Income Allocation Archives - Page 5 of 8 - Jerry Golden on Retirement

End of Decade Closes with Three Surprises for Retirement

January 16, 2020 By Jerry Golden in Income Allocation Tags: Income allocation, Income annuities, Jerry Golden, retirement income, retirement savings, stock market

An impressive year in the stock market concluded the decade with a bang, which means it is a good time to ask yourself, “Are my retirement plans better off in 2020 than they were a year earlier?”

Along with a Dow Jones above 28,000, we have witnessed two other noteworthy events: Advisory firms are developing lower-cost strategies to help you spend that stock market windfall in retirement. And the government has made it easier for employees to turn their savings into pension-like lifetime income.

Market detours require real-time plan management

December 10, 2019 By Jerry Golden in Income Allocation Tags: Dow Jones drops, Income annuities, income replanning, retirement income

Going through the process of creating an income plan for your retirement does not mean you are done when the numbers on paper meet your immediate expectations. A successful plan depends on regular analysis and adjustments. Both might be required either because your goals change, or the world shifts.

That is the benefit of an income allocation plan over other types of planning.

When I wrote an article called Don’t Bet Your Retirement on Monte Carlo Models, I suggested reliance on safe sources of income including annuity payments, and a modest outlook on the market to avoid huge ups and downs that you can’t control.

Working the percentages for a better retirement

November 4, 2019 By Jerry Golden in Income Allocation Tags: advisor fees, Income allocation, Income annuities, retirement income

When dealing with percentages, an offer that sounds good at first may turn out to not be so great, depending on where you are in your retirement planning.

As you accumulate savings, for instance, you’re looking to generate growth in your account and so you may hire an investment advisor to help you make the best choices.

Their fees are typically around 1%.

That number seemed low to my trainer, for example: “Only 1% a year,” as he said.

(Of course, on $1 million of savings, you would pay $10,000 – and more – each year.)

Don’t bet your retirement on Monte Carlo models

October 21, 2019 By Jerry Golden in Income Allocation Tags: Income annuities, Monte Carlo model, retirement

When you sit down with a traditional financial advisor to plan your retirement you will provide her with the spending budget you have in mind. The advisor will adjust that amount for inflation and after running through a “black box” model, will predict how many years your retirement savings – typically made up of cash, stocks and bonds — will last.

The model to make this prediction is called “stochastic” — a fancy way to describe what is a typical Monte Carlo simulation model.

How to reduce taxable RMDs and improve your retirement income plan

September 19, 2019 By Jerry Golden in Annuity, Income Allocation, QLAC Tags: Income annuities, QLAC, retirement income, RMDs

A reporter called me to ask whether investing in a QLAC would reduce a retiree’s RMDs and the tax that must be paid on them.

The short answer is Yes.

The complete answer is, think about the QLAC decision as part of a broader consideration of your retirement finances. Properly combined with your IRA investments, it can provide steady, lifetime income and may help you to fund a legacy to your heirs.

Let’s examine how you might create a retirement income plan that balances various investment opportunities.

Income Allocation

End of Decade Closes with Three Surprises for Retirement

Market detours require real-time plan management

Working the percentages for a better retirement

Don’t bet your retirement on Monte Carlo models

How to reduce taxable RMDs and improve your retirement income plan

Here is a case study