A 67-year old divorced woman’s retirement finances are studied in New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger’s article “Annuity the one missing piece in securing retirement cushion.” Karin Price-Mueller’s story discusses the woman’s desire to partially retire next year and fully retire in 2012. The woman has been smart with her money by keeping expenses low, holding off on receiving Social Security, working later in life, and saving in multiple accounts. But she doesn’t have any fixed annuities or other annuity products which will help her guarantee monthly income to pay her bills in retirement. She lacks a traditional pension, so an annuity will be the best way to complete her retirement pie.
With a large 401k settlement received through her divorce, this future retiree could even look into rolling part of that money into a 401k annuity if the option is offered by her plan sponsor. She also has IRA’s, a brokerage account, and savings that she can use to purchase an indexed annuity or whatever annuity product she believes will work for her retirement. By paying off her home mortgage and living debt-free, the subject of the article is in a wonderful financial place approaching retirement. Continuing to work a few more years and delay Social Security while adding to her savings is like the icing on the cake for her retirement. By purchasing an annuity to cover her basic expenses through her long life expectancy, she’ll have the rest of her savings and retirement accounts to use for extra expenses and passing down to her heirs.
