New calculator offers certainty in future retirement income, not guesses

NEW YORK - Sept. 5, 2017 - PRLog -- Jerry Golden, a retirement expert who offers common-sense advice to Baby Boomers looking for ways to enjoy and afford their retirement, has created a new calculator that will take the uncertainty out of their retirement income planning.

It works like this: You add up your current retirement savings, select your planned retirement age, your desired purchasing power and beneficiary protection, and enter age and gender information into the new Income Power calculator. Within seconds, you will see how much guaranteed lifetime income your savings will support. You can then see how much cumulative income you could receive to an age you select.

According to Golden, "Income Power answers the one question Boomers ask – do I have enough money to retire? Using a typical investment-based retirement calculator, the answer in many cases is 'It depends!'

Golden adds: "We turn the question around and ask – how much guaranteed lifetime income can the Boomer's retirement savings provide? No ifs! Income Power is a benchmark against which any retirement income plan can be measured."

An Example of Income Power

Here is an example of how the Income Power calculator (at http://go2income.com/incomepower) works:

A husband, age 62, and wife, 60, are thinking of retiring in eight years. They have $600,000 in retirement savings and are concerned about late-in-retirement expenses. They have life insurance and in addition they plan to leave their kids a residence and its contents. With income starting at $36,000 and growing to $71,000 in 23 years, their Income Power is more than $1,500,000 through age 95. Income continues as long as one of them is alive.

Together with Social Security and a small pension, they now know how much income they'll have for certain. That will help them determine whether they need to save more before retiring, delay retirement, leave less to their heirs, seek some more income, or accept greater investment risk.

A short Income Power video shows how Income Power works, and the advantages it offers for a couple trying to determine whether they have saved enough money for retirement.



Why it's an improvement over typical calculators

Most retirement calculators work backward and give the amount of savings that will be needed to cover expenses for a specified number of years – from now through life expectancy -- say, age 85. This savings number is based on investors earning average stock market returns. But regular consumers under-perform the market by 1% to 3% a year on average. Recessions, stock market gyrations and a need to take money out of holdings for living expenses reduce investment profits.

Income Power works because a commercial annuity market has grown up among the highest-rated carriers willing to sell guaranteed lifetime income starting in the future. These promises can last 30, 40 or even 50 years. Kiplinger's October 2017 Personal Finance issue describes the value of income annuities.

Once investors know their Income Power, Golden and his team can help analyze savings sources and develop a specific program for each source, based on the tax attributes and income-generating potential.

Golden's background

Golden has spent four decades helping people create secure retirements. He is an actuary by training and holds two patents on retirement products. He ran divisions of major financial services companies and brings that experience and knowledge to his website, Go2Income.com. Learn more about Golden and read his blog at jerrygoldenretirement.com.

To interview Golden about Income Power, contact him at jsg@goldenretirement.com. To test Income Power, go to go2income.com/incomepower.