Helpful Articles
Analyzenow Annuities
These are articles that were written to help develop ideas for journalists that work for The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Kiplinger’s, Smart Money, AARP, newspapers, financial web sites, etc. They’ve been used as a source of quotes for these publications.
Real Value of Pensions and Annuities. The article shows how the real values of inflation destroy fixed income investments but how we can still make them useful in a high inflation environment.
Immediate Annuities-What you MUST know. The title of the link says it all. There are things you won't hear from a sales person.
Personal Thoughts on Immediate Annuities. This article reflect my reasoning on whether to buy
inflation adjusted immediate annuities instead of fixed payment annuities as
well as whether to buy them in qualified accounts rather than those subject to
ordinary income taxes. These decisions may be highly dependent on your
tax bracket.
Immediate Annuities' Four Whammies. There are four possible devastating financial blows under the hood of immediate annuities. Make sure you understand the impact of these before you invest or you are likely to be sorry.
Cost-of-Living-Adjusted (COLA) Annuities (PDF File)*. The recent advent of immediate annuities with cost of living adjustments (COLA) makes it important to understand their relative value when compared to both fixed payment annuities and other fixed income investments. This quite technical article illustrates the pros and cons in different situations. In general, if you expect higher than normal inflation, and you expect to live longer than the average person, you should give COLA annuities a hard look.
Evaluating an Immediate Annuity in Retirement. This article goes through the process I used to determine if we should invest in an annuity for my wife. It is based on results obtained from the free program on this site, “Evaluating Immediate Annuities.” I urge people to consider a similar analysis before getting committed to an immediate annuity.