What Do You Want Your Money To Do?
How about a little quiz? What do you want your investment money to do? Which of the following is important?
A. protection of principal (no loss)
B. tax-deferred growth
C. upside market gains
D. an income stream
How about E- All of the above?
One-stop solution: Fixed Index Annuities
Are you aware that a fixed indexed annuity with one of our insurance partners can solve ALL of these desires if used properly?
People have many different feelings and ideas when they hear “annuity”. Annuities might be the one financial vehicle with the lowest level of awareness and the highest level of misunderstanding.
Annuities gained a bad rap in the past years due to the low-interest rate of Fixed Rate annuities and the high expense of Variable annuities. It is not surprising then that a lot of people associate annuity with something negative.
While there are many different types of annuities, Fixed Index Annuity is just one of them. It is a type which offers:
S- Safety of principal
T- Tax-deferred growth
Y- Yield (market-like gains)
L- Liquidity and lifetime income
E- Estate planning without probate
Annuities Provide Lifetime Income
One huge benefit of annuities is the guarantee of lifetime income no matter how long you live. Running out of money while they still have a lot of life left is the number one fear of retirees. Annuities provide the solution: lifetime income you can never outlive.
Check out The Alliance for Lifetime Income, a nonprofit that aims to help Americans address the risk of outliving their retirement income. There are tools and quizzes such as the Financial Wellness quiz and Is An Annuity Right for You Checklist. Your responses will be scored on a scale from 0 (very high risk) to 100 (low risk) and used to generate personalized recommendations for improving your score.
There are testimonials like that of Elaine Larsen, a race car driver, about how everything could change in an instant, but an annuity keeps her retirement safe. Watch the video here.
I am well versed in educating my clients on the pros and cons of these vehicles so they can understand whether it is right for them, and how to make the most of it. Reach out to me if you want some free education on these things or have other questions and concerns about your current savings and whether you are on track to achieving the retirement lifestyle you deserve.
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Sheilla Vidal is a Retirement Income Certified Professional RICP® and life insurance broker. Sheilla is also a physical therapist, wife, mother of two, and one of the caregivers for her 85-year-old father. She is an avid learner. She writes, speaks, and recognizes that her work in helping clients live with dignity is her God-given mission.
