How do I turn what I earn into something that outlasts me?
Slowly, in the right order, and with nothing you cannot explain back to me in your own words. This is retirement planning, annuities, and investments — explained without the sales pitch, with the tradeoff named before the recommendation.
Retirement Planning
What you will actually need, what you are actually on track for, and the gap between them — in a number you can see, not a feeling. Then the plainest way to close it.
The tradeoffStarting later costs more than starting smaller. A modest amount now usually beats a larger amount in five years.
Annuities
A paycheck you buy now, for later. Annuities get defended and attacked with equal heat, usually by people selling something. Here is the plain mechanic: you hand an insurer money, they hand you income on a schedule.
The tradeoffYou are buying certainty and giving up access. Money in an annuity is not money you can reach without cost. That is the point, and it is also the risk.
Investments
Where appropriate, and where compliant. Investment accounts can grow faster than insurance products and can also lose value. Which is right depends on your timeline, your other coverage, and how you sleep.
The tradeoffGrowth potential and loss potential are the same feature. Nobody can remove one and keep the other, whatever they tell you.
First things first
Cover the risks first.
I will not sit down and talk about growth with a family that is uninsured. Not because the growth conversation is unimportant — because an investment account cannot survive an uninsured loss, and pretending otherwise is how people get sold the wrong thing in the wrong order.
If the people who depend on you are covered, this page is the next one. If they are not, it can wait a week.
Plan for your future
Bring the statements. Leave the guessing.
Fifteen minutes, your retirement accounts and any policy you already hold, and a plain answer about where you stand. Nothing to sign on the first call.
Investment and annuity products are not FDIC insured, are not bank guaranteed, and may lose value. Guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Nothing on this page is an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. TODO — confirm securities disclosure language with broker-dealer