December 5, 2013 – If you’re among the lucky ones, you had some retirement money saved up in your 401(k) or IRA in 2008, lost a bunch of it in the ensuing Great Recession years, gutted it out through 2013 and now have recovered most, if not all, of the wealth you originally watched evaporate.

If you were even luckier, you stayed invested and maybe even continued to make contributions to the market and are now comfortably ahead of where you were back then.

So now  what?

My choice of gambling oriented words like “lucky” and “luckier” in the first two paragraphs is not accidental.  The market is, after all, a crap shoot which goes up some years and goes down others even if the longer term direction trends positive.

But nobody, and I mean NOBODY, really knows what the market will do in the future despite the availability of exhaustive data and the existence of many sound strategies designed to help “hedge your bets” if you do choose to stay in the market.

Because negative years in the stock market, when experienced closer to retirement, can disproportionately and detrimentally impact one’s chances for retirement security and happiness, many people look for safer alternatives to simplify their golden years.

Enter deferred-income annuities

Earlier this week, under the broad heading of “Best New Money Ideas,” CNNMoney featured six “Best new ways to make money” as we head into 2014.

According to the authors, one the “Best new investment ideas” is also the “Best new retirement tool . . . ”

We haven’t seen the word “Best” featured so prominently in an article since the August 23, 1962 issue of Mersey Beat when The Beatles announced Ringo was joining the band as its new drummer.

And NEVER In a financial column.

(Emphasis on Best is ours throughout, btw)

The CNNMoney piece describes an excellent retirement strategy, growing exponentially in popularity, designed to ensure you don’t end up broke in your later years.

With life expectancies ever-increasing, designating a portion of your retirement assets NOW to guarantee lifetime income in the FUTURE is one of the Best things you can do to secure your future.

And it’s not just easy, it makes financial sense:

“lifetime annuities are . . . the most cost effective and least risky asset class for generating guaranteed retirement income for life.”

– Economists David F. Babbell and Craig B. Merril –

I hope you’ll take a few moments to read the helpful CNNMoney column.

Then give us a call.  We’ll provide you with several preliminary quotes and we’ll walk you through the rest if you decide this option makes sense for you.

We like helping make people happy and helping them secure their financial futures.

You might even say it’s what we do Best.