The 4% Retirement Rule is DEAD   Have you heard of the 4% rule from a broker or financial advisor before?   For approximately two decades, retirees have often been advised that a 4 percent withdrawal rate from their savings would sustain them over the years – practically guaranteeing them that they would not run [...]

Here at Annuity Think Tank, we greatly enjoy watching and reading what other annuity and retirement sites are doing out there.  One in particular that we have enjoyed reading this year is Annuity Gator.  The team at Annuity Gator does very thorough reviews of popular annuity products that every baby boomer, retiree, (and even annuity [...]

Retirement doesn’t have to be full of stress where most of your retirement income goes to Uncle Sam. If fact, there are some retirement solutions that optimize retirement income and help you avoid some of the retirement pitfalls that most Americans continue to keep falling into.   And regardless of your political affiliation, your love [...]

Many feel that retirement is a time of stress free living where cares and inhibitions fade.  The truth is there are still many things will or could cause stress in retirement, being prepared will help ensure stress doesn’t throttle your golden years.   Will you have enough money?  Will your health hold up?  Will you [...]

As the market has been bullish recently and experiencing all-time highs, don’t get caught up in the rally and sway from your retirement plan.  According to a recent article in U.S. News and World Report there 5 keys to follow even in a bull market:       1)      Stay the course – Don’t let [...]

According to a survey conducted by LIMRA, the key age group is the 55-59 year old American population of pre-retirees (see table below).  The survey found that this group has 146 billion in annuity business and almost half of this group (48%) said they are interested in purchasing an annuity for guaranteed income.  The members [...]

According to ImmediateAnnuities.com, nearly $9 Billion in immediate annuities were purchased in 2012.  However, insurers think the demand is there for significantly more sales with a few additional features being added to their products.   For years the knock on immediate annuities was lack of flexibility once purchased and the negative gamble of the policy [...]

If you find yourself stuck with a low credit score, there are ways to improve it and fast.  Credit scores below 760 are perfect candidates for improvements.  The first step in improving your credit score is to obtain a credit card if you don’t already have one.  Secondly, after you have sought out a revolving [...]

Too many Americans find themselves living beyond their means. The CFED Scorecard found that around 30% of Americans don’t have any savings at all and over half (56.4%) have subprime credit rates.  Many people who find themselves with subprime credit rates are more likely to turn to payday loans or auto-title loans. Listed below are [...]

Cutting huge amounts of debt is an important task that many Americans deal with in today’s economy. Unfortunately, there’s no quick way to cut debt and it requires one to plan and better understand why they got into the situation in the first place.  Kelly Trageser from Daily Finance suggests writing down all debts with [...]