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You are here: Home / Annuity Commentary / Stop Annuity Procrastination: New Years Resolution!

Stop Annuity Procrastination: New Years Resolution!

December 29, 2012 By Annuity Guys®

Procrastination – or the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of lower priority.

We always hear of people who spend more time planning their annual vacations than they spend planning their retirement. An annuity may or may not be one of the strategies you will use to plan a comfortable and secure retirement; do yourself and your family the benefit of resolving to develop a plan for retirement this year.

Watch Dick and Eric in this light-hearted video as they wish you Happy New Years and discuss why we all tend to put off planning for retirement.

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**Guarantees, including optional benefits, are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuer, and may contain limitations, including surrender charges, which may affect policy values. During this segment, Dick and Eric are referring to Fixed Annuities unless otherwise specified.

Read More about Financial New Year Resolutions…

This Year We’re Serious About New Year’s Resolutions

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Americans make all kinds of New Year’s resolutions.

Losing weight, pledging fidelity to faith and family, and/or improving their career all items that are high on the list of New Year’s resolutions.

But this year, money matters may trump all of those self-directed promises.

So says Fidelity Investments, the Boston-based mutual fund^ giant.

The investment firm uses this time of year to take a look at American’s New Year’s resolutions, and 2013 should bring renewed focus on personal financial matters, with 46% of consumers interviewed by Fidelity promising to improve their financial situation next year.

At first blush, that sentiment might seem like it belongs in the “master of the obvious” category.

But in actuality, the number of Americans targeting financial issues as a resolution is up remarkably over the past few years. In fact, Fidelity says the number of Americans focused on finances come Jan. 1 has grown 31% since 2009. [Read More…]

By Brian O’Connell of The Street

Annuity Guys® Video Transcript:

Dick: Eric and I would like to first of all wish everybody a happy New Year, and we’d like to help you avoid that procrastination aspect of annuities.

Eric: It’s that time that to start setting your New Year’s resolution. It’s what do you need to do to get your financial house in order, perhaps? I think what we see a lot of times, especially right now with the low rate environment, problems in the economy, people are saying, “I’m just going to wait.” I’ve talked to people now that have been waiting for 18, 19, 24 months.

Dick: 23 years waiting for it to get better.

Eric: It’s going to change. I don’t want to know it now because . . .

Dick: How long have they waited in Japan for it to get better?

Eric: They’re going on 20 years right now.

Dick: I don’t think that we’re Japan. I don’t think, folks, that we necessarily have to use that as a true analogy, but the fact of the matter is that we’ve had 4 years or so of . . . we’ve seen the market rebound and do better, but we’re still in really a secular bear market and our economy still hasn’t gotten up to what it was back in the late ‘90s.

Eric: There’s strategies you can use, especially within annuities. If you’re afraid of making a wrong decision, you can at least make a decision with an annuity that has a return-of-premium aspect. If nothing else, a couple years from now, you start over again. There’s things you can do, strategies out there, and pieces that can allow you to move off the couch, so to speak, and get going.

Dick: The goal isn’t just to go out and get an annuity. Eric and I are not proponents of everybody needs an annuity, or everyone needs to make a quick decision. It’s just the opposite. If your situation, your goal, your objective is for the type of things that annuities can help you with, and you’ve been investigating it; what we call in industry, and it’s used a lot, a term is . . . go ahead.

Eric: Analysis paralysis. It’s my favorite term.

Dick: We see it all the time where, for one reason or another, it’s just easier to put it off.

Eric: The fear of making a bad decision puts you in a position where you make no decision. I’m making no decision because if I make a decision, it’s going to be a bad one, so by default.

Dick: By default, many times, you do make a bad decision. Again, when you’re wanting to get into the annuity aspect, you want to make sure you have weighed everything over to a reasonable degree, done your research. Then if it makes sense, the key is Eric, wouldn’t you agree, that if you’re meeting your goals and your objectives you’ve really solved the problem?

Eric: Yeah. That’s exactly . . . we always talk about working backwards. If you know what you want to achieve in the end, it helps you design and put the pieces in place that help you get there. You have to have a target. I always used to quote Zig Ziegler, and he said, “You’ll never hit a target you can’t see.” That’s true of your financial house. As a financial resolution, perhaps this 2013; start thinking about what your targets are. Where do you want to be? When do you want to be there?

Dick: Once you’ve identified the targets, you’ve identified the solution; it’s okay to move forward. You don’t have to keep analyzing and the paralysis of analysis. There is a certain level of becoming comfortable and making a decision. Folks if you’re anything like the clients we work with and most people that we’ve had experiences with, once you’ve made that decision, you’re going to want to second-guess yourself, you’re going to lose a night’s sleep or part of a night, and yet at the same time, you’ll feel a sense of relief that you’ve made the decision.

Eric: Work with a professional. Sometimes when people log into our site, and they say, “I look at all the annuities out there.” There’s almost 3,000 annuities there. How can I chose?

Dick: Just completely overwhelming.

Eric: What we say is, “That’s where you need to work with somebody that’s a professional because they’ll help you narrow down your selections and give you a much more reasonable pool to work within because they know what you are trying to achieve, and they can pinpoint what the best opportunities to help you get there are.”

Dick: Research on the internet of that nature, Eric, is a great place to start. What it really does more than anything, I believe, is it helps you folks to be able to ask the right types of questions to an advisor, to have knowledge of what you’re looking for in a general sense. That way, the advisor can start to narrow down in a much more specific product or antisense of what’s going to actually solve the problem.

Eric: Resolution: Take action, even if the action is making a plan.

Dick: That’s right.

Eric: It’s your retirement. You get to do once, do it right, but don’t let inaction be the plan, because it doesn’t work that way.

Dick: Exactly. Eric, in this video, we haven’t talked a lot about specific annuities. I think it’s good to have a good general discussion like this, where we just kind of share the holdbacks that we see with different individuals that we work with. Also, I just want to add this to it; we see a lot of folks that make a decision, that have done their research, they’re very comfortable with their decision, and they’re very glad they did. Years later, they’re very appreciative of everything that they’ve accomplished.

Eric: It’s the safety security. When you make that decision, sometimes, you feel like you’re giving something up, but you’re not just giving something, up you’re creating the first step in creating a plan.

Dick: Right. Folks, make that New Year’s resolution, not necessarily to run out and buy an annuity, but to go forward and do something that’s very constructive, that’s going to make a difference this year.

Eric: Sounds good. I resolve to see you in 2013.

Dick: Thank you.

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Filed Under: Annuity Commentary, Annuity Guys Video, Annuity Rates, Retirement Tagged With: annuities, Annuity, Life Annuity, New Year's Resolution, Planning For Retirement, Procrastination, retirement, Secure Retirement, Spending Plan

About Annuity Guys®

Annuity Guys®, Dick & Eric, enjoy entertaining you with their off-beat sense of humor, lighthearted sarcasm, and no shortage of expertise on annuities as they discuss today's retirement challenges. Got annuity questions... they've got annuity answers!

 

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  ** Guarantees, including optional benefits, are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuer, and may contain limitations, including surrender charges, which may affect policy values. Annuities are not FDIC insured and it is possible to lose money.
Annuities are insurance products that require a premium to be paid for purchase.
Annuities do not accept or receive deposits and are not to be confused with bank issued financial instruments.
During all video segments, Dick and Eric are referring to Fixed Annuities unless otherwise specified.


  *Retirement Planning and annuity purchase assistance may be provided by Eric Judy or by referral to a recommended, experienced, Fiduciary Investment Advisor in helping Annuity Guys website visitors. Dick Van Dyke semi-retired from his Investment Advisory Practice in 2012 and now focuses on this educational Annuity Guys Website. He still maintains his insurance license in good standing and assists his current clients.
Annuity Guys' vetted and recommended Fiduciary Financial Planners are required to be properly licensed in assisting clients with their annuity and retirement planning needs. (Due diligence as a client is still always necessary when working with any advisor to check their current standing.)



  # Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of a variable annuity and its underlying investment options. The current prospectus and underlying prospectuses, which are contained in the same document, provide this and other important information. Please contact an Investment Professional or the issuing Company to obtain the prospectuses. Please read the prospectuses carefully before investing or sending money.


  ^ Investors should consider investment objectives, risk, charges, and expenses carefully before investing. This and other important information is contained in the fund prospectuses and summary prospectuses, which can be obtained from a financial professional and should be read carefully before investing.


  ^ Eric Judy offers advisory services through Client One Securities, LLC an Investment Advisor. Annuity Guys Ltd. and Client One Securities, LLC are not affiliated.


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