Inflation Archives - Jerry Golden on Retirement

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

Annuity Payments Don’t Make Your Retirement, They Make it Better

January 25, 2022 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: annuity payments, confidence, Inflation, retirement plans

Why do annuity payments belong in a plan for retirement income?

There is a very simple answer to that question: Retirees who have annuity payments in their plan feel more confident about their long-term finances in retirement.

It seems obvious to someone like me, who is an actuary by training and spent most of my later career in the retirement business. That confidence comes because an annuity payment is similar to Social Security or a pension; they all provide a lifetime of guaranteed income.

Since annuity payment contracts (APCs) are offered in a marketplace of highly rated annuity carriers, in my view retirees or near-retirees with a reasonable life expectancy should at least consider them. However, according to one survey, a relatively low percentage of retirees — less than 15% — make annuity payments part of their plans.

Factoring Inflation Into Your Retirement Plan

December 3, 2021 By Jerry Golden in Income Allocation Tags: budget, income, income plan, Inflation, retirement, Retirement Planning

Right now, inflation is top of mind for everyone, including retirees.

Inflation is important. But it is only one of the risks that retirees have to plan for and manage. And like the other risks you have to manage, you can build an income plan so that rising costs (both actual and feared) do not ruin your retirement.

Inflation and Your Budget

Remember that in retirement your budget is different than when you were working, so you will be impacted in different ways. And, of course, when you were working your salary and bonuses might have gone up with inflation, which helped offset long-term cost increases.