retirement income Archives - Jerry Golden on Retirement

A Challenging Retirement Plan Mission: Not Impossible

June 9, 2024 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Income annuities, retirement income, retirement plan

A reader makes a request that at first appears not achievable, but with some maneuvering of the retirement income plan building blocks, we find it can work.

A one-size-fits-all approach will never be a perfect solution when it comes to designing a plan for your retirement income. As it turns out, there are billions of potential combinations available to do what you want, whether that is creating as much income as possible, leaving a financial legacy, cutting the tax bite or covering inflation.

The best planning system does the best, if not perfect, job in meeting your objectives. Go2Income does that by examining the building blocks of a retirement plan and fitting them together in a way that meets as many of your objectives as possible.

However, when I got the following unique query from one of our article readers, I wasn’t sure that the Go2Income approach I’ve based on my years of experience, with some help from artificial intelligence, could address it.

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.

Annuity Payments Are 30% to 60% Higher: Time to Reconsider

January 11, 2024 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Income annuities, interest rates, retirement income

When interest rates rise, so do payments on new annuity contracts. Maybe it’s time to take another look at how annuities can fit into your retirement income.

Yes, interest rates are up, and that hurts new home buyers and other borrowers.

Yes, short-term interest rates paid on your bank account are higher.

Yes, long-term interest rates paid on new bond investments are up, too.

How to Get More Retirement Income From Your 401(k)

January 10, 2024 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: 401(k) income, Income annuities, qualified savings, retirement income

An integrated approach of investments and annuities could provide you with more retirement income in addition to protection against inflation and late-in-life expenses.

One might yearn for the days of company pensions, but we live in the era of the 401(k) and similar plans, so we might as well take full advantage of them. That means socking away at least the maximum that your plan provides in pre-tax contributions and encouraging your bosses to offer matching payments and the investments that will best help grow your pot of retirement money.

In fact, at least 85% of all eligible employers offer a 401(k) and employees put an average of 6.5% of their salaries into them each year. According to a report by Fidelity, the average 401(k) balance reached $112,400 in the second quarter of this year.

All good news!