5 Best Ways to Creating Income in Retirement
One of the biggest challenges for new retirees is figuring out how to take a life-time savings and turn it into a stream of income in retirement. Hi! I am Mary Beth Franklin, Senior Editor with Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine and I am here to tell you the best way to tap your savings.
1. Add up income
First, add up your guaranteed sources of income, like Social Security and a Pension if you have one. If that guaranteed income is not enough to cover your expenses in retirement, you are going to have to tap your savings for the difference.
2. Hold withdrawals to 4%
If you plan to take out money from your savings each month, make sure you don't take out too much, too fast; otherwise you could run out of money. To be safe, you want to hold your first year withdrawals to 4% of your NASDAQ. Then after that, increase it a little bit each year to keep pace with inflation.
3. Consider a fixed annuity
If you are worried about outliving your money, you might want to take some of your savings and buy an immediate annuity. That means you give an insurance company a chunk of money, say a $100,000 and they send you a check every month for the rest of your life, no matter how long you live. It's a great deal if you live a long time, but if you don't, the insurance company gets to keep your money.
4. Consider a deferred variable annuity
Another option is to buy a Deferred Variable Annuity, you also give a chunk of money to the insurance company, but you get to invest in the stock market so you have some upside potential, but you are protected from major losses. If you change your mind after a few years, you can get some of your money back.
5. Use your home equity
Finally, you can use your Home Equity for retirement income, you can take out a Home Equity loan or you can take out a reverse mortgage. Or there's another possibility: Sell your house, buy something cheaper and use the leftover profits to invest.
I am Mary Beth franklin and these are the basics.
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