A paycheck that can last for life

Everyone talks about saving for retirement but what do you do with all your hard-earned money when the time comes? Protect your investment and your future with a USAA Immediate Annuity.


Help maximize your retirement with an immediate annuity.

The very idea of a paycheck can excite you. When you're in the workforce, payday is something to mark on your calendar. It's the day when all your hard work comes to fruition.

That's why the idea of retiring and having that paycheck suddenly disappear can fill people with questions like "Did I save enough money?" and "How am I going to continue to do the things I love now that I'm retired?"

On the latter question, it's important to figure out what you consider "essential" in your retirement. This goes beyond the obvious answers like rent, mortgage payments, food, health insurance and the like. Do you visit your family regularly? Then consider travel expenses an essential in your retirement. Are you an avid theatergoer? A regular donor to charities? A frequent giver of gifts to your grandkids? You'll want to make sure that you can continue to afford these essentials once you're no longer working. After all, no one wants to have to change their lifestyle in retirement.

Once you've determined what you can't live without in retirement, it's time to set up a plan to pay for it.

Starting your retirement, and what comes next.

The retirement industry does a great job of putting out information about the importance of saving for retirement. There are calculators and graphs and articles that tell you how important it is to save a specific amount by your retirement date in order to have enough to live on.

What they may not tell you is what to do with that money during your retirement. Once you have saved it and then claimed it, what's next? You may suddenly have all of this hard-earned money you squirreled away throughout your working life. How do you turn that nest egg into a source of income that allows you to accomplish your goals while managing the common risks retirees often encounter?

That's where an immediate annuity comes in.

The payroll department for your retirement.

While you are employed, you typically have a payroll department whose responsibility is to make sure that you receive a salary. But in retirement, there is no such department. You need to find your own way to turn a lump sum of retirement savings into something that will help ensure you are able to maintain your lifestyle and that you don't run out of money in the long run.

Unlike many other options you could have in your retirement portfolio, an immediate annuity is not an investment product and should not be compared to stocks, bonds or bank products like CDs. Instead, an immediate annuity is an insurance product that can be an efficient and simple answer to the question "How do I generate steady, reliable income from my retirement savings?"

You buy an immediate annuity with a lump sum so you can receive protected income for a set period of time or for life, depending upon the payout option you select. This money is guaranteedSee note1 and will not be impacted by a sudden market downturn. Since you can set the term for the payout on your immediate annuity, you can pass the regular paycheck down to your beneficiaries should the worst happen.

So, back to your essentials. USAA Life Insurance Company recommends meeting these expenses in retirement with protected income, like the paycheck for life that comes with an immediate annuity. With it, you may be able to cover your essential expenses as you define them without having to worry about running out of money.

It's all about being prepared.

It all boils down to making sure you're ready. The key is to ensure that the gaps are filled between how you define and pay for essential expenses and what protected retirement income sources are available to you. With an immediate annuity, you may be protected from outliving your savings and have an opportunity to maintain your lifestyle in retirement.

USAA can detail what is and isn't right for you and help you make smarter choices throughout your retirement.