Retirement and living your dreams is not about how much wealth you have. The fact is, there are people that have millions of net worth yet they may be living a sub-optimal retirement lifestyle. Why? Retirement is about cash flow, and to be more specific, retirement finances may be improved if cash flow is guaranteed. Experts have concluded that the more guaranteed lifetime income, the less stress you will have in retirement. 1
Stock market, interest rates, real estate, bond prices, and tax rates all have their ups and downs. Having a $2M portfolio drop to $1M because of stock market volatility, and at the same time, taking out $100,000 a year for income can be a very daunting time. In fact, I will bet given the circumstance detailed above, most retirees would reduce income greatly. Nothing like giving yourself a 50% income reduction at the beginning of your golden years, and then watching your $2M drop to $850,000.There are many risks in retirement, such as market risk, order of returns risk, withdrawal rate risk, inflation, deflation, death, etc. Of the many retirement risks, one of the greatest risks of all, is longevity risk.
Most retirees hope to live a long time. But living a long time multiplies all the other risks. If you retire at age 65, but then die at age 68, it doesn’t matter if the stock market falls 5,000 points. You most likely didn’t live long enough for it to matter. However, if you live to age 85 or 90, it’s all those other risks that can cause financial challenges. To address this the math says, you MUST take longevity risk off the table. Guaranteed lifetime income can be the answer.
I will repeat myself, you must take longevity risk off the table. You can take longevity risk off the table with guarantees. Having income that will cover your monthly expenses that is guaranteed is the optimal position to be in. First, you can reduce your expenses. For example, paying off the house may be a great move, especially if you have already paid down a large portion of the original principal. The payment is the same as when you purchased the house 15 years ago. But the pay-off is much lower. Remember, a financially confident retirement is about cash flow. I recently had a client that had a monthly payment of $1,500 and the pay-off was $100,000. Re-positioning cash to pay off the mortgage freed up $18,000 a year. About an 18% cash flow improvement that would have been unlikely leaving the $100,000 in the investment account.
Guaranteed income can be provided by Social Security, pensions, annuities and reverse mortgages*. Depending on your particular situation, you should fully understand each of these options, and evaluate when the proper time is to deploy the guaranteed lifetime income options available to you.
*Reverse mortgages may not be used for the purchase of securities or insurance products. Guardian and its subsidiaries do not issue or advise
with regard to reverse mortgages.
Annuity guarantees are backed exclusively by the claims paying ability of the issuing insurance company.
Material discussed is meant for general informational purposes only and is not to be construed as tax, legal, or investment advice. Although the
information has been gathered from sources believed to be reliable, please note that individual situations can vary. Therefore, the information
should be relied upon only when coordinated with individual professional advice. This material contains the current opinions of the author but not
necessarily those of Guardian or its subsidiaries and such opinions are subject to change without notice.
Registered Representative and Financial Advisor of Park Avenue Securities LLC (PAS). OSJ: 5040 Roswell Road, Atlanta, GA 30342, 404.260.1600.
Securities products and advisory services offered through PAS, member FINRA, SIPC. Financial Representative of The Guardian Life Insurance
Company of America® (Guardian), New York, NY. PAS is an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Guardian. Peachtree Planning and Wealth
Creation Atlanta, LLC are not affiliates or subsidiaries of PAS or Guardian. 2019-77881 Exp 4.2021
1 Source: Harvard Business Review, July-August 2014 The Crisis in Retirement Planning by Robert C. Merton. 2019-78406 Exp 4.2021
Article by Chris Ellington CLU®, ChFC®, CFP®, RICP®,Founder and President of WealthCreation Atlanta, LLC., he can be reached at chrisellington@wcatl.com or 770-366-6916 www.wealthcreationatlanta.com