Ease your retirement worries
Compared to previous generations, you can expect to live a longer, healthier life – as much as 30 years longer. That means your retirement income needs to last longer, too.
On average, retirees in the United States expect their savings to last only 14 years.¹ Making sure your retirement income lasts as long as you do may go a long way to ease your retirement worries.
A big part of your retirement planning should include knowing your potential sources of income and figuring out how they fit in your overall income strategy. If you’re like most people, your retirement income will stem from these sources in the following proportions:²
Guaranteed income
Guaranteed income sources, such as pensions, Social Security and annuities, are one way to help provide some assurance that you can cover your essential expenses such as housing, healthcare and food for as long as you live.
Pensions
In the past, many employers provided monthly pensions for their retired workers. But today, fewer and fewer workers are covered by traditional employer-provided pensions that provide a lifetime benefit. If you’re lucky enough to have a pension, this is a source of guaranteed income.
Social Security
The majority of retirees receive the largest portion of their guaranteed income from Social Security. There are some strategies to use to increase your benefits, so it’s important to think through just how and when you claim Social Security benefits.
If you’re married, it’s also important to keep in mind that when one spouse passes away, the resulting Social Security and/or pension benefits may be drastically reduced and alone are often inadequate for the surviving spouse. This is especially important for women to consider, as women on average outlive men.
Annuities
Unless you have sufficient guaranteed pension and Social Security benefits to cover all of your basic expenses, you will most likely need to supplement your retirement income with savings.
Investments such as savings accounts, CDs and mutual funds generally don’t provide a lifetime income.
An annuity can turn assets into a steady, guaranteed* income stream. This means that no matter how long you or your spouse live, you can always depend on this source of income. The remainder of your assets can then be directed to investments with more growth potential to help protect against inflation and market volatility.
A key step in planning for your retirement is to put strategies in place that help maximize your guaranteed income.