Securing Your Retirement Future

David Pavlik
President National Health & Life Associates

Today people are living longer than ever before in modern history. That's good! As a consequence people are spending many more years of their lives in retirement after their careers are over. The opportunities for Travel, pursuing new adventures, maybe turning a life long hobby into a second career, or even returning to college to pursue a degree you passed up because of family and career. The old paradigm of living on your social security and company pension leaves most people looking at a nagging question, "Will I Run Out Of Money Before I Run Out Of Life?"

The cost of living continues to grow and many people who took early retirement 10 to 15 years ago and thought their retirement income was more than sufficient to live on found themselves facing the necessity to recast their budgets and limit their expectations.

Today people must look at the very real possibility that they will live 25, 30 or even 40 years past the time they leave work. With this in mind the realities of preparing financially for these post retirement years are a serious matter. Wise investment and savings strategies are critical. Maximizing your personal IRA or employers 401k or 403b plans are basic principles. Personal investments in the market when you have the ability to handle the periodic volatility of market fluctuations is also an important factor in building the base funds on which you will depend for income.

The inclusion of regular and consistent contributions into tax deferred annuities are as wise today as ever before. New product designs as well as long standing safeguards and preferred tax treatment make tax deferred annuities a key ingredient in both the building phase of your pre-retirement savings period but also the more conservative distribution phase after you no long have your wages as your main income source.

The following features make tax deferred annuities an advantage for anyone.

• Money grows faster tax deferral. The advantage is greater the longer the deferral period.
• Annuities offer lifetime income. Other financial products you may use cannot offer a guaranteed income for the rest of your life.
• Liquidity features are superior to bonds, stocks, and mutual funds Because annuities include special penalty free provisions.
• A properly structured annuity can bypass probate, making it a private transaction.
• Annuities offer guaranteed values, which are the minimum returns the client can expect. These values are unaffected by market fluctuations.