How do I generate income when I retire?

So two things you can do, okay. We had a person come in over the weekend who brought in their annuity statement that they wanted us to review. We reviewed it and this person’s annuity had an income rider. They had no idea they had an income rider! 

So an income rider is very good product. However, you have to know that you have it and if you're going to use it for income. Some people don't know they have an income rider. An income rider is very good for guaranteeing income.

But I prefer to do an interest only option, which means that you stick your money into an annuity, and it earns, let's say, 5% or 6% a year, and you just take the interest that it generates, and you never touch the principal. Isn't that a smarter way to go?

Now, if you need more money, then an income rider might benefit you more. 

This person also happened to be in a variable annuity, and was losing money, but they were charging them a fee for this income rider that they may never use. So you have to know what you have.

*Blog Disclosure: It's not the purpose of this blog post to provide tax, legal and/or financial advice and you should always seek counsel from your CPA, attorney, and/or advisors as these topics relate to your specific needs. This information is being presented in a very general way and it's for illustrative purposes only.