retirement income Archives - Page 21 of 24 - Jerry Golden on Retirement

Maximize tax benefits: Die broke in one investment account and rich in another

March 8, 2016 By Jerry Golden in Annuity 1 Comment Tags: Annuities, Dependable spendable income, Guaranteed Income, retirement income

Everyone’s goal is to pay as few taxes as possible, but when planning for retirement many investors and even their advisors neglect a basic concept:

Die broke in your IRA or 401(k) account and
die rich in your personal investment account.

The tax rules dictate where to die broke and where to die rich. With a little planning and asset management, anyone can do it. Instead of fighting the tax code, take advantage of it by putting each of your retirement investments – stocks, bonds or income annuities – in the account that benefits you most.

With smart allocations, you will realize potentially huge gains. More

Add guaranteed income to your retirement and worry less about the market

February 16, 2016 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Dependable spendable income, retirement income

When considering retirement, an obvious truth is that your approach should be different based on your age. In your 20s, 30s and 40s, you should be automatically putting money into your retirement account and pretty much ignore what the market is doing. You shouldn’t be too worried about what the level of the stock market is because you will benefit from so-called dollar-cost averaging, which over time allows you to buy into the market at a low average cost.

A man holding a card in cupped hands with a hand written message on it, Future. — You may not be able to predict the future, but you can feel a lot more confident about it.

As you get closer to retirement, you must begin to figure out how much income you will earn from various sources to allow you to support your lifestyle. At this stage, individuals become very aware of exactly how much money they have and their behavior changes as a result. For instance, it’s normal to get nervous – or even panic – when the market crashes if it directly affects your living circumstances. More

When the government gives retirement advice, should you listen?

February 9, 2016 By Jerry Golden in Annuity Tags: Annuities, Guaranteed Income, retirement income

It is admittedly no simple task to plan one’s retirement with confidence. Even the federal government isn’t entirely clear on its recommendations to individuals who are working to prepare for a financially secure future.

White House Conference on Aging endorses income annuities — Government retirement advice

On one hand, the Internal Revenue Service last year created rules that allow us to invest part of an IRA or 401(k) in a Qualifying Longevity Annuity Contract, or QLAC. This financial product can guarantee a substantial lifetime income late in retirement in return for a lump-sum investment before or early in retirement. It is a special form of a deferred income annuity.

On the other hand, the White House Conference on Aging, which issued its final report last month, also endorsed income annuities, saying: More

What’s Your Number? Six Reasons Retirement Calculators May Fail Individual Investors

January 26, 2016 By Jerry Golden in Annuity 4 Comments Tags: Annuities, Guaranteed Income, retirement income, Social Security

A pop-up appeared on my computer screen offering to calculate my “retirement number.” The message said it could tell me the amount of savings I’ll need to retire comfortably. I’ve seen these enticements before, usually offered by a well-known and highly regarded financial institution. Even the robo-advisors and their calculators are carbon copies of the industry’s accepted approach.

Unfortunately, these calculators are not the best way to plan your financial future.

I don’t question the so-called Monte Carlo investment algorithms used to simulate market returns. What I do fault is the entire premise of extending that simulated market performance to individual investors’
personal retirement plans. An individual investor is not a pension or endowment fund with other sources to draw on, or with a virtually perpetual existence. More

Consider These Facts When Your Advisor Dismisses a QLAC

January 13, 2016 By Jerry Golden in Annuity 3 Comments Tags: Annuities, Guaranteed Income, retirement income

As the relatively new resource for retirement income — called the “Qualifying Longevity Annuity Contract,” or “QLAC” — becomes more well-known, financial advisors are trying to determine whether to recommend QLACs to their clients. The result so far has been confusion about what a QLAC is designed to do and how it can be used to enhance a retiree’s confidence in late-retirement finances.

The point of a QLAC is simple. It provides an additional source of guaranteed lifetime income to retirees’ portfolios that enhances their ability to invest for growth while providing peace of mind from gaining a source of income that will last as long as they live. More