Annuity Payout Calculator Review: Stan vs. Big Box

Spoiler alert, we're going to go through specifics. I'm not going to yell at the other sites, but I'm going to point out some things that you need to be aware of when you're running quotes, when you're looking for that magic number that makes sense for you in your retirement planning. The problem out there is there's a lot of calculators that base the number on projections, hypotheticals, theoreticals, back tested numbers. You can't do that.

When you're talking about your retirement, you have to know what is going to happen. You have to plan on the worst case scenario. You cannot base your plan on raging bull market numbers or looking at the past 10 years. You have to look at what's happening right now, and what's contractual. Should there be estimates in there that's non guaranteed? Possibly, but you have to have guaranteed numbers as part of your plan.

Annuity Marketing

I'm watching TV the other day and Schwab has this commercial. I love Schwab. Schwab, love you, love you guys. Anyway, they have this commercial where they have this calculator for retirement income and all this stuff but it's based on your portfolio. So there' no guarantees, but it's really cool. I went to their site. I used it. I liked it. It was good, but I didn't see a lot of guarantees on there. I saw a lot of projections and based on what's happened and all of their little algorithms. That's good. For your non-annuity assets and non-contractual guarantee assets.

So kudos to Schwab. But I think they're selling it improperly, which is you don't need an annuity. You don't need another annuity. In addition to your social security, an annuity, you don't need more lifetime income floor guarantees. You just need our little calculator with the hypothetical theoretical and the unicorn tasting the butterflies, and everything's wonderful, and a bull market because the bull markets are wonderful. That's okay. But most of the calculators, the retirement calculators you see out there, are based on theoreticals.

If you need market growth, you don't need an annuity.

The 4% Rule

I did a podcast recently with a gentleman named Wade Pfau. If you don't know who Wade Pfau is, you need to know who Wade Pfau is because if there's a retirement income Mount Rushmore, he's got one of the faces on it. Okay? He's the smart guy in the room, Princeton economics PPh.D. the whole thing. And he had a good point about the 4% rule. And he said... He researched, and the 4% rule only works in the United States. If you run the 4% rule and don't know what that is, you have the portfolio, peel off 4% for income, and leave the portfolio intact. He said it doesn't work in other countries, but it works a third of the time in Europe and Japan. Well, with portfolios that address all sectors, the 4% rule are these estimated type calculators. You need to think about that.

Contractual Guarantees

So you need to be careful with projections. You need some guarantees. This leads us to my site, theannuityman.com, where you can do Immediate Annuity, Deferred Income Annuity, Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract, Income Riders etc. Whether it's income now, or income later, we can tell you to the penny what that contractually guaranteed income is going to be. And in combination with some sites, like a Schwab that has that, I think Fidelity has that. Love Fidelity. Love you guys. They have these calculators that combine portfolios with non-guarantees. And you just have to be careful. I'm saying, use mine in conjunction with theirs. Use mine for annuities; use theirs for the non-annuities. And it works out. Bankrate.com is another one that I love. I'm always telling people if you want to see the best CD race on the planet, go to bankrate.com one word, but they also have some annuity stuff on there, but it's not detailed.

Annuity Calculators

They're not living in the world that I'm living in. They're not Stan the Annuity Man, America's annuity agent in all 50 states. I live and breathe this stuff. And our calculators reflect that passion. Our calculators showed the best contractual guarantees out there. We represent almost every carrier, allowing and wanting Stan the Annuity Man. That's pretty much everybody. I'm telling you right now. But I'm just saying that you need to use our calculators if you want guarantees. Be careful in that retirement calculator world because, like everything, you can punch in and get the number you want. You can massage and get the number you want. But with contractual guarantees, there's no massaging. I need to trademark that probably. There are no massaging contractual guarantees. They are what they are.

All right. So the bottom line is, know what kind of calculator you're using. Are you using a calculator that's an estimate? Are you using calculators like at theannuityman.com that are guarantees? I think both can work together, but I don't think you can only use the estimate. I don't. And you probably shouldn't use just the guarantee. You need growth. And if you need market growth, you don't need an annuity. But with the annuities for lifetime income, that creates your income floor, the guaranteed calculator, and the estimate for your other stuff. Yeah. Use that other stuff. You just have to understand what you're looking at and not say, "Well, this estimate looks good." Yeah. It's like putting together a workout plan and never working out. We don't know what's going to happen. Have the guarantees and income floor in place to be a better investor.

Never forget to live in reality, not the dream, with annuities and contractual guarantees! You can use our calculators, get all six of my books for free, and most importantly book a call with me so we can discuss what works best for your specific situation.