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Imagine having total confidence in your financial future and never having to think again about where money is going to come from to fund your dreams. "Secure Your Retirement: Achieving Peace of Mind for Your Financial Future" was written to help you gain peace of mind while planning for and living through retirement. Even when you've worked hard your whole life and have been financially disciplined and responsible, it can be a challenge to convert your earnings and savings into a secure retirement. This book is designed to help you understand: *The difference between passive and active investment strategies *What it means to have a written income plan *Your risk tolerance *How to select a retirement planning advisor that matches your personal goals. This is book was written to help you gain peace of mind while planning for and living through retirement. Remember, successful retirement planning isn't a one and done process - there is so much more to it than what we could ever share in one book. Join Radon Stancil, CFP and Murs Tariq, CFP on their popular podcast entitled "Secure Your Retirement" for weekly topics important to you.
Book Synopsis Secure Your Retirement by : Radon Stancil
Download or read book Secure Your Retirement written by Radon Stancil and published by Bookbaby. This book was released on 2021-07-19 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine having total confidence in your financial future and never having to think again about where money is going to come from to fund your dreams. "Secure Your Retirement: Achieving Peace of Mind for Your Financial Future" was written to help you gain peace of mind while planning for and living through retirement. Even when you've worked hard your whole life and have been financially disciplined and responsible, it can be a challenge to convert your earnings and savings into a secure retirement. This book is designed to help you understand: *The difference between passive and active investment strategies *What it means to have a written income plan *Your risk tolerance *How to select a retirement planning advisor that matches your personal goals. This is book was written to help you gain peace of mind while planning for and living through retirement. Remember, successful retirement planning isn't a one and done process - there is so much more to it than what we could ever share in one book. Join Radon Stancil, CFP and Murs Tariq, CFP on their popular podcast entitled "Secure Your Retirement" for weekly topics important to you.
A timely guide to overcoming the retirement challenges we all face The Great Recession has placed a wake-up call to America's baby boomers. Many have not saved enough for retirement and have not taken a hard look at how many post-work years they may need to finance. Written in a straightforward and accessible style, The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security tackles the tough questions about retirement in the new post-crash economy. Page by page, it puts retirement in perspective by touching on important issues such as insuring against the risk of outliving your assets, recalibrating damaged retirement portfolios, managing the risk of health-care expenses in retirement, and career strategies for workers who are 50 years old and up. Reveals how to boost lifetime income through better planning, and working just a few additional years Offers advice on how to hire a financial advisor whose first loyalty is to you, not Wall Street Discusses why you should rethink housing in the wake of the real estate crash Offers detailed advice on career reinvention, the 50+ job market and midlife entrepreneurship Engaging and informative, this practical guide provides the strategies needed for a truly fulfilling and secure retirement.
Book Synopsis The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security by : Mark Miller
Download or read book The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security written by Mark Miller and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A timely guide to overcoming the retirement challenges we all face The Great Recession has placed a wake-up call to America's baby boomers. Many have not saved enough for retirement and have not taken a hard look at how many post-work years they may need to finance. Written in a straightforward and accessible style, The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security tackles the tough questions about retirement in the new post-crash economy. Page by page, it puts retirement in perspective by touching on important issues such as insuring against the risk of outliving your assets, recalibrating damaged retirement portfolios, managing the risk of health-care expenses in retirement, and career strategies for workers who are 50 years old and up. Reveals how to boost lifetime income through better planning, and working just a few additional years Offers advice on how to hire a financial advisor whose first loyalty is to you, not Wall Street Discusses why you should rethink housing in the wake of the real estate crash Offers detailed advice on career reinvention, the 50+ job market and midlife entrepreneurship Engaging and informative, this practical guide provides the strategies needed for a truly fulfilling and secure retirement.
Reverse mortgages have been surrounded by negativity. They were often mentioned alongside phrases like "last resort," "out of money," and "bad choice." In 2014, intrigued by the seemingly universal bad rap reverse mortgages had cultivated, Dr. Wade Pfau began researching them in depth. Over the course of the next year, he came to the conclusion that reverse mortgages aren't inherently a bad idea, though they are often misunderstood and not used in a most beneficial way. In fact, Dr. Pfau realized that reverse mortgages---when used correctly---can provide an added layer of security for retirees and allow them to enjoy retirement more by gaining liquidity from an illiquid asset. This second edition of the book is fully revised and updated for the modification of reverse mortgage rules affecting applications after October 2, 2017.
Book Synopsis Reverse Mortgages by : Wade Donald Pfau
Download or read book Reverse Mortgages written by Wade Donald Pfau and published by McLean Asset Management Corporation. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reverse mortgages have been surrounded by negativity. They were often mentioned alongside phrases like "last resort," "out of money," and "bad choice." In 2014, intrigued by the seemingly universal bad rap reverse mortgages had cultivated, Dr. Wade Pfau began researching them in depth. Over the course of the next year, he came to the conclusion that reverse mortgages aren't inherently a bad idea, though they are often misunderstood and not used in a most beneficial way. In fact, Dr. Pfau realized that reverse mortgages---when used correctly---can provide an added layer of security for retirees and allow them to enjoy retirement more by gaining liquidity from an illiquid asset. This second edition of the book is fully revised and updated for the modification of reverse mortgage rules affecting applications after October 2, 2017.
In the new edition of Retire Secure! CPA and attorney James Lange supplements his proven methods for making the most of your retirement plans with updated information, analysis and examples as well as offers recommendations for new tax-saving strategies for retirees and older Americans. Always a strong proponent of contributing as much as you can to all the tax-deferred retirement plans available to you, Jim makes a convincing case for adding a slight modification to his pay taxes later adage - pay taxes later, except for the Roth. On the accumulation side of the equation, when individuals are working to save money for retirement, he delves into great detail on the differences between traditional and Roth retirement plan options. Retire Secure! delivers the most sophisticated financial and legal advice in the most accessible of manners. Jim makes it possible for the reader to gain a unique understanding of these stages and plan for them.
Book Synopsis Retire Secure! by : James Lange
Download or read book Retire Secure! written by James Lange and published by . This book was released on 2015-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the new edition of Retire Secure! CPA and attorney James Lange supplements his proven methods for making the most of your retirement plans with updated information, analysis and examples as well as offers recommendations for new tax-saving strategies for retirees and older Americans. Always a strong proponent of contributing as much as you can to all the tax-deferred retirement plans available to you, Jim makes a convincing case for adding a slight modification to his pay taxes later adage - pay taxes later, except for the Roth. On the accumulation side of the equation, when individuals are working to save money for retirement, he delves into great detail on the differences between traditional and Roth retirement plan options. Retire Secure! delivers the most sophisticated financial and legal advice in the most accessible of manners. Jim makes it possible for the reader to gain a unique understanding of these stages and plan for them.
"It is a rare pleasure to read a book on personal finance with which I agree completely. Dana Anspach has produced one. I am usually turned off by the chapter on investing, which is typically false and misleading. Investing should always start from the safest strategy to achieve one's goals. Dana Anspach gets it right and expresses it in entertaining prose that anyone can understand and enjoy." —Zvi Bodie, Professor of Economics, Boston University People in their fifties start to wonder: When should I retire? Once I do, when should I take Social Security? Do I need to buy an annuity to make sure I have enough money to last my whole life? Should I move everything into Treasury Bills and other “safe” investments? In short, what do I need to do now to ensure a comfortable retirement in five or ten years? Control Your Retirement Destiny: Achieving Financial Security Before the Big Transition provides practical, how-to knowledge on what you need to do to get your finances in order to prepare for a transition out of the workforce. While never easy, retirement investing in your 20s to your early 50s has been straightforward. But as you get closer to the big event—retirement—it takes a different kind of planning to align investments, retirement accounts, taxes, Social Security, and pension decisions, all for a single objective: providing reliable, life-long income. Control Your Retirement Destiny teaches you how each part works, how one decision affects another, and--most importantly--how to focus on the items you can control rather than on the items you can’t. When you put it all together in a plan that works for you, you’ll have more choices and a greater sense of security about the financial decisions you are making. Transitioning out of work is scary. Control Your Retirement Destiny equips you with the knowledge you’ll need to make sure you’ve thought of everything. When your finances and your future intersect, you’ll be ready. This book: Covers all the major topics in retirement planning—investments, Social Security, annuities, taxes, healthcare, part-time work, and more. Illustrates which items you can control, and how to focus on them. Provides examples of how planning decisions can result in a more secure outcome when they are coordinated. Provides actionable knowledge about important money decisions faced by upcoming retirees. Control Your Retirement Destiny enables you to take charge of your financial future right now to ensure a happy, financially secure retirement. What you’ll learnYou will be able to: Apply an improved and coordinated process to make better financial decisions Focus on items within your control like tax management, risk management, and developing and sticking with a plan Determine how much investment risk you should take Decide if you need guaranteed income, and if so, how to buy it Choose investments that are best suited to meet your future income needs Avoid big retirement planning mistakes Find sources of reliable information Who this book is for Control Your Retirement Destiny: Achieving Financial Security Before the Big Transition is for men and women who are 50-plus, have money in 401(k)s and IRAs and other assets, and are beginning to think about when and how they might transition out of regular, full-time work. They are wondering when to start Social Security, how to choose investments that will provide security, how to account for medical costs and taxes in retirement, and most importantly, how to put all of these things together into a plan that ensures financial security. Readers will be in the top 50% of the population in terms of income and assets, age 50+, do-it-yourself investors, index investors, or investors who aren’t getting the answers they need from their current broker, advisor, or mutual fund company.
Book Synopsis Control Your Retirement Destiny by : Dana Anspach
Download or read book Control Your Retirement Destiny written by Dana Anspach and published by Apress. This book was released on 2013-04-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It is a rare pleasure to read a book on personal finance with which I agree completely. Dana Anspach has produced one. I am usually turned off by the chapter on investing, which is typically false and misleading. Investing should always start from the safest strategy to achieve one's goals. Dana Anspach gets it right and expresses it in entertaining prose that anyone can understand and enjoy." —Zvi Bodie, Professor of Economics, Boston University People in their fifties start to wonder: When should I retire? Once I do, when should I take Social Security? Do I need to buy an annuity to make sure I have enough money to last my whole life? Should I move everything into Treasury Bills and other “safe” investments? In short, what do I need to do now to ensure a comfortable retirement in five or ten years? Control Your Retirement Destiny: Achieving Financial Security Before the Big Transition provides practical, how-to knowledge on what you need to do to get your finances in order to prepare for a transition out of the workforce. While never easy, retirement investing in your 20s to your early 50s has been straightforward. But as you get closer to the big event—retirement—it takes a different kind of planning to align investments, retirement accounts, taxes, Social Security, and pension decisions, all for a single objective: providing reliable, life-long income. Control Your Retirement Destiny teaches you how each part works, how one decision affects another, and--most importantly--how to focus on the items you can control rather than on the items you can’t. When you put it all together in a plan that works for you, you’ll have more choices and a greater sense of security about the financial decisions you are making. Transitioning out of work is scary. Control Your Retirement Destiny equips you with the knowledge you’ll need to make sure you’ve thought of everything. When your finances and your future intersect, you’ll be ready. This book: Covers all the major topics in retirement planning—investments, Social Security, annuities, taxes, healthcare, part-time work, and more. Illustrates which items you can control, and how to focus on them. Provides examples of how planning decisions can result in a more secure outcome when they are coordinated. Provides actionable knowledge about important money decisions faced by upcoming retirees. Control Your Retirement Destiny enables you to take charge of your financial future right now to ensure a happy, financially secure retirement. What you’ll learnYou will be able to: Apply an improved and coordinated process to make better financial decisions Focus on items within your control like tax management, risk management, and developing and sticking with a plan Determine how much investment risk you should take Decide if you need guaranteed income, and if so, how to buy it Choose investments that are best suited to meet your future income needs Avoid big retirement planning mistakes Find sources of reliable information Who this book is for Control Your Retirement Destiny: Achieving Financial Security Before the Big Transition is for men and women who are 50-plus, have money in 401(k)s and IRAs and other assets, and are beginning to think about when and how they might transition out of regular, full-time work. They are wondering when to start Social Security, how to choose investments that will provide security, how to account for medical costs and taxes in retirement, and most importantly, how to put all of these things together into a plan that ensures financial security. Readers will be in the top 50% of the population in terms of income and assets, age 50+, do-it-yourself investors, index investors, or investors who aren’t getting the answers they need from their current broker, advisor, or mutual fund company.
In Rescuing Retirement, Teresa Ghilarducci and Tony James offer a comprehensive yet simple plan to help workers save for retirement, increase retirement savings by earning higher returns, and guarantee lifelong income for everyone. It offers a practical guide to the future of secure retirement.
Book Synopsis Rescuing Retirement by : Teresa Ghilarducci
Download or read book Rescuing Retirement written by Teresa Ghilarducci and published by Columbia Business School Publi. This book was released on 2018 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Rescuing Retirement, Teresa Ghilarducci and Tony James offer a comprehensive yet simple plan to help workers save for retirement, increase retirement savings by earning higher returns, and guarantee lifelong income for everyone. It offers a practical guide to the future of secure retirement.
The instant NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER #1 PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT Revised & Updated for 2023 THE PATH TO YOUR ULTIMATE RETIREMENT STARTS RIGHT HERE! Retirement today is more complex than ever before. It is most definitely not your parents' retirement. You will have to make decisions that weren't even part of the picture a generation ago. Without a clear-cut path to manage the money you’ve saved, you may feel like you're all on your own. Except you're not—because Suze Orman has your back. Suze is America's most recognized personal finance expert for a reason. She's been dispensing actionable advice for years to people seeking financial security. Now, in this revised and updated Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+, which reflects recent changes in retirement rules passed by Congress, Suze gives you the no-nonsense advice and practical tools you need to plan wisely for your retirement in today's ever-changing landscape. You'll find new rules for downsizing, spending wisely, delaying Social Security benefits, and more—starting where you are right now. Suze knows money decisions are never just about money. She understands your hopes, your fears, your wishes, and your desires for your own life as well as for your loved ones. She will guide you on how to let go of regret and fear, and with her unparalleled knowledge and unique empathy, she will reveal practical and personal steps so you can always live your Ultimate Retirement life. "I wrote this book for you," Suze says. "The worried, the fearful, the anxious. I know you need help navigating the road ahead. I've helped steer people toward happy and secure retirements my whole life, and that's exactly what I want to do for you."
Book Synopsis The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+ by : Suze Orman
Download or read book The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+ written by Suze Orman and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2020-02-25 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The instant NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER #1 PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT Revised & Updated for 2023 THE PATH TO YOUR ULTIMATE RETIREMENT STARTS RIGHT HERE! Retirement today is more complex than ever before. It is most definitely not your parents' retirement. You will have to make decisions that weren't even part of the picture a generation ago. Without a clear-cut path to manage the money you’ve saved, you may feel like you're all on your own. Except you're not—because Suze Orman has your back. Suze is America's most recognized personal finance expert for a reason. She's been dispensing actionable advice for years to people seeking financial security. Now, in this revised and updated Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+, which reflects recent changes in retirement rules passed by Congress, Suze gives you the no-nonsense advice and practical tools you need to plan wisely for your retirement in today's ever-changing landscape. You'll find new rules for downsizing, spending wisely, delaying Social Security benefits, and more—starting where you are right now. Suze knows money decisions are never just about money. She understands your hopes, your fears, your wishes, and your desires for your own life as well as for your loved ones. She will guide you on how to let go of regret and fear, and with her unparalleled knowledge and unique empathy, she will reveal practical and personal steps so you can always live your Ultimate Retirement life. "I wrote this book for you," Suze says. "The worried, the fearful, the anxious. I know you need help navigating the road ahead. I've helped steer people toward happy and secure retirements my whole life, and that's exactly what I want to do for you."
PRE- AND POST-RETIREMENT PLANNING THAT MAKES SENSE GETTING STARTED IN A FINANCIALLY SECURE RETIREMENT If you want to make the most of your retirement years, you have to seriously think about the retirement lifestyle you want and the path that will get you there. In order to do this, you need reliable retirement information that will allow you to properly chart your course. Nobody knows this better than author Henry Hebeler, who retired from the corporate world more than fifteen years ago--and quickly discovered that much of the retirement planning advice available wasn't helping people accomplish their goals. Now, with Getting Started in a Financially Secure Retirement, Hebeler shares his experience in this field with you and reveals what it really takes to achieve the retirement you want. Written in a straightforward and accessible style, Getting Started in a Financially Secure Retirement dismisses the assumptions that many popular retirement planning methods make and addresses some of today's most important retirement issues, including everything from planning with realistic economic inputs to neglected subjects such as replacement budgeting, reverse dollar cost averaging, and the need for resiliency when encountering surprise events. Filled with in-depth insights, practical advice, and helpful retirement planning tools, Getting Started in a Financially Secure Retirement will allow you to apply Hebeler's proven principles to your own specific situation--whether you're already retired or still working--and make more informed financial decisions as you plan for the years ahead.
Book Synopsis Getting Started in A Financially Secure Retirement by : Henry K. Hebeler
Download or read book Getting Started in A Financially Secure Retirement written by Henry K. Hebeler and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2007-04-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PRE- AND POST-RETIREMENT PLANNING THAT MAKES SENSE GETTING STARTED IN A FINANCIALLY SECURE RETIREMENT If you want to make the most of your retirement years, you have to seriously think about the retirement lifestyle you want and the path that will get you there. In order to do this, you need reliable retirement information that will allow you to properly chart your course. Nobody knows this better than author Henry Hebeler, who retired from the corporate world more than fifteen years ago--and quickly discovered that much of the retirement planning advice available wasn't helping people accomplish their goals. Now, with Getting Started in a Financially Secure Retirement, Hebeler shares his experience in this field with you and reveals what it really takes to achieve the retirement you want. Written in a straightforward and accessible style, Getting Started in a Financially Secure Retirement dismisses the assumptions that many popular retirement planning methods make and addresses some of today's most important retirement issues, including everything from planning with realistic economic inputs to neglected subjects such as replacement budgeting, reverse dollar cost averaging, and the need for resiliency when encountering surprise events. Filled with in-depth insights, practical advice, and helpful retirement planning tools, Getting Started in a Financially Secure Retirement will allow you to apply Hebeler's proven principles to your own specific situation--whether you're already retired or still working--and make more informed financial decisions as you plan for the years ahead.
Pensioners are facing a major fallout from South Africa’s downgrading to junk status and the plummeting of the rand as a result of government corruption. On top of this, the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic lockdown have hit retirement savings hard, and their effects will continue for a long time. Secure Your Retirement unpacks the challenges facing pensioners, and outlines what they can do to improve their situation. The book explains how to avoid the pitfalls that cause pensioners to run out of money. It provides guidance about selecting the right pension products and offers other solutions to guide pensioners to better financial outcomes. It gives advice for women, who are particularly at risk, and it deals with the rising costs of health care and the increasing threat of dementia. Written by award-winning author Bruce Cameron and leading financial planner Wouter Fourie, and based on research by the country’s largest pension fund administrator, Alexander Forbes, as well as life companies Just SA and Sanlam, this book is essential for anyone concerned about their financial future in this worrying time.
Book Synopsis Secure Your Retirement by : Bruce Cameron
Download or read book Secure Your Retirement written by Bruce Cameron and published by Penguin Random House South Africa. This book was released on 2020-09-14 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pensioners are facing a major fallout from South Africa’s downgrading to junk status and the plummeting of the rand as a result of government corruption. On top of this, the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic lockdown have hit retirement savings hard, and their effects will continue for a long time. Secure Your Retirement unpacks the challenges facing pensioners, and outlines what they can do to improve their situation. The book explains how to avoid the pitfalls that cause pensioners to run out of money. It provides guidance about selecting the right pension products and offers other solutions to guide pensioners to better financial outcomes. It gives advice for women, who are particularly at risk, and it deals with the rising costs of health care and the increasing threat of dementia. Written by award-winning author Bruce Cameron and leading financial planner Wouter Fourie, and based on research by the country’s largest pension fund administrator, Alexander Forbes, as well as life companies Just SA and Sanlam, this book is essential for anyone concerned about their financial future in this worrying time.
Two fundamentally different philosophies for retirement income planning, which I call probability-based and safety-first, diverge on the critical issue of where a retirement plan is best served: in the risk/reward trade-offs of a diversified and aggressive investment portfolio that relies primarily on the stock market, or in the contractual protections of insurance products that integrate the power of risk pooling and actuarial science alongside investments. The probability-based approach is generally better understood by the public. It advocates using an aggressive investment portfolio with a large allocation to stocks to meet retirement goals. My earlier book How Much Can I Spend in Retirement? A Guide to Investment-Based Retirement Strategies provides an extensive investigation of probability-based approaches. But this investments-only attitude is not the optimal way to build a retirement income plan. There are pitfalls in retirement that we are less familiar with during the accumulation years. The nature of risk changes. Longevity risk is the possibility of living longer than planned, which could mean not having resources to maintain the retiree's standard of living. And once retirement distributions begin, market downturns in the early years can disproportionately harm retirement sustainability. This is sequence-of-returns risk, and it acts to amplify the impacts of market volatility in retirement. Traditional wealth management is not equipped to handle these new risks in a fulfilling way. More assets are required to cover spending goals over a possibly costly retirement triggered by a long life and poor market returns. And yet, there is no assurance that assets will be sufficient. For retirees who are worried about outliving their wealth, probability-based strategies can become excessively conservative and stressful. This book focuses on the other option: safety-first retirement planning. Safety-first advocates support a more bifurcated approach to building retirement income plans that integrates insurance with investments, providing lifetime income protections to cover spending. With risk pooling through insurance, retirees effectively pay an insurance premium that will provide a benefit to support spending in otherwise costly retirements that could deplete an unprotected investment portfolio. Insurance companies can pool sequence and longevity risks across a large base of retirees, much like a traditional defined-benefit company pension plan or Social Security, allowing for retirement spending that is more closely aligned with averages. When bonds are replaced with insurance-based risk pooling assets, retirees can improve the odds of meeting their spending goals while also supporting more legacy at the end of life, especially in the event of a longer-than-average retirement. We walk through this thought process and logic in steps, investigating three basic ways to fund a retirement spending goal: with bonds, with a diversified investment portfolio, and with risk pooling through annuities and life insurance. We consider the potential role for different types of annuities including simple income annuities, variable annuities, and fixed index annuities. I explain how different annuities work and how readers can evaluate them. We also examine the potential for whole life insurance to contribute to a retirement income plan. When we properly consider the range of risks introduced after retirement, I conclude that the integrated strategies preferred by safety-first advocates support more efficient retirement outcomes. Safety-first retirement planning helps to meet financial goals with less worry. This book explains how to evaluate different insurance options and implement these solutions into an integrated retirement plan.
Book Synopsis Safety-First Retirement Planning by : Wade Donald Pfau
Download or read book Safety-First Retirement Planning written by Wade Donald Pfau and published by Retirement Researcher Guid. This book was released on 2019-10 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two fundamentally different philosophies for retirement income planning, which I call probability-based and safety-first, diverge on the critical issue of where a retirement plan is best served: in the risk/reward trade-offs of a diversified and aggressive investment portfolio that relies primarily on the stock market, or in the contractual protections of insurance products that integrate the power of risk pooling and actuarial science alongside investments. The probability-based approach is generally better understood by the public. It advocates using an aggressive investment portfolio with a large allocation to stocks to meet retirement goals. My earlier book How Much Can I Spend in Retirement? A Guide to Investment-Based Retirement Strategies provides an extensive investigation of probability-based approaches. But this investments-only attitude is not the optimal way to build a retirement income plan. There are pitfalls in retirement that we are less familiar with during the accumulation years. The nature of risk changes. Longevity risk is the possibility of living longer than planned, which could mean not having resources to maintain the retiree's standard of living. And once retirement distributions begin, market downturns in the early years can disproportionately harm retirement sustainability. This is sequence-of-returns risk, and it acts to amplify the impacts of market volatility in retirement. Traditional wealth management is not equipped to handle these new risks in a fulfilling way. More assets are required to cover spending goals over a possibly costly retirement triggered by a long life and poor market returns. And yet, there is no assurance that assets will be sufficient. For retirees who are worried about outliving their wealth, probability-based strategies can become excessively conservative and stressful. This book focuses on the other option: safety-first retirement planning. Safety-first advocates support a more bifurcated approach to building retirement income plans that integrates insurance with investments, providing lifetime income protections to cover spending. With risk pooling through insurance, retirees effectively pay an insurance premium that will provide a benefit to support spending in otherwise costly retirements that could deplete an unprotected investment portfolio. Insurance companies can pool sequence and longevity risks across a large base of retirees, much like a traditional defined-benefit company pension plan or Social Security, allowing for retirement spending that is more closely aligned with averages. When bonds are replaced with insurance-based risk pooling assets, retirees can improve the odds of meeting their spending goals while also supporting more legacy at the end of life, especially in the event of a longer-than-average retirement. We walk through this thought process and logic in steps, investigating three basic ways to fund a retirement spending goal: with bonds, with a diversified investment portfolio, and with risk pooling through annuities and life insurance. We consider the potential role for different types of annuities including simple income annuities, variable annuities, and fixed index annuities. I explain how different annuities work and how readers can evaluate them. We also examine the potential for whole life insurance to contribute to a retirement income plan. When we properly consider the range of risks introduced after retirement, I conclude that the integrated strategies preferred by safety-first advocates support more efficient retirement outcomes. Safety-first retirement planning helps to meet financial goals with less worry. This book explains how to evaluate different insurance options and implement these solutions into an integrated retirement plan.
