In the early spring of 2019, I wrote two blog posts on addressing the biggest risk every person faces in retirement, longevity risk, and how to fit an income annuity into your retirement income plan to help address this risk. You can read these two posts here and here. However, due to several major life events, we did not get around to actually purchasing the annuities I spoke of in those 2019 posts. As a result of this delay, I spent more time researching into the subject of income annuities and learned a couple other things. We, subsequently, purchased different annuities from what I wrote about a year ago. So, in this post, I will discuss my updated thought process and describe the products we ended up purchasing. First, let’s briefly review the reasons for considering an income annuity.

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It has been awhile since I last posted on this blog, so a quick update here on what we have been doing the past few months. In my last post I discussed how Hurricane Dorian that passed through the Abaco region of the Bahamas on 1-2 September 2019 and destroyed everything in its path. Our sailboat, SATISFACTION a 41-foot Beneteau, which had been hauled out at Green Turtle Cay, was one of the casualties of Hurricane Dorian.

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In May of 2019 we took a very enjoyable cruise on SATISFACTION our 41-foot Beneteau sailboat. We cruised for three weeks to the Abaco islands northwest of Green Turtle Cay where very few boats go. The weather, water, and snorkeling were perfect for this trip. On 1 June SATISFACTION was hauled out for summer storage at the boatyard at Green Turtle Cay. I am really glad we took that three-week cruise as it was the last cruise we would take on SATISFACTION. And 1 June was the last time we would see SATISFACTION as well.

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It is pretty well documented that the average retail stock market investor does not obtain the same long-term results as the broad market indexes. Here is a link to just one article titled, “Why Average Investors Earn Below Average Market Returns,” that discusses why retail stock investors do not replicate long term market returns. The stat provided in this article is that the annual return of the S&P 500 index for the 20-year period ending on 12/31/2015 is 9.85%. However, the average equity fund investor’s annual return for this same 20-year period is only 5.19%. I think this article, similar to many others like it, is correct when they point out that when it comes to investing, the average investor’s own emotions are their biggest obstacle to success.

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In my last post I discussed my thinking about why I decided to purchase an annuity from an insurance company. This post will discuss how I arrived at the type of income annuity and how much to purchase.

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If you are near or in retirement, there are several risks that can derail your retirement plans. These risks all need to be addressed in some way and some are easier to manage than others.

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Late last year the equity markets experienced much volatility causing a lot of angst among investors, especially retirement investors. It is during uneasy times like this that many people start to have feelings of panic and forget the basics of investing. So, I thought I would use this post to remind investors about a couple of concepts that I have covered many times before but some may have forgotten.

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We are now back at our winter home in Hope Town on our sailboat on Elbow Cay in the Bahamas. Two weeks ago, we were on a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean where we departed from Rome, Italy. Two weeks before that we were in Greece touring several great spots.

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It has been a few months since my last Blog Post, so I will provide a quick update on our recent activities.

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It has been awhile since I have added a post to this blog. I have no good excuses except laziness and the fact there are so many activities here in Hope Town on Elbow Cay that I have not had made time to add a post. This post will summarize our activities the last 3 months.

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