Crossroads for Retirement Investments Nears

The assumption that it would be a "wise step" to buy an annuity is a big premiss. First of all, the insurance company that sells the annuity may go bankrupt. And since the era of "too big to fail" has supposedly come to an end, the next time an AIG gets into trouble, there may be no bailout, thus terminating the annuity payments. Second, the risk of inflation occurring sometime during the next 20 or 30 years is not insignificant. Merely having a repeat of the 1970's and 1980's experience would be enough to cut the purchasing power of that annuity in half.

disinterested spectator of TX 7:03PM May 05, 2010