Fill Up Your Buckets for a Stream of Retirement Income
Fill Up Your Buckets for a Stream of Retirement Income
If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times: when it comes to retirement planning, diversification is key. Everyone knows how important it is to build up a healthy nest egg—but if you put all your eggs in one basket, you are putting your financial well-being at risk.
Look at it this way: if you throw all of your funds in one investment or market sector, what happens if that sector takes a nosedive? Your retirement savings will go down the tubes right along with it. However, if you spread your investment funds across a variety of different assets, you will greatly decrease your risk.
So, how can you possibly protect yourself from financial devastation and still save up plenty of funds for a comfortable, happy retirement? Simple. It’s time to fill up your buckets!
The art of bucket planning
As Americans are living increasingly longer lives, one of the greatest risks today’s retirees face is the possibility of outliving their income. That’s why financial experts recommend that retirees adopt what’s called “bucket planning.”
Bucket planning is the act of spreading money across various pools income to ensure you have a lifetime stream of income. This strategy is growing increasingly popular in the retirement planning field. As a matter of fact, approximately 52 percent of financial advisors recommend the bucket planning method to their clients, according to Gallant Distribution Consulting.
Collect your buckets
There are a few different bucket planning methods. Some financial advisors recommend three buckets while others say you should fill up four. However, the most basic bucket planning strategy includes the following three pails:
Bucket #1: This bucket holds into low-risk investments, such as short-term Treasury bonds. This pool provides a stream income for the first five to seven years of your retirement.
Bucket #2: This pail should be filled with indexed annuities, which offer guaranteed income with an upside potential if the markets do well. This bucket will provide income for years 8 through 15 of your retirement.
Bucket #3: This is the bucket for long-term investments that will provide a guaranteed stream of income in your later years.
Another version of bucket planning includes investing in three or four different fixed or fixed indexed annuities, each which has a unique set of terms and benefits.
In either strategy, each bucket represents a different stage in your retirement. The primary objective of your first two or three buckets is to create an annual income stream during your first 15 years of retirement. When those 15 years are up, the last bucket still holds plenty of guaranteed annual income that will last throughout your lifetime. Because you have a bucket of income set up for each retirement phase, your cash flow will never run dry.
An endless stream of income
Bucket planning has skyrocketed in popularity because it can create an endless stream of income that you won’t outlive. If you set up your buckets properly, you won’t lose money, you’ll always be accumulating money and you’ll always have a guaranteed stream of income. That means you’ll live a comfortable and financially stable retirement without having to worry about outliving your assets.
In other words, if you fill up your buckets, you won’t run out of money before you—well—kick the bucket.
Liquidated earnings are subject to ordinary income tax, may be subject to surrender charges and, if taken prior to age 59 1⁄2, may be subject to a 10% federal income tax penalty.
Guarantees and payment of lifetime income are contingent on the claims paying ability of the issuing insurance company.
