closer to retirement.
Annuities are a growing solution for people wanting financial stability and protection, especially in their retirement years. While all annuities can pay a steady, guaranteed income stream for life, fixed-type annuities can be appealing at times when markets are chaotic and economic conditions are uncertain. They offer the benefit of principal protection.
Of course, if you are considering a fixed annuity as part of your financial plan, you may wonder about the risks tied to owning one. After all, annuities are supposed to be a tool for managing risk, right? Who assumes the investment risk with a fixed annuity contract?
In this article, we will cover this question in depth, but here is a quick answer. The life insurance company standing behind the fixed annuity contract bears the investment risk. The insurer pools this risk across thousands of annuity contract holders, including you, and manages this risk in a variety of ways so that it can make good on its promises to you and everyone else. Life insurance companies have a strong record of fulfilling their contractual promises in good and bad economic times.
Before we take a deeper dive into fixed annuities and how insurance companies stand behind the investment risk of upholding them, let’s delve more into fixed annuities and what they involve.
Will you have enough income for life for your expected retired lifestyle? The idea of a fulfilling retirement sounds great, but in our 50s, it suddenly becomes more than just a distant dream. Just the thought of retirement starts to feel like a tangible reality.
It’s the time when we can really think about life after our careers, the years in which we can finally enjoy the fruits of our life’s work. To make the most of it all, you need to ensure that you have sufficient income for life, or in other words, enough money to last however long your retirement might be.
In this article, we will explore what those in their 50s, near retirement, and in retirement should know about income for life strategies. We will discuss how to create dependable lifelong income streams from retirement investments and savings.
If you are exploring ways to generate income in retirement, you may have thought about annuities at some point. Of course, annuities can be quite involved sometimes. They come in many flavors, and it’s quite natural to ask why people buy annuities.
The reasons are different for everybody. But one short answer is because annuities can provide more financial peace of mind with their contractual guarantees, backed by the life insurance company.
Annuities have grown in popularity, as people can use them to supplement their Social Security payouts, have a guaranteed lifetime income stream, earn interest on their money, protect their assets against market losses, and enjoy tax-advantaged financial growth. Paying for long-term care, offsetting inflation, and shielding assets from probate and creditors are a few other reasons as well.
In this article, we will delve into reasons behind why people buy annuities and how these guaranteed financial vehicles can contribute to a well-rounded financial strategy.
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