Jerry Golden on Retirement

Choose the best way to retire with enough income

October 9, 2018 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Annuities, Dependable spendable income

A common recommendation for retirees is to cut back on spending if they don’t have enough savings to pay for essential expenses. A recent study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) shows that only 60% of U.S. residents between the ages of 35 and 64 are on track to cover 100% of the average costs for retirees.

But cutting back spending is not your only option.

You can also buy income annuities — with savings you have now. Then you can count on a guaranteed and likely higher amount coming in every month, including in later years when home care and large medical bills are more probable. You will take on the survival risk in the process but that may be preferable to reducing your lifestyle.

My point is this: While you can theoretically cut your spending to avoid running out of money, as EBRI pointed out in its study, that isn’t the only solution. You can also increase your income and enjoy the type of retirement you imagine.

Visit Go2Income for more ideas about how you can increase your retirement income.

Keeping up-to-date on your income annuity quotes

September 26, 2018 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Keep quote up-to-date, retirement income, tax planning

A lot of visitors come to Go2Income.com or other income annuity sites to find out how much income they can generate from a specific amount of retirement savings. The quote they receive can be for an immediate annuity, deferred income annuity (DIA), or QLAC (a special form of DIA) purchased out of a rollover IRA account.

Visitors may be considering a new plan for retirement income, or they may be curious about how their savings translate into lifetime, guaranteed monthly income. Or perhaps they’d like to compare a quote to an annuity option out of their 401(k) plan or fixed income strategy they received from an advisor.

We need a few good retirees!

September 14, 2018 By Jerry Golden in Income allocation Tags: Income allocation, Jerry Golden, retirement income

We are about to add the first of a series of new income planning tools to the Go2Income.com site. It will allow retirees to design an income allocation plan tailored to their personal circumstances.

I have been writing about income allocation for a while. This approach changes the retirement planning paradigm and addresses your need to create more income with less market risk. For the rest of your retirement.

Income allocation is a different approach than you will hear from most financial advisers. They talk about asset allocation, which places your savings in different buckets – stocks, bonds, etc. – from which you can withdraw money until you reach a certain age. If you live longer than that, you have to talk to the kids about moving in with them.

With income allocation, you decide now how to generate your income from investments and from income annuities. The income annuities are important because they offer guaranteed income for the rest of your life. As I wrote here, an income allocation plan also enables you to allocate a smaller amount to higher-risk withdrawals. In fact, you may be more likely to stay the course when you know a check will be deposited into your bank account every month.

Help us help others

We are inviting you to learn about the planning method while it is still part of what we call a “beta release.” You can test it before it’s available to the general public. Register here if you’d like to participate in this test.

After reviewing the income allocation educational materials and tool on the Go2Income site, we would greatly appreciate if you take a few minutes to complete a brief survey at the bottom of Income Allocation/Step 3.

We will use your feedback to improve the tool and educational support, as well as helping us design other Income Planning tools we add to Go2Income after that.

A helpful income allocation plan

We are hoping to learn whether our site does a good job of explaining income allocation. What changes should we make to the educational materials? Are the tools and results clear? Does income allocation make sense to our subscribers?

With your help, retirement will be changed forever.

How to boost retirement income by making it safer

September 4, 2018 By Jerry Golden in Income allocation Tags: boost retirement income, Income allocation, retirement income, safer income

One of my Baby Boomer clients asked for help with a retirement plan that would provide her with a specified level of “safe income” every month. She understood that she did not have enough savings to live off interest on U.S. Treasury bonds or savings accounts. Very few of my clients have accumulated that much in savings. So, she was looking for other, higher-yielding sources of safe income.

I agreed to work with her, but first we had to agree on what “safe” means. Then we had to decide the meaning of “income.” Once we both accepted those two definitions, the plan was relatively easy.

Nothing is 100% “safe.” Even Social Security may require reform and some pension plans may need a bailout. And some sources of income that retirees count on from their savings depend on market performance, and therefore are riskier. But if you consider probabilities, the “guaranteed and lifetime” income sources below are both safe and will last a lifetime.

Develop a plan for income allocation to truly simplify retirement

August 14, 2018 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Annuities, Guaranteed Income, retirement income

The Vanguard Group made news recently when it announced it would reduce the number of funds available to its investors. The goal, the fund said, is to minimize confusion.

Jack Bogle, the legendary finance expert who founded Vanguard (but who no longer runs it) said in an interview with Fox News that the fund could reduce the number even further.

“You could run a retirement plan with three or four choices: a stock index fund, a bond index fund [and] a balanced index fund,” Bogle told Maria Bartiromo.

Bogle earned his fame by simplifying the investment equation for everyday investors trying to save for retirement. So I won’t disagree with him, but I will add a line or two to his formula.

While Bogle is concentrating on accumulating savings through asset allocation – which is good as far as it goes – I want investors to develop a strong income allocation plan at and after retirement. This way, their savings will provide enough income throughout their retirement.

To create that income allocation plan, you need to add income annuities as a new asset class to the funds that Mr. Bogle suggests.

Learn more about income annuities at Go2Income.