Retirement
Meet Sandra. With plans for an active retirement, she explores how the combination of immediate and deferred fixed income annuities can help her manage expenses in retirement.
At 65, I’m ready to say goodbye to the classroom and hello to my next chapter. My husband and I plan to stay active well into retirement — I’m even exploring part-time work at my community center teaching quilting so that I can share my hobbies with others.
My biggest concern is outliving our savings. I taught first grade for almost 40 years and loved every minute of it, but a teacher’s salary only goes so far. Even with my pension and social security, you just never know. That’s when I made the decision to take a closer look at the retirement income options available to me through my employer.
After thoughtful consideration and a conversation with my husband about how we want to spend our retirement years, we decided to move forward with a combination of an immediate fixed income annuity paired with a deferred fixed income annuity.
The predictable income provided by these annuity options will help with budgeting and managing expenses, much like the paychecks I received when I was still teaching. With a balance of $200K in my employer retirement savings plan, I’m going to purchase an immediate income annuity with $100K and use another $50K to purchase a deferred income annuity,1 both with joint and survivor benefits. The rest of my savings will remain invested under the plan. My immediate income annuity provides me with a guaranteed monthly paycheck starting in the year I retire, and my deferred income annuity will help me later in retirement. If I pass away, my husband will continue to receive guaranteed income.
Along with my pension and social security income, the $558/month2 we receive from the immediate income annuity can benefit us now as we budget for essentials like gas and groceries, as well as trips to see our adult children and adventures we want to pursue. Once I turn 75, my deferred payments will begin, and I’ll receive $583/month.3 We’re both in good health and have lots of life left to live, but this additional income will allow us to successfully age in place and pay for additional care should we need it.
At the end of the day, I’m just excited to retire and not have to worry about my monthly income. I know this annuity is guaranteed no matter how long we live or how the markets perform. In an uncertain economy, it’s nice to have that assurance. There’s so much of the world I want to see and life I want to experience—this is a way to feel more financially secure about the future we always dreamed of.
For more information about immediate and deferred fixed income annuities, contact your human resources department.
Use MetLife’s interactive tool to discover if you have a retirement income gap—the difference between your anticipated retirement income and estimated monthly expenses.
