What Is The Median Retirement Income In The United States?

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What is the median retirement income in the US?

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So, I thought I knew because I know everything about annuities. I'm Stan the Annuity Man,

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America's annuity agent, I'm licensed in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. But I did

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do a little bit of research on this to give you the stats, and the stats are troubling.

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Now, we're going to talk about solutions to that. Hopefully, you have enough means to do that. But

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I think we're going into a tough place in the country's history right now, and maybe it's

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always been like this, that retirement's not on the horizon for a lot of people.

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So, I'm going to go over these stats as of today's date. You can check the taping after this.

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Alright, so, sit down. You're going to need to.

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The average for a household 65 or older: $56,000 per year. Individuals: $47,000 per year.

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Those are sobering. And I've been sober for 20 years. And I'm not making light of that.

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Lifetime income is the lifeblood of this country. Forget oil, forget eggs, it's lifetime income.

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Now, Social Security, which everybody owns, the best inflation annuity on the planet,

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no arguments and no arguments. It's an annuity. It is. It was not put on the planet by our

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lovely friends in DC to be the primary lifetime income source for most people. Unfortunately,

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it is the primary lifetime income source for most people. And that's the reason you see those stats

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right there, which is 56,000-ish for 65 and older, and for individuals, 47.

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I saw a stat the other day. It's pretty sobering that the bottom 50% of the country pays between 2

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and 3% in taxes. Top 10% pay over 70% in taxes. This isn't a tax lecture, but what that does

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show you is that bottom 50%, I always say their net worth is in their front right pocket, okay?

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And the vast majority of senior citizen, baby boomers

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have an average of around $10,000 net worth. So, for you to be asking that can be two

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things. Number one, you're worried. You want to actually add to your lifetime

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income stream. Annuities can do that. There's four types: single premium immediate annuities,

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deferred income annuities, qualified longevity annuity contracts, and income riders.

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You can go to my site. You can run quotes on all of those. You can download free owner's

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manuals on all of those so you can learn. You can email me at [email protected],

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and we can connect and talk about it. But lifetime income is going to be a

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political football coming up, okay? A long time ago, there used to be what's called

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defined benefit plans, which were pensions. But most defined benefit plans were converted

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into what's called defined contribution plans. And those are 401(k)s, 403(b), 457.

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In other words, deferring growth, and then when you retire, it's up to you

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to turn that into a lifetime income stream. Hopefully, that's grown enough to where you

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can buy lifetime income with annuities. And you can use those dollar amounts

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on my site. You can put lifetime income inside of an IRA, inside of a Roth IRA. So,

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traditional IRA, Roth IRA, non-IRA can go in any type of account for lifetime income.

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But what I need you to do is focus on your income floor. That's Social Security. That's

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the money coming into your bank account every single month, kind of like clockwork.

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And if it's not enough, then you might want to consider adding a lifetime income stream annuity.

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And we would structure it so it'd pay for your life. But if you died early,

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the beneficiaries would get the money. That's a big misconception that, well, I don't want to buy

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an annuity because if I die, money goes poof. That's one of over 45 ways to structure it.

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And 1% of the immediate annuities we sell, and we sell more than anybody,

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are life only. And that's when they say, "I don't want anyone to get the money. I want the highest

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payment." Life only is the highest payment. But most people do life with cash refund,

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life with installment refund, life with a 20-year period certain. They have a backstop in there

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in case something happens to them early in the contract because you've worked hard for the money.

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I mean, if this wasn't such a sobering topic, I'd probably sing the, was it Diana Ross? Yeah.

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No. Who did "Hard for the Money"? I don't know. But it's good. I could do it. I might do it.

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But it's all about lifetime income. Chapter two is about you. Chapter two is

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about putting together that income floor. Now, let's talk about that for a second

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as well. The median numbers I gave you: household 65 and over, 56; individuals,

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47,000. The fortunate part about Social Security, it's the best inflation annuity on the planet.

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The next part, I need you to listen to me. I don't care what anyone tells you, shows you,

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promises you, illustrates for you, there's not an annuity on the planet that solves for inflation.

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You can buy annuities with cost-of-living adjustment increases to the income,

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but the annuity company doesn't give that away. Just visually, here's the annuity without the

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increase. Here's the one with the increase. For the people listening, I've got one hand above my

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head and one hand around my stomach. Typically, a seven- to nine-year break-even point for most

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people. Does it make sense? Most times, no. So, how do you do inflation? How do you

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address inflation? Remember the income floor, and you have that amount that's coming in

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every month that you need to live well. If hyperinflation happens in the future

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and you say, "Okay, we need an extra $575 to make it happen and live well," then we

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do a reverse-engineer quote solving for that 575 or whatever that amount is. You

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can do that reverse-engineer quote on my site for free under no obligation.

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I think last month there was over a million quotes run on the site. Million. That's crazy.

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I pay for it. I pay for every one. I'm not going to tell you how much, but I pay for every one

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because I want it to be something that you can quote and it not be a barrier to you,

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that you're not going to get a phone call. It's not like you're going to a car lot and

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somebody's following you around going, "You want to buy? You want to buy? You want to drive it? You

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want to buy?" No, we're going to leave you alone. And then I've written these owner's manuals so

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you can study up on it. I've done a few thousand videos so you can watch the thousands of videos

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that I've done as well. I've got a Fun with Annuities podcast that you can watch as well,

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have guests on. And I do one video per day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That's what I'm

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committed to do to educate you on this, okay? So, you're thinking about, when you ask that

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question, you're either saying, "Am I in the ballpark? Am I low or am I high?" Either way,

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those numbers are pretty low in the world that we live in today.

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Check the data at the time of this taping. Gas prices are high. I was in California

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recently and saw the gas prices. I was like, "You got to be kidding me. That's crazy."

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But even, you know, I spend most of the time in Florida. Our office is in Las Vegas,

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and I go back and forth between the two. Florida is even high right now.

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So, it's going to get tough, and I think you're going to see politicians start talking more and

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more about basic income, like everybody getting a check. Don't know how that works mathematically.

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I saw where Elon Musk floated that the other day because he thinks AI is going to help with that.

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That's not how this country was built. This country was built on

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work ethic. But when it comes to lifetime income, that's where we specialize, okay?

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I love lifetime income. I left Wall Street to do this because people need lifetime income

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streams. People need to be able to take some of their 401(k), some of their 403(b),

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some of their IRA, and convert it into lifetime income streams for both you and your spouse,

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if that's applicable, and then make sure that 100% of the money goes to the beneficiaries if

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something happens to you early. But everybody in this country

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needs more pension-type money. Everybody, without exception, or at least consider it.

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I did have a call the other day. Guy says, "Do I need lifetime income?" He gave me his portfolio,

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and it was a big portfolio. I said, "No, you don't. You don't need it. You really don't."

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So, do me a favor. Go to my site and noodle around. No one's going to chase you. No one's

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going to call you, okay? And you can get a lot of free information there,

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and you can get quotes 24/7/365. But do me one last favor. Above my head,

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I did a video on lifetime income, which is apropos for this topic, but also addressing

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it from how is artificial intelligence, AI, going to affect the annuity industry.

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I'm not political. I'm not Democrat or Republican. I'm contractual. We only look

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at the contractual guarantees of the policy for what it will do, not what it might do.

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But AI is going to change the game, it's going to lengthen out life expectancy sooner than

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later. Need to put that in the back of your head. Lifetime income is a bargain right now.

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Alright? My name is Stan the Annuity Man. See you next time.