Positive Planning

Until recently, retirement may have been one of the last things on your mind. But today, your own retirement may not only be something you can picture, but something that’s rapidly approaching.

Let’s face it — we’re all getting older. In fact, it’s estimated that by 2015, more than half of HIV-positive people in the United States will be over the age of 50 (1), and the average HIV-positive person today is expected to live to be nearly 80, roughly on par with the general population (2). Planning for a long, healthy retirement may have seemed, at one time, a distant possibility, but today it’s an exciting yet daunting reality, especially if you haven’t done much saving.

The good news is making up for lost time and securing the income you need to live your best retirement is doable. Here are some simple steps to help you identify the retirement income you might need and some ways to guarantee that your most important expenses will always be covered.

1. Identify and categorize all of your retirement expenses. Create two buckets: Basic expenses and discretionary expenses. Basic expenses include your housing, healthcare costs, food, and other lifestyle needs. Discretionary expenses can be things like travel, entertainment, and other splurges. Only you can decide what’s most important to you in terms of your expenses.
2. Identify and categorize your sources of income. Bucket into guaranteed income (such as Social Security, any pension income, income annuities, etc.) and income from other assets (such as dividends from investments, employment income, interest from personal retirement accounts, etc).
3. Identify the income gap. Do your sources of guaranteed income cover all of your most important retirement expenses? If not, you may want to consider additional ways to add guarantees to your retirement.

If you have an income gap, the next step may be to add in retirement income  guarantees. One way is with an income annuity. An income annuity is designed to turn a lump sum or flexible premium payments into a stream of guaranteed income for life, no matter what. Some products also allow you to start investing now with the goal of guaranteeing  income later.

Consider an income annuity from a highly-rated company, like New York Life (3), for example, which, since  2013, has paid out over $1 billion in retirement income checks annually. 

Why guarantee retirement income? Because guarantees can help eliminate the uncertainty of outliving your savings and give you confidence to invest the rest of your portfolio for potential growth.  Together with a financial professional you can create a retirement plan that works for you and your goals — from guaranteeing income, covering expenses related to extended periods of care, and planning for legacy potential.

Footnotes:

1. HIV Plus magazine, 2014
2. HIV Plus magazine, 2014
3. New York Life annuities are issued by New York Life Insurance and Annuity Corporation (a Delaware corporation), a wholly owned subsidiary of New York Life Insurance Company, 51 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010. All guarantees are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuer.