Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with annuity

Shall I get greedy or follow my heart?

saxamo — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:15:20 -0800

It it worth it for me to put an amount of money into an immediate fixed annuity and take out a loan to pay for tuition, or is it alright to just pay off my tuition with the money available to me. Hello, yet another question on tuition unlike those in the past. I realize the best person to speak to would be a financial planner, but I don't think the amount is enough to warrant an independent planner.

I'm currently still in college and I have 34K in CD's that will mature very shortly. I have taken out a loan last year and I want to do everything I can do to prevent doing that again. I strongly want to minimize the amount of debt I graduate with.

I am being offered an immediate fixed annuity on the 34K which will lock up the principal for five years and give me a payout on the interest every quarter. If I do this, I will undoubtedly have to take out loans for my remaining years in school. I am weary of the annuity for this reason, along with the fact that they grant high commissions.

What I would like do is to simply use this money to pay for the rest of my education. No harm in that, right? Put it in a high yield savings account and take it one year at a time. Can anyone give me a reason why this would be a bad idea or otherwise work against me?

I've been told that this is not necessarily the best way of handling my money, and that I should try and gain capital off of it while I'm in school so that I can make a down payment on an apartment or car or whatever when I graduate. I feel that a large sum upon graduation that will probably just go to my loans would not help me much.

Is there any alternative? Is it imperative that I rapidly try to accumulate more wealth on this sum of money and dive further into debt, or is it okay to spend it on my tuition with less stress upon entering the "real" world.

How much do you need to retire young?

zaebiz — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 00:12:00 -0800

How much money do you need to retire at 40 these days? What amount of money do you need to survive comfortable indefinitely? What about if you just want it to last until you are, say, 85? Let's say you have no kids and are unlikely to have any. You have a partner and might have a dog or two and some land. You want to live and eat comfortably and travel but you don't need to fly firstclass, eat in the best restaurants every night or impress your friends and neighbours. You're pretty good with money but would like to manage what you have fairly passively while you indulge interests like studying, contributing to the community etc.

Do people retire at 40? Anyone had or are planning such an experience or know of people who have? Interested in answers from any country - UK, UK, Europe, Australia etc...

Selling an annuity?

oog — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:10:32 -0800

What advice/information can any of you guys give regarding selling an annuity? I have a six-figure annuity sum due in about 2.5 years, but I could definitely use the money now for moving to NYC for graduate school. I wouldn't need to recieve the entire amount immediately, or, the entire amount minus whatever commission/percentages taken by the agency. I would actually prefer a low 5-figure sum to get on my feet in NYC and establish good credit, pay off loans, etc., and then whatever schedule that was determined to be prudent afterwards. Are there any banks, companies, agencies that would be recommended? Pitfalls I should watch out for? Am I potentially making a financial blunder?