Jerry Golden on Retirement

The (R)evolution of Retirement Income Planning

May 2, 2024 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: HECM, Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, Income annuities, retirement income

With AI on the horizon to enable the optimization of retirement income plan choices, the retirement fortunes of retirees are about to improve.

Once, there were only your stock and bond portfolios, mutual funds or ETFs as options for your retirement savings. You and your adviser managed retirement risk through asset allocation and pretty much ignored which accounts you were invested in and how much in taxes you paid.

The (R)evolution of Retirement Income Planning

When it came to post-retirement, your adviser used “de-accumulation” software that did Monte Carlo simulations of market performance, as I described in my article Don’t Bet Your Retirement on Monte Carlo Models. The model gave you a probability that your retirement savings would last to a specific age. If you wanted to reduce the risk of running out of money during retirement, you were told to set a lower income goal and accept a reduced lifestyle. Experts find fault with this “gambling” with your future, along with other issues in current planning practices and assumptions I have addressed in previous articles, such as:

How a Fixed Index Annuity Can Manage Retirement Income Risks

January 23, 2024 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Fixed Index Annuities, Go2Income, retirement income, Retirement Planning

Good retirement income planning involves adjusting to circumstances and evaluating innovative products. Consider an FIA to manage downside risk.

I have spent my career looking for new ways for retirees to create income — particularly safe, lifetime income — and at the same time meet their objectives for legacy, inflation protection, liquidity and risk management.

I think about results, not specific products, so although annuity payments have been at the core of my research and approach, I have incorporated other types of income sources into my Go2Income planning method, too. The latest is called a fixed index annuity (FIA), which has become a trillion-dollar industry because it protects your investment during bad markets while getting higher returns than fixed-income portfolios in most scenarios.

It’s our job at Go2Income to do the analysis for investors like you.

Do Alternative Investments Belong in Your Retirement Plan?

January 11, 2024 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Alternative investments, Income annuities, retirement plans

There’s a lot of promotion of ‘alternative investments’ these days, from gold to real estate and even to Bitcoin.
Are you missing out?

If you do any research on your own about how to create a solid retirement, you’ve read about alternative investments, financial managers who boast great performance and the tech stock your friends cashed in on.

You’re also seeing that your kids could use your help with the down payment on a house or condo with more space.

Can you afford to make that riskier investment or help your kids — without jeopardizing your own retirement plans?

How You Might Need to Adjust Your Retirement Plan in 2024

January 11, 2024 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Income annuities, Inflation, interest rates, Retirement Planning

Here are some of the challenges that could lie ahead this year, plus some suggestions for how you might deal with them to help secure your financial future.

Looking forward to the new year, my advice is to be, well, flexible. It’s difficult to foretell the future, even when the future is tomorrow. So, predicting (guessing) what the next year will bring has historically been proven wrong, often by a lot. As we review ideas about 2024 from several market observers, remember that we will undoubtedly need to adjust and rework our retirement plans.

Americans face retirement income shortfalls

How Finances Can Improve for Retirees — and the Next Two Generations

January 11, 2024 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Income annuities, interest rates, Retirement Planning

Hypothetical retirees from 2017 are in much better financial shape today, thanks to annuities and higher interest rates. Their kids and grandkids stand to also reap the benefits.

Who knew the holidays would result in a reordering of family financial plans? One minute we sit down for turkey and all the fixings, and the next we’re planning how to pay for the rest of our lives, along with a critical portion of our kids’ and grandkids’ futures.

What you were really looking forward to was one or three of those homemade rolls, but of course you enjoyed the family, too, and as a side dish, you came away with an understanding of how to build a solid plan for retirement income.