^Create a stream of income at low cost ^Keep your nest egg growing to beat inflation ^Build assets for medical emergencies and a legacy ^Use the Warren Buffett retirement strategy We need a strategy to succeed in retirement too We want to have enough money to do whatever pleases us and yet we don't know how long we will be able to do those things we love. Despite what my industry says, there is no magic number. Besides, having lots of money is not the answer. The traditional answer that advisors provide when we ask "how can we receive a regular payment each month" is the annuity. In the past, many retirees could count on guaranteed income from a company-financed pension. Annuities were used to supplement pensions and Social Security benefits. Employers have and are ending paid pensions. Instead, they have offered tax-deferred (401k) accounts that we had to manage and pay for ourselves. Some employers helped make contributions but we were left with the most difficult decisions-how much and which securities to buy. Working people have generally chosen investments that were too conservative for their retirement goals. Consequently, they have accumulated much less than they could have because they feared investing primarily in stocks or stock mutual funds. Most did not know that large pension funds hold at least 70% of their funds in stocks, even while paying out retiree benefits. Working people also did not realize how much they were losing from their total accumulations by paying an advisor in fees every period. According to Vanguard's John Bogle, we can give up 63% of our nest egg when our 401k mutual fund fees are high. We can avoid all of these possible losses and keep our retirement funds growing and producing income for life. We can maintain control of our assets for emergencies and a family legacy. We can create an inflation-proof income for the rest of our lives without giving up control of our assets.
About the Author: Dan Keppel has been helping people find financial services that fit their lifestyles since working in a securities firm, an insurer, two banks and his own MoneyCoach service. His book, The Insiders' Guides to Buying Discount Financial Services: Buy Direct and Save $3,000 Every Year, shows you how, what and where to buy financial products like industry insiders do-directly from the highest rated companies for less. He edits TheInsidersGuides.com and was an adjunct at a local college. He lives in Montclair, NJ with his wife, daughter and two cats, Anu and Katze. He recently lost his Dad who he helped navigate years in retirement and two nursing homes.