Annuity, Annuity, Annuity, What is the fuss?
Annuity, Annuity, Annuity. What is all the Fuss all about? They work and work well.
“I can guarantee you will never lose money! Want to hear more?” That’s how we start all of our conversations when we talk about annuities, regardless of how the market is doing. Make money on the way up and never lose on the way down. http://retirementplanningteam.com/financialplanning/annuities.html
Isn’t that what we all want? Is that what you want? Well you can have it! Everyday more and more people are converting their financial vehicles into an annuity for just this reason. We work hard to make money. We work hard to save it, and now we need to be smart when we find places to put it. There are different types of annuities; we are talking about the types that are offered by insurance companies. Fixed annuities and equity indexed annuities.
As we become more responsible, we take the topics of retirement, and financial freedom even more serious. With this the subject of annuities becomes more and more popular. What is an annuity? And, where are annuities used? In it’s truest definition: An annuity is a financial product issued by an insurance company. There are different types of annuities. The types of annuities offered by insurance companies are more popularly fixed annuities, or equity indexed annuities. Annuities allow tax-deferred growth of assets, with out the possibility of losing the principle.
At retirement, an annuity can help to provide a guaranteed income stream for one or more people, in specified amounts, for a specified period (5, 10, 20 year) or for life (income for life annuity). You may be even more familiar with annuities than you think. Have you ever heard of a pension? 401k? 403B? TSA? These turn into annuities. When you hear of a person retiring, if they have had an opportunity to create some sort of pension with their company, they usually get an option of retiring with an income that was saved by the company for the benefit of the person retiring. With this money come a couple different options. Take the money lump sum, or, the most popular option: Take a guaranteed monthly income for life. If you choose the second option, you (without even knowing) just purchased an annuity and sometimes multiple annuities.
Here are some very good reasons to move your finances to an annuity:
Tax deferral- as you place your money into and annuity, you automatically fall into a tax differed status that will allow you to NOT pay the taxes as you save in the annuity, add to the annuity, and grow your money. You do not need to pay any taxes on your money until you take distributions from the annuity.
Triple Compound Interest- First lets get familiar with compound interest. The compounding benefit is when you take any principle amount, (what you put in the annuity, call it $10,000) then add interest to it (call it 10% over 1 year) which equals $1000, put it together, you now have a new starting point of an $11,000 annuity. Now let’s do it again. Take the $11,000 annuity add 10% now you have a $12,100 annuity. Have you ever been challenged with the question of “If you were offered either $1 million dollars cash, or 1 penny that would double every day for 30 days, which would you choose?” Well, If you took 1 penny and doubled it everyday (day 1 $.01, day 2 $.02, day 3 $.04, day 4 $.08, day 5 $.16 and so on) you would end up with $5,368,709.12 on the 30th day. That’s compound interest! The annuities triple compounding power comes from interest made on the annuities principle, interest made on the annuities interest, and interest made on the annuities tax deferral. Your annuity holds all these principles.
Access- With the annuities it is state law that the insurance companies give you access to 10% of the annuity on any given year (first year usually varies on the insurance company) with out any penalties. What this means is that with your annuity you have access to 10% of your money without any if, ands, or buts. Penalties could be called many different things like surrender charges, early withdraw commissions, fees, or any additional expenses. Annuities commonly use the term surrender.
Guarantee- Fixed annuities and equity indexed annuities are not listed as an investment. The insurance companies guarantee in writing that your annuities principle will never reduce, regardless of what the market does, as long as you follow the annuity policy rules.
Income for life- The annuities are designed to pay when the time is right. You can choose a term for your annuity like 15 years, or you can choose the annuity to provide income for life. An annuities income for life will pay you an income for the rest of your life, remember the pension. This option will pay you even if you live longer than the size of the annuity policy.
