How to Know If You Should Buy an Annuity

What to know before you buy an annuity

Annuities are something your grandfather warned you about, but what if an annuity is right for you? Here’s how to know if you should buy an annuity. To talk with someone about how an annuity might help you, contact our friends at Gainbridge here.

Should I buy an annuity?

Do you want guaranteed income in retirement but aren’t sure if an annuity is right for you? How do you even know if an annuity is a good tool for you—or someone you love?

We’ve gotten several questions around annuities from members of the LGBTQ community. But every person’s circumstances are different. So, today we’re posing five specific scenarios to an expert to find out who is an appropriate candidate for buying an annuity and who isn’t. And one of these scenarios might just apply to you!

Sean Cox serves as Assistant Vice President of Digital Product Development at Gainbridge, a digital platform designed to help people protect their savings with guaranteed rates and tax-deferred growth.

On this episode of Queer Money, Sean joins us to discuss how a gay couple in their 40’s might use annuities, describing how an immediate annuity provides guaranteed income for life, while a deferred annuity helps you grow assets for retirement.

Sean explains how a 65-year-old with a $50K nest egg might take advantage of a variable annuity and offers advice to a 45-year-old member of the FIRE community looking to earn a higher yield on their savings.

Listen in as Sean dispels the myth that you can’t access your money in an annuity and learn how annuities can help members of the queer community who receive lump sums of money (like an inheritance or discrimination settlement) maintain their financial security for the long term.

How to know if you should buy an annuity:

Topics Covered

Sean’s advice for a gay couple in their 40’s considering an annuity for retirement income
How an immediate annuity provides guaranteed income for life
What differentiates a flexible premium from a single premium annuity
What it means to add a guaranteed period to an immediate annuity
How a deferred annuity helps you grow assets for retirement
Sean’s advice to a 65-year-old with $50K in savings who wants to retire right away
How a variable annuity works and what it means to add a guaranteed growth rider to your annuity contract
The myth that you can’t access your money in an annuity (and what penalties you might incur for taking money out early)
How a financially independent 45-year-old with plans to retire early might use an annuity as part of a layered emergency savings fund
How a 60-year-old gay man with AIDS could use an annuity to avoid losing his social security disability benefits due to an inheritance
Sean’s advice to a lesbian with a $200K settlement from a workplace discrimination lawsuit
How a fixed indexed annuity guarantees you’ll never lose money

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We’re David and John Auten-Schneider, the Debt Free Guys (www.debtfreeguys.com) and hosts of the Queer Money® podcast. We help queer people (and allies) live fabulously not fabulously broke by helping them 1) pay off credit card debt, 2) become part- or full-time entrepreneurs and 3) save and invest for retirement.