Jerry Golden on Retirement

Surprised by Election Results? Don’t Let it Happen to Your Retirement

November 11, 2016 By Jerry Golden in Annuity, Two-stage retirement 1 Comment Tags: Annuities, personal savings, retirement income, Social Security, two-stage retirement

As a longtime student of retirement products and planning, I’ve often been critical of most retirement calculators . I’ll go out on a post-election limb and say that it appears that most of the predictive election models suffer from similar limitations.

Retirement calculators supposedly help you determine how much money you need in the present to be able to enjoy retirement during an average lifespan. But the averages don’t work out for the situations of specific people, who aren’t average and whose lives are not governed by the assumptions built into the models.

Likewise, numerous election polls this year talked to small numbers of people and then extrapolated based on “average” voter turnout and preferences among several different groups. Even some of Donald Trump’s own pollsters told him on Election Night that he was headed to defeat, based on their interpretation of the numbers. More

The Cubs finally join annuities–as winners!

November 4, 2016 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Annuities, retirement income

Even if you aren’t a baseball fan, you might have heard that a splendid game was played into the early hours of Thursday morning. In it, the Chicago Cubs beat Cleveland’s team 8-7. In 10 innings! In the 7^th game of the World Series!

And it was the first time the Cubs won the Series since 1908!

(I’m a baseball fan.)

So what does baseball have to with this blog and its articles on income annuities? More

Answers on timing and safety of income annuities

November 1, 2016 By Jerry Golden in Annuity 6 Comments Tags: Annuities, Go2Income, retirement, Social Security

The simplest description of an income annuity is this: It’s insurance against living so long that you outlive your money. An income annuity is the only financial product that offers pension-like income that lasts for the rest of your life.

Figuring out the details of buying an income annuity stops many people from considering one, though. And the current environment of low interest rates has some potential buyers wondering whether an income annuity in one of its many forms is both timely and safe. More

Defuse the tax bomb that threatens retirement

October 25, 2016 By Jerry Golden in Annuity 2 Comments Tags: Annuities, IRA, retirement income, tax planning

It makes sense that everyone’s retirement plans should be different and adjusted to personal circumstances. If you have lots of children and have already paid for several college bills, for instance, you might have less home equity than your neighbors. If you have built up large stock holdings, you will be thinking about how to manage market risk.

A constant for every portfolio, though, is taxes.

If a portion of your earnings was set aside in your 401(k) or IRA, that doesn’t mean taxes were forgiven — they were only deferred. And if the investment earnings on these savings or in deferred annuities were not taxed currently, you will still owe money to the IRS at some point in the future. Lastly, if you’ve got appreciated securities in your personal savings, you’ll owe taxes when you sell them.

I call it the “tax bomb.” More

6 really good (3 are brilliant) retirement ideas

October 19, 2016 By Jerry Golden in Social Security, Two-stage retirement Tags: Annuities, Baby Boomers, retirement income, Social Security

Retirement planning encompasses a wide range of consumers and advocates, from those who have no idea what to do to those who will suggest anything, no matter how unrealistic, to all but a narrow niche of consumers.

Your plan, then, should be built on the middle ground, with reliance on no single product or tactic. Rather it should consist of a mix of proven, safe and thoughtful approaches that will generate enough income to ensure you never run out of money.

There are plenty of ideas to choose from. GoBankingRates.com, a website that tracks interest rates recently published an article listing 25 ideas for retirees to consider. I focused on those addressing retirement finances, and I liked three of them enough to highlight here – followed by another three of my own ideas that everyone should consider. More