Jerry Golden on Retirement

Remember: Retirement Accounts Are Not All Taxed the Same

October 7, 2023 By Jerry Golden in Annuity

How you handle your pre-tax and after-tax accounts can make a big difference in your income in retirement and the legacy you leave.

Yes, you can convert your savings to income in a variety of ways, but how you plan and allocate income among investments and annuities — and between accounts — can enhance your ability to take vacations, make gifts, provide health care and generally support your lifestyle for the rest of your retired life.

Retirement Accounts Are Taxed Differently. Plan Accordingly.

August 17, 2023 By Jerry Golden in Income Allocation Tags: Income annuities, lower taxes, retirement income

When you plan your retirement and do not distinguish between accounts with pre-tax and after-tax savings, you are likely to make less-than-optimal choices of financial products and product allocation. The wrong choices could lower your spendable income and after-tax legacy.

As you formulate your plan for retirement, you may be pleased with the amount of money saved over your working life and now invested in your after-tax investment accounts, IRA/401(k) accounts, and as equity in your house. Yes, you can convert your savings to income in a variety of ways, but how you plan and allocate income among investments and annuities — and between accounts — can enhance your ability to take vacations, make gifts, provide healthcare and generally support your lifestyle for the rest of your retired life.

I’ve said before that while planning for retirement income is not rocket science, there are literally trillions of potential plans you could design with your advisor. Naturally we want to make it easy for you to choose one — without a degree in investment management or actuarial science. However, there’s one area we can’t oversimplify: Do not treat all your savings alike in creating your plan.

Can Your Retirement Income Plan Cover Unplanned Expenses?

July 26, 2023 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Income annuities, retirement income plan, unplanned retirement expenses

Let’s take a close look at ways to create the liquidity necessary in your income plan to cover big-ticket items later in retirement, such as long-term care.

I’d like to make one thing clear. Every retirement income plan I design is to provide lifetime income. A retirement plan doesn’t last for 10 or 15 years, or for your life expectancy of, say, 22.7 years — your retirement is for life. Your income should be, too. I don’t consider lifetime income a feature to be chosen. It just is.

However, we all have additional financial needs and wants.

So, when retirees and near-retirees come to me for a Go2Income plan and point to their large retirement savings accounts as proof that they have plenty of liquidity to cover their regular budget as well as the costs of, for example, long-term care, roof repair or funding the grandkids’ college, I go into lecture mode.

Can AI Plan Your Retirement Better Than I Can?

June 30, 2023 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: AI, artificial intelligence, Income annuities, Retirement Planning

I posed some retirement planning questions to ChatGPT. The results? A good start, but human intervention is needed. (It also had some things to say about me and Go2Income.)

We are inundated with articles about AI on television, in print and online. Will it impact your work, improve medical outcomes or be the end of humankind? All difficult questions and probably above my pay grade.

So let me address AI’s potential in a field I know a little about — creating a plan for retirement income. Maybe it’s small potatoes and focused only on a narrow group of individuals. However, for that group, it’s very important. (Also, retired Baby Boomers and those planning for retirement make up the largest financial demographic in the U.S

Insuring Your Plan for Retirement Income

June 2, 2023 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Income annuities, Insure retirement income, plan for retirement income, Social Security

‘Longevity insurance’ ensures you don’t run out of money in retirement. How to figure out how much you need, the types of annuities to use and when the income should kick in are tricky questions, though.

Our calculations are based on the Go2Income planning method to develop plans, estimate annuity rates and prepare comparisons.

As the saying goes, the best insurance is the kind you don’t use. That is certainly the case with auto and home insurance. When you insure your income for a long, healthy life, however, it is possible to acquire the peace of mind of protection and create a major source of your retirement income as well.

In my last article, Are You Worried About Running Out of Money in Retirement?, I showed how adding income annuities could prevent you from running out of money in your plan for retirement income even in a scenario where there was no increase in the share price of stocks over your entire retirement. In contrast, the plan without annuities in this scenario ran out of money at age 91. That meant no income from savings and no portfolio of stocks and bonds to fund unplanned expenses.