Category: Annuities

  • The Secure Act 2.0 May Have Passed While You Weren’t Looking

    The Secure Act 2.0 was finally passed as just one part of a massive funding package by the outgoing congress just before Christmas on December 23, 2022, and signed into law by the president as the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, an omnibus spending bill authorizing roughly $1.7 trillion in new Federal spending (yikes!). You’re…

  • The Four Paths of Retirement

    I recently read an interesting study on retirement from A.G. Edwards and AgeWave. It was published earlier this year. The study covered a lot of ground and was only partially focused on the financial aspects. You may want to read the study in its entirety, but in this article, I’ll touch on its most significant…

  • Beware the Free Steak Dinner and Financial Advice Retirement Seminar

    I recently received another one: an invitation in the mail to a “free dinner and retirement discussion.” It seems like I’ve been averaging one every few weeks or so. (My wife also receives one every once in a while. So does somebody named “Current Resident” who apparently lives with me who I don’t know.) I’m…

  • Should You Purchase an Indexed or Variable Annuity?

    This is a follow-up to my last article about the role that immediate income annuities could have in providing additional income for someone running low on income in retirement. The focus was on Single Premium Immediate Annuities (SPIAs), a type of fixed income annuity. But there are two other types of annuities: indexed and variable. The main…

  • What To Do If You’re Already In Retirement But Without Enough Income

    My newest book, Redeeming Retirement: A Practical Guide to Catch Up, is targeted mainly at those aged 35 to 65 who are behind in saving for retirement (or think they might be). But I don’t ignore those who are already retired and discover (a little too late in some cases) that they didn’t save enough.…

  • Announcing My New Book: “The Minister’s Retirement”

    I am very excited to announce that my new book, The Minister’s Retirement, has been released and is now available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. The following is from the introductory material in the book: “This is a book about planning for retirement targeted specifically at ministers. Granted, most ministers I know would…

  • Should Whole Life Insurance Be Part Of Your Retirement Plan (Part 2)?

    In this article, we are going to consider what role, if any, whole life insurance might play in your retirement income plan. Although the death benefit is still in view, the focus here is on leveraging the cash-value (investment) component to help fund your retirement income stream. More and more retirement planning professionals are emphasizing…

  • Should Whole Life Insurance Be Part Of Your Retirement Plan (Part 1)?

    A reader recently asked me to take a look at a retirement planning (funding) method using permanent life insurance espoused by Nelson Nash in his book Becoming Your Own Banker. In addition to the life insurance benefit, the author discusses a “be your own bank” approach to funding major life purchases. He also recommends using permanent…

  • Should I Include Annuities in my Retirement Plan (Part 3)?

    In this, the third and final article in this series on annuities, I am going to look at variable annuities. Although sales of fixed index annuities have recently outpaced variable annuities, they remain very popular among new annuity purchasers. Also, since you may be pitched one by your friendly insurance rep or financial advisor, I…

  • Should I Include Annuities in my Retirement Plan (Part 2)?

    In my last article, I looked at immediate fixed-income annuities and discussed whether I might want to include them as a part of my overall retirement income plan. Guaranteed payments for life are their strong suit (helps mitigate “longevity risk”). But, as I noted, one of my major concerns about immediate fixed-income annuities is that…