Have you ever felt like things are stacked against you in life? I know for me, sometimes it feels like the banks, the ultra wealthy, and the stock market are getting the best of me and taking advantage of me. I don’t like unnecessary risk. My wife and I (for good reason) always keep a watchful eye on what the banks are doing with our money. You are probably familiar with at least a few times in which our government (talk about irony) has had to call numerous banks forward to testify about the corrupt ways they are handling money and ripping their customers off. Honestly, sometimes it seems like we can’t even trust the banks to keep our money safe anymore.
Keeping your money from being lazy and keeping your money safe can be an incredibly difficult balance to find! On the one hand you have risky investments with the stock market, bonds, and other alternative investments. On the other hand you have lazy money, usually with banks, in regular bank accounts, CDs, and in money market accounts, etc. So, what is the happy medium?
Enter the annuity. There are nine different kinds of basic annuities, two of these are superb for protecting and safely growing your retirement, while one of these two stands far above the other. The right kind of annuity with a fixed insurance company is one of the safest ways to protect your money on the planet. Fixed insurance companies are some of the most financially stable institutions you will ever find in this world. Good luck if you are even trying to find one which has gone bankrupt in the last 100 years. On top of that, annuities can defer your taxes until retirement, enabling you to grow your funds, in a compounding way, on what would otherwise have gone to the government.
Here is more evidence of the strength of fixed insurance companies over banks. The FDIC was created after the Great Depression and is not a government agency. It’s actually an Insurance corporation called the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The banks were failing throughout the world, so the government had to step in and reaffirm the public’s trust in banks by creating the FDIC. You see, it’s nothing new that banks are still failing today; over 350 banks went bankrupt, ironically, between 2009-2015. Back in the 1930’s it wasn’t because banks were doing so well, but rather because they couldn’t be trusted, that the FDIC had to come into play. At the same time, insurance companies kept the economy going during the Great Depression and as such they were given a benefit which is not often offered as a financial tool, and that was the gift of Tax Deferral. When banks were failing they were bailed out by an insurance corporation, the FDIC. Yet insurance companies are one of the few places, other than qualified money (such as IRA’s and employer sponsored plans like 401(k)’s etc), and a select few others, where you can find tax deferral. If the government trusts an insurance corporation to protect banks, then logically they can be trusted by you and me, given the company has a good track record.
The idea of annuities can be traced all the way back to the Roman empire, and the modern annuity has been around for about 300 years. You can even look up how Benjamin Franklin gave a kind of annuity to the city of Boston, and one to the city of Philadelphia. The modern annuity is a wonderful financial instrument for people who are truly wanting to diversify, by keeping an amount of their nest egg completely safe.
When looking for annuities, one should always pick out the best annuity based on four incredibly important factors. First, it’s always important that the company has an extremely strong financial standing, including a robust assets to liabilities ratio. Fixed insurance companies are the strongest financial institutions in the world and they are always required to have reserves which back up the money people have protected with them. Second, it is incredibly important that each annuity have valuable benefits for your situation such as penalty free withdrawals, a terminal illness rider, a nursing home care rider, a death benefit, and other similar benefits. Third, it is imperative that the company has a great customer service track record and this can usually be verified on the Better Business Bureau. It’s difficult to hide in the modern world of online ratings. The “safe money” company I work with has access to insurance companies throughout the United States and we have an A+ with Better Business Bureau, so I expect any insurance companies I work with to have the same because the last thing I want is to let down any of my clients. I plan to be helping people for the rest of their lifetimes, so long as I’m alive, so I don’t want any frustrations when it comes to customer service; this way I know the companies I choose are going to be there to truly look out for my clients best interest. Fourth, if the first three requirements are taken care of, it is then that I look for the highest growth, index, and/or income potential for my client’s situation. If all four of these important factors are taken care of, you will have absolutely nothing to worry about with the funds you protect, and more than that, you will have some great potential gains to look forward to. This is the way retirement should be, stress free and happy.
When you find a good annuity, it will have the above criteria, including a very healthy growth rate over the long term, the company will also have excellent rate integrity, and there will be no risk to market downturns. Additionally, one can often find a healthy bonus when you sign up, as well as what is called a roll up rate, which gives you a minimum growth amount which you can expect each year for a specified number of years. This is how you can make money without risking money, like so many want you to believe you have to do. The way to keep your money safe and from being lazy is to have safety, security, guaranteed income you can never outlive, as well as participation in market growth without risk to market downturns.
