What Is The Most Widely Used Source Of Retirement Income?

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So, what is the most widely used source for retirement lifetime income? I think

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we all know that answer, but I'm going to tease you a little bit

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and give it to you in pieces and also wrap it around kind of a presentation and

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a factual foundation of what you should be thinking about for retirement income,

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for that income floor that you need in Chapter 2, because Chapter 2 is about you.

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And, oh, by the way, my name is Stan the Annuity Man, I'm America's annuity agent,

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licensed in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. The founder of CGO, which is Contractual Guarantees

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Only. That's how we look at policies. You own them for what they will do, not what they might do.

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Office is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. That's where everyone is. They're all licensed,

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but they're not on commission. And I've been doing this for a long, long time now.

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From a video standpoint, you can get as educated as you want here. I do one per day,

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7 days a week, 365 per year. There's thousands up on my site. I do a podcast every two weeks

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called Fun with Annuities. I have guests on, or else I rant. But I'm trying to educate,

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edutain you on these types of issues. But I'll cover everything else after this.

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So, the most widely used source for retirement income, unfortunately,

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is Social Security. Social Security is the best inflation annuity on the planet. Period.

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And the majority of people taking in retirement, the majority of their retirement income

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comes from Social Security. It wasn't designed for that. It was designed as a supplement.

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And back in the day when Social Security was introduced, I'm assuming there were a lot of

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what's called defined benefit plans, which are dinosaurs now. Defined benefit plans

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were pensions that companies offered. You got the gold watch and you got the pension. Now,

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I don't even think you get the gold watch. Everything has been converted to what's

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called defined contribution plans. Those are the 401(k)s, 457, 403(b), if you're a teacher,

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fireman, someone like that. These are tax-deferred accumulation structures.

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But when you retire, you call it quits and you go into retirement Chapter 2.

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You have to take those assets and try to convert them into lifetime income.

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Now, one of the fallacies out there is you're going to have money managers,

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masters of the universe, what I call professional dart throwers, that are going to say,

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“I can manage your money. You don't have to buy an annuity, and we'll just peel off the interest.”

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Well, most advisors out there now have never seen a down market. They're young.

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Everything they've seen is a bull market. It goes straight up. For us old curmudgeons out here,

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you might be one as well, you remember down markets, you remember events, you

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remember serious issues with the markets. And I don't think anyone, check the time of

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this taping, can argue that it's fragile, as they say. And in retirement, you should definitely not

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be all in on the markets. It's your call how much you want to put in, but I think there needs to be

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a foundational floor of retirement income. What I call the income floor, that includes

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Social Security, that includes a pension if you're one of the 9%,

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not 90%, 9% of the people that get that. Mostly state, you know, military, state employees, that type of

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thing. Some labor unions have that. But your retirement income floor

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has to be in place so you don't have to scramble to make ends meet or live the

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lifestyle that you've worked so hard to live. So, anyone out there saying, “Don't buy an

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annuity. I'll just do what's called the 4% rule.” The 4% rule has been destroyed factually by so

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many smart people, you know, the Wade Pfaus of the world, that you can just pull it up and say, “Is

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the 4% rule valid?” I'll guarantee, even the AI chatbots are going to go, “No." You need lifetime

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income. You need to transfer the risk to the annuity company to pay for as long as you live.

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You need something that's going to combat artificial intelligence maybe making you live

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longer, and you need more income to last longer. For us, we're looking at A+ or better. You know,

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there's four types of annuities that provide lifetime income:

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single premium immediate annuities, deferred income annuities, qualified longevity

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annuity contracts, and income riders. Okay? And I've written owner's manuals on all four

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that you can get at my site at theannuityman.com. You can go to theannuityman.com and run quotes

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on all four of those till your heart's content. We're quoting all carriers.

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And all I'm going to tell you is, it's got to be A+ or better for lifetime income. No

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exceptions. We're not going to argue with you. It's not something that we're even going to

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meet you in the middle. It's got to be A+ or better because we're going through some

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times where the company that's going to back up your payment or payments, if it's joint life,

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it needs to be a company that is just rock solid. Now, a lot of people say, “Well, what happens

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when that A++ company goes out of business?” We're screwed. It's a wrap, as they say in

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the movie business. It's over. Hug your loved ones. Don't go down the conspiratorial rabbit

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hole. It's not going to happen. And if it does, like I said,

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it's over, and it's been a good run. But that also leads to kind of my next

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point. We don't know how long we're going to feel good in retirement. And there's three phases of

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retirement: go-go, slow-go, and no-go. Go-go, you feel good. You might be old,

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you're getting gray, you feel pretty good. You can travel,

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you can move around, you know, it is what it is. Slow-go, you know, you need the bar beside the

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toilet to get on the toilet, if you know what I mean. The knees aren't working. You're not

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as agile, but you're still there. No-go is you're drooling and

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pooping in your diapers, you know, as the joke says. Big C behind the camera,

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you know, and I tell this joke and it is true. I was speaking and there's some know-it-all.

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There's always a know-it-all in the first row that I end up embarrassing and he leaves. But,

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you know, he literally stepped on it and said, “Well, that just depends.” And I went,

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“Exactly. That's the name of them.” And I think from there on he just shut up.

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But it's not in a joking manner. Why wait till slow-go and no-go to enjoy

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yourself? Fly first class or your kids will. There's no U-Hauls behind hearses.

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How many times when you get to the fork in the road, pick it up? How many clichés

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do I need to throw at you to convince you to stop living with the IRS in your head

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rent-free and just go on and live your life? Lifetime income is, you know, we talk about

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water being a commodity and water being the next big issue. Lifetime income is the next big issue.

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If I was running for office, which I should under the Contractual Guarantees Only party, CGO,

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I would talk about lifetime income. Now, if I was a sociopath, I'd talk about

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getting money from you to pay everyone else's lifetime income,

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which someone's going to do. They're already doing it. They're already floating what they

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call basic income or universal income. There's some cities that do it right now. It's coming.

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And why is it coming? Because 75% of all taxes paid are by the top 10%. That's not

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sustainable. You know that. Can't work like that. Bottom 50% pay 3%.

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I know some of you out there are going, “Well, that's just fair. That's just the

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way it should be.” Can't keep coming for the money, man. Eventually, the people with the

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money are going to do things to prevent you from getting it, or do the best they can.

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And if you're one of those out there going, “Well, you know, I got all this money I've accumulated,”

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and you're still acting like you don't have any money, you're still acting like you're

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scarred from scarcity from previous years, then you need to learn how to spend money.

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Okay? I'll give you a good story, and this is a true story. When I first was starting out,

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it was a long time ago, you know, it was tough, it was tough,

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and there were times I came home and my wife, we had our oldest daughter and she was,

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I think, one or two, and my wife was crying because we didn't have enough baby formula.

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Okay? what did I do? I didn't have any money. I had a credit card, went to the store,

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I think I bought a whole thing of baby food,

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like it was so much that it eventually spoiled. And my wife makes fun of me to this day,

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but we all have that story. That scar, that scarcity story where you're scared,

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man. You're trying to provide. Well, you're not there now. You're

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watching this video trying to figure it out, okay? You're either trying to figure it out so

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your kids aren't going to ever have that fear in them. That's one of my things. I'm a bad parent,

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I guess. I don't ever want my girls to feel that. And I'm going to set it up to

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where they're not going to ever feel that. We can do that as well. I call that

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lovingly handcuffing your beneficiaries. But again, it's all under that income,

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lifetime income umbrella. It could be lifetime income for you. It could be lifetime income for

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your spouse. It could be lifetime income for your kids. It could be lifetime income for

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your grandkids. But it's all about lifetime income. It's all about that sustainability.

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Okay? Go to my site, theannuityman.com, run quotes,

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download the books. But do me one last favor. Above me is a spinning clock. That's a video

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that's going to pop up about lifetime income and how artificial intelligence is going to

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affect that pretty soon. And you have to be aware of it. I'm the only one talking

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about it. I'm sure the people that copy everything that I do, they're going to start

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talking about it. But it's important. Okay? That's it. See you next time.