I wanted to take a few moments and discuss a few issues that women face in retirement. 

Women generally live longer than men and most women (but not all) received lower wages than men over their working life.  These lower wages were be due to years of maternity leaves and raising children, as well as pay rates.  Living longer and receiving lower wages lead to what is called increased longevity risk.  Lower wages make it harder to save for retirement in general.  Both single and married women must think about this.   Why married women?  Men sometimes do not plan that their wife could live longer than them.  In certain scenarios, income can go away when the husband passes.  This can be related to Social Security income as well as pensions.  For the pension, even if you get to keep it, it may be reduced by half.  You wouldn’t want to deal with how to live on less income while you don’t have income coming in from an employer.  So, women need a plan in place to have financial security. I don’t know about you, but security is really important to me.  I’m assuming it is for you too.

First let’s discuss what longevity risk is and how it works.  Longevity risk is the risk that you will outlive your retirement funds.  Market risk is another risk that retirees face.  Market risk is simply the risk that you will lose a portion of your account balance during a market downturn, if your invested in the stock market.  In retirement, it is important not only to protect what you are able to save, but it is imperative that you make sure that those retirement funds will last your entire lifetime.  When people retire and start withdrawing funds from their retirement accounts, there is a percentage that is frequently used (around 4%) to determine how much will be drawn by the retiree yearly.  This is known as the 4% rule. 

Every few years, you will have to reassess for inflation and losses of portfolio balances due to market fluctuations.  For example, in year 1, if you have $400,00 in your retirement accounts, 4% would be $16,000.  If your portfolio was suddenly cut by 30-40% in the stock market in your retirement years, you don’t have as much time to recover from these loses. If in year 5, if your account balance lost $100,000 due to the market, then the percentage you are using to draw funds out will have to decrease or you will risk depleting the retirement funds.   Could you afford to do this?  If you didn’t decrease the draws, what would happen when you run out of money? People see what they believe is a large portfolio balance and think that is enough.  But the facts state that it isn’t always enough, and people’s retirement plans do fail. 

So how do you do to plan and take some longevity risk and market risk out of your scenario?  By adding a guaranteed income stream called an annuity.  An annuity will give you guaranteed amount to live on each month no matter what the market does.  Market downturns will no longer matter for the funds that you have placed in an annuity, because the annuity eliminates the worry of market volitivity and market risk for those funds.  Since you will receive these guaranteed income payments for the rest of your lifetime, you no longer worry about longevity risk as well.  You get participation in the market without the downside risks.

​My thoughts are that if you have money sitting in CD’s where you are drawing low interest (near 1%) or if you have a large 401k or IRA portfolio invested in bonds (because you are afraid of losing money in the stock market), then it would be a good idea to sit down and see if an annuity would be a good fit for you.  An annuity protects you from market downturns, protects your initial investment, and will have more gains than CD’s or bonds. 

When you’re making an important life decision, such as thinking about retirement.  You want to make sure that you’re making informed decisions.  It is imperative that you understand the DOs and DON’Ts of retirement.    

Our job as an agent is to really understand what your needs and goals are, when you are making a retirement plan.  One of our goals is to take longevity risk out of your retirement scenario.  What does that mean?  It means that we want to make sure that you don’t outlive the money that you worked your whole lives to save.  (Believe me, the fear of outliving your money is ranked high on the list of retirement fears that people have).  There are ways to take this fear off the table and live retirement in peace.  Education is key.

This is why Safeguard Insurance has invested in a third party resource, called Retire Happy U!, that will educate you on important retirement issues.  The subject matter is taught by retirement expert, Tom Hegna, and includes maximizing social security benefits, making a retirement plan, protecting your savings from inflation, and more.  This is a free resource to you.  This course is good for anyone (any age) that wants to learn about retirement or for someone that is thinking of retiring soon.   

​ Once you complete Retire Happy U!, retirement will seem more understandable and Safeguard will be there to help you with these important life decisions.  

Do you ever think about the reason that you are here?  What is your purpose?  We are all put here for a reason.  If you're anything like me, I seldom think about things like this.  That is unless I read something that resonates with me and makes me go down that path.

Tonight while reading the book, by Thibaut Meurisse called Success: Why you fail when others succeed, I read a passage that made me pause.  It said, "If you could use a time machine and go back in time or into the future, your life purpose would remain the same."  That started me thinking, "so what is MY life's purpose?"  Then it just kind of popped into my head without too much thought.  My purpose in life has always been to help people.  I truly believe that to be the case.  I have always reached out to try to help anyone in need and all those experiences make me think that I was destined to find a job where helping is key.  The majority of the time, in my job as an insurance agent, I work to help people find a solution to a problem. 

I know that some people don't like or trust insurance agents (or salespeople in general) and there are instances where that is warranted.  As in any profession, sometimes a rotten apple comes along and makes the whole basket look bad.  But I see it differently.  I think being an insurance agent is an opportunity.  It's an opportunity to really and truly help people on a bigger scale.   Sometimes people come looking for an agent when they've experienced some kind of trouble.  They are in a bind, because they tried to enroll online, then it didn't work out favorably or they trusted the wrong person who unknowingly gave bad advise (or the person selling just didn't have their interests at heart).   It happens.   On the whole, most insurance agents are good people.  

As insurance agents, we have to earn money or else we can't keep a roof over our head or food in our bellies.  But money shouldn't be the driving motivator.  I guess that's why I'll never be rich and that's okay.  But at the end of the day, money is only money and I get a lot of excitement and joy when I know that I helped someone and put them on the right path.  I experience a sense of fulfillment.  

They say do what you love and most days I really do love what I do.  I feel like I'm doing what I was meant to do.  Do I still have a ways to go?  Yes, absolutely; but who doesn't.  I get up every day with the intentions of learning more, improving my skills, and becoming who I am meant to be.

So if you are still searching for your purpose, figure out what allows you to reach your full potential.  In other words, what makes you happy?  Then figure out how you can make money doing it. 

Real success isn't measured in money or fame.  Both are fleeting.  Real success is in the fulfillment.

Sometimes people ask why should I go to a local agent for my insurance needs.  Well, the answer is simple, a local agent adds value to your insurance transaction. 

Here's some of the reasons why:

A local agent will help you rebalance your insurance coverage.  What does that mean?  It's great to be able to do a review of your insurance coverage with your agent.  When a new product comes to your area that can work well with your situation and save you money, your local agent can present it to you to see if it is something that you'd want to consider.  If you are left on your own, then you probably won't know about the cost saving options. That can cost you money and over the years, it can really add up.  I love when I can save my clients money that they can then use to pay for medications, food, housing, transportation, vacations, and on family.  

A local agent can also be there when something happens with a claim or an insurance company makes an error.  If a claim gets processed incorrectly, a local agent can help get it straightened out for you or help you with the appeal process.  Sometimes, this is overwhelming to some people.  I have seen people pay a bill they don't owe, just to get around having to work through the issue with the insurance company.  With a local agent, you have someone to assist you and go to bat for you when you need help.  This brings a sense of relief to the client that they may not have otherwise.

A local agent has product knowledge about the products that are offered in your state and in your local community (county).  We go through hours of training to learn the products that are available so we are able to help you decide what is right for your situation, budget, and health needs.  If someone calls you up over the phone, they may know a little bit about your area, but do they really know the products as well as a person right in your community.  Will that person really be there for you when something happens and you don't know what to do?  Probably not.  Some agents are only interested in selling policies and not worrying about helping the clients when situations arise (and they will at some point in time). 

A local agent is only a phone call away and you can go sit down with them and see them face to face.  There is a peace of mind that comes with knowing and forming a relationship with the person that is handling your insurance.  If you trust that your agent has your best interest in mind and they will take good care of you, then you can sleep better at night.  Sometimes all it takes is your agent looking over your current plan and comparing it to the new plans that come out and letting you know, you're okay with the plan that you have.  Sometimes moving to a new plan just isn't necessary and a good agent won't move you just to be moving you.  But it's always good to know that what you have is the best place to be.  

A local agent also can be a one stop shop for your insurance needs.   Many agents offer more than just one product.  For example, I offer health insurance (Medicare and Affordable Care), life insurance including final expense, annuities, long term care, hospital indemnity plans,  disability, cancer, dental, vision, hearing, etc.  All of these services are in one place.  No need to run all over town trying to find help.   

So these are just a few of the reasons that a local agent brings value to your insurance coverage needs.  Local agents are incredibly valuable and cost you nothing extra!  

So if you are retiring, losing group coverage, just wanting to check to see if your coverage is the best value for the money, contact me.   I'd love to hear from you.  You can contact me at the office at 270-842-4236 or through the contact me boxes on this website.