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I need to know what to invest in conservatively and whether to use 72T. I have been told to stay away from annuities. Help I will be 56 in December and just retired last week so will probably not see any of it till January or so. I need it to last and do not know if I will be able to work and need suggestions. My home and car are paid for and no outstanding bills, just car and house insurance taxes ,utilities, and basic needs and I am single,
UPDATE : I am working with Fidelity and opened an IRA so I will not be paying any taxes out of it untill I actually receive any of it. I am thinking of using 72T for 5 years an also have some money in 401K and just want info for what to do with it in that IRA
I still have all my benefits from at&t so that includes insurance. I do know that we will be paying something for the insurance in the future but don’t know how much yet but I have heard that for retirees it will be around 13 a month for single. I also have applied for Social Security Disability but don’t know if I will qualify and have been on short term Disability for a year and needed to retire

If you have no pension and need to live on the income from $359,000, be prepared for a shock. You can’t get SS till 62, and then you are penalized for taking it early. so the lump sum is going to sustain you for at least 6 years.

A safe withdrawal rate of 4% of $359,000 is only $14,360/year. You probably can’t live on that, so even if you "round up" to $20,000-25,000, you will probably need a second job to get you to SS.

Another problem is health insurance. If you don’t have retirement health insurance paid for by your employer, figure on 10-20% of your income going for health insurance. National average for a family is $12,000+, not sure what single is, but that’s a good percentage of your $14,360. How are you going to cover health care until age 65 Medicare? (We are paying 25% of our income now, on COBRA, for 2 people.)

You need to find out how much your age 62 vs age 66 SS would be, then input some numbers into a retirement calculator at fidelity.com, vanguard.com, or troweprice.com. See what the numbers say before you make any decisions.

Don’t invest in anything you don’t understand. As the past year has shown, there’s nothing wrong with cash, esp. shortterm. Always keep a good cash cushion of 6-8 months living expenses in the bank or credit union. Annuities have high fees upfront (typically 7% of what you invest). Mutual funds from the above 3 companies are "no load", no fees up front; these companies have funds with good longterm records (see Morningstar.com or your library for more info).

The less money you have (and $359,000 is NOT a lot of money if you’re going to live another 30-40 years), the more conservative you need to be. A sound principal for longterm is 1/3 cash/CDs/money markets, 1/3 bonds, and 1/3 stock mutual funds (for growth). This canhelp you sit out downs in the stock market while letting some funds grow to counter longterm inflation.

Good luck! Don’t be intimidated by all this advice. Start with the retirement calculators and base your decisions on numbers, not wishful thinking.

My wife owned an commercial annuity for about 10 years and totally cashed it in in 2008. The insurance sent her what looks exactly like a 1099R except that it didn’t say 1099R on it. What forn to use to report the income to irs?

Report it on Form 1040 on the line for income from pensions and annuities.

I have $13,000 in credit card debt. I have $12,000 in an annuity. Does it make sense to cash in on the annuity that is only earning 3% interest to pay off the credit cards with their much higher interest?
As of January 2010, my husband will no longer be employed. I see the wisdom in the three answers that have been given so far (and I appreciate SO Much the answers), but given the situation of no income in January, will it still be unwise to get rid of debt by cashing in the annuity (even with penalties) since there will not be an income to make the monthly payments?

No, it does not. The probability is that you will be taxed and also have to pay penalties if you withdraw the money. If you did that with an IRA, you would lose about 40%. Also a 3% return is high for this economy. Most banks are paying less than 2%, many are paying less than 1%. There is a better way.

First you need to stop spending money that you don’t have. Please do not consolidate or use a debt reduction company . It is not free, they will lower your payments by increasing the length of time until you are debt free, and you will take a hit on your credit score. Or they negotiate your debt down after telling you not to pay for awhile adding another hit to your credit score. Student loans are the only debt that can garnish your wages for non payment without taking you to court first. Just list them out on a piece of paper or a spreadsheet and follow the plan. If you work the plan, the plan will work for you.

A. Have a garage sale and sell anything that you no longer need or want.

B.Get a temporary part time job, if you have one, get another.

Here is a plan that can help you. If you work the plan, the plan will work for you:
1. Make a budget. Make the budget a week before you get paid. A budget is not a punishment! It is a tool which will free you from ever having to worry about money again. Put everything in your budget. Especially those annual, biannual, or quarterly bills like car registration, insurance, etc. Give every dollar you are going to bring home the name of where it is going. Add an "emergency fund" category to your budget for 25 dollars and save up until you have 1000-1250 dollars. Your emergency fund will help keep you from getting into new debt because of an emergency. If you can, set up a direct transfer to a savings account for your emergency fund. That way it moves automatically and you don’t even have to worry about it. You must cut your spending and live on less than you make.

2.First get current on all of you debts and make no more late payments. Stop using your credit cards immediately. Do not take on any more debt. Credit cards are like quicksand only the death is much slower. Make a list of all of your debts in order of highest interest rate to lowest interest. Use cash only for your spending from now on.

3.Pay the minimum due on all of your debts and then put your extra money towards paying off the highest interest one first. After you get that one paid off, you put the money you were paying on debt #1 (the minimum payment and the extra payment) towards debt #2. That will pay debt #2 off faster. When that is paid off, you put all three payments towards card #3 and that one will be paid off pretty quickly. As an example:

To start :
Debt #1 (highest interest): minimum payment+ extra payment
Debt #2 (middle interest): minimum payment
Debt #3(lowest interest): minimum payment

Debt #1: paid off
Debt #2: minimum payment from Debt #1+ Minimum payment from Debt #2 +extra payment
Debt #3: minimum payment

Debt #1: paid off
Debt #2: paid off
Debt #3:Minimum payment from card #1+ minimum payment from Debt #2+ minimum payment from Debt #3+ extra payment.

That way, you will get them all paid off, on time, and pay the least interest. It will also help towards rebuilding your credit since you will no longer have any late payments. This works no matter how many different debts you may have.

4. After you get all of your debts paid off, add to your emergency fund until you have 6-12 months of income saved up. Put that emergency fund money into a liquid money market fund or into a Bank of America no-risk CD so that if you need the money you can take it out without penalty.

5a. When you have your emergency fund in place, add a category for "fun" to your budget. Save for a holiday, a vacation, a big screen, or dinners out, whatever goal you want. Remember to enjoy your life.

5b. When you have your emergency fund in place, start saving for your retirement. Join the 401(k) plan at work and contribute the maximum. Your employer probably matches at least part of your contribution so why give up free money? Open a Roth IRA and contribute the maximum on a monthly basis. If you start saving for your retirement now, you will probably retire a millionaire.

5c. When you have your emergency fund in place, start saving for your next car. Only buy cars, or other things that depreciate, with cash. Save up for a nicer car. That way you get the interest instead of paying the interest.

You can do it and it isn’t as hard as you think. Just follow the plan.

Like the subject says, I want to know if a recently discharged bankruptcy will hurt my chances of buying an annuity. Do they normally do credit checks?

The short answer is no. If you have money to put into an annuity, then the insurance company will take it. There are no questions like that on the application and no credit checks either.

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5. Make you ask yourself, “Why didn’t I do this in the first place?”

Picture yourself appearing in your own custom scripted, half-hour Cable TV Infomercial, the undisputed expert in your field, speaking directly to your ideal prospect in a soft pre-sell interview format. Your viewing audience is selected with the accuracy of a surgeonâs hand by the cable channel airing your show. For less money than you thought possible, you position yourself as the expert in your field, you generate truckloads of warm, pre-sold leads, and you send your competition running for therapy.

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A Bizarre Secret

Let me tell you the most bizarre secret Iâve learned in my 40 years of sales. Iâm just going to toss this out to you, and when you hear it youâll think, âOh, I already know that. Thatâs just too simple to work.â Most people dismiss it as being too simple. Maybe thatâs why most insurance agents (90%) fail within eighteen months.

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Youâll be flabbergasted to know that you can become the âexpertâ in your field much easier than you think. Also, there are probably few, if any, insurance agents promoting themselves as expert in your local market, and fewer than few with their own TV Infomercial Insurance Selling System. This prime location âreal estateâ in your hometown cable channel is probably yours for the taking.

When you appear on TV you set yourself apart from all other insurance agents. Your image is larger than life. After all, only experts are good enough to appear on TV. Your image skyrockets because you rise above the dog-pile of telemarketers and junk mailers fighting for leads. Your prospects come to you, ready to hear more, willing to take your advice, able to do business. Youâre the expert. Youâre on TV!

How It Works

You come to our production studio in Tucson, Arizona, where we do all taping, editing, pre- and post-production work. Our job is to make you a Star. We use only top professionals from camera operators to makeup artists. Iâve been in the insurance business for decades and understand the problems and frustrations producers go through in the field. This is no ordinary insurance selling system. We go to great lengths to separate you from the pack of agents your prospects typically send packing.

The 30-minute interview format is proven to be the most credible, convincing and friendly TV show format. You have time to delve into concepts in a way your future clients can really understand. You reveal your personality in an audio-visual dimension as an invited guest in their living room. Youâre one of the family. You show how you are different, better, more knowledgeable, more comfortable and caring than other agents.

We begin with a pre-production interview session to identify and rehearse 10 to 20 key questions and answers. When you are ready, we roll cameras with me interviewing you in an easy, conversational dialog of the same familiar topics. We edit out awkward pauses, tongue twisters or mistakes, making you a polished professional, expert guest. If you need an insurance selling system that targets a certain demographic or client type, i.e. retired Seniors, high-risk drivers, new homeowners, small business owners, we will flavor the show to cover topics of interest to them.

In the editing room we pepper your show with appropriate testimonials, which may be stock footage or reenactments of your actual customers. We repeat âgrabbersâ often throughout the show to catch channel changers who may be surfing for anything of interest to watch. We display your telephone number frequently and suggest you offer a giveaway (we have Free Special Reports on several interesting subjects) âto the first 25 callers.â

Youâre not pitching The Clapper here. Your TV Infomercial Insurance Selling System and everything about it is tastefully produced, professionally orchestrated and smacks of the high quality of an Oprah, Dr. Phil, or Larry King Live show.

More Bang For Your Marketing Buck

Feel free to use our in-house media buying services. There is a long learning curve to the cable TV industry. Knowing the ins and outs can make a world of difference to your marketing campaign. Most insurance agents are happy to leave this busywork to professional media buyers who are intimately familiar with cable networks. We are happy to handle this for you at no cost to you. Our insurance selling system includes service after the sale. We will negotiate time slots, best rates, market penetration â everything you need to get the most out of your marketing dollars.

Another way to get more bang for your marketing buck is to upload your 30-minute TV Infomercial Insurance Selling System onto your website. Visitors to your website can get to know you in a way that shows you as credible and professional, yet an agent who is personable and approachable. You may also want to order our Special 200 Mini CD Package. We dub your show onto mini CDs with custom labels for you to use as client leave-behinds, referral generators, or the ultimate âdrop-dead coolâ business card.

The national average cost for a half-hour prime-time cable TV program is between $150 and $200, with larger markets more, smaller markets less. You may want to begin running your show five nights per week to see how it pulls, then adjust the scheduling as your need for leads dictates. The cost for us to produce your custom half-hour TV Infomercial Insurance Selling System is less than you might imagine. Most people guess the price to be $20,000 to $25,000. It should be, but itâs not. Please contact me by clicking on my bio below.

Gary Le Mon
http://www.articlesbase.com/sales-articles/tv-infomercial-insurance-selling-system-84268.html