Agreed annuities are a terrible investment option for typical 65 old retirees but as part of an overall strategy become viable for a single retiree sometime before 80 years old. However for a married couple the numbers at least from my perspective are even more advantages at the probability on one of them living to a very old age is much higher.

If you compare Rayvt’s $100,000 / $1,330 per month spending by putting the rate into Firecalc.com. It can give you a little perspective on how much that could historically be expected to last. Best case 13 years worst case 4 years.

Running the same comparison for an 85 year old couple. Schwab gives a $931 monthly ~ 11.2% annually.
Life expectancy tables show at least one of the couple is alive at 14 years with a 12% probability
Firecalc shows a worst case of only 6 years with the 11.2% spending rate.

I don’t question that at a later stage of life it will be advantageous to have some portion in an annuity but given the risk that an annuity has no inflation protection what is the overall allocations?

Retirement Investing FAQ

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