White House to Consider Selling Annuities

I'm wondering if Obama and Geitner are going to start cold calling and making annuity pitches over the kitchen table.  Kings of the Living Room!  According to this Bloomberg article, the White House is considering how they can encourage workers to invest their savings in annuities to create guaranteed income streams.

Seriously, the government is now getting into the business of giving financial advice? No thanks. Isn't this the classic overreaction that we see from our investors after a major market move, either up or down?

This isn't even a biased political commentary. The Republicans are just as bad as the Democrats on this count. Remember when W. Bush was running for President in 2000? One of the items that he campaigned on was giving Americans the ability to invest their portion of Social Security in the stock market. Then we had a market crash, and that idea died. Can you imagine if this passed a couple of years earlier? Criticize Social Security all you want, but it is what it says it is, a social program, a safety net. Instead we would have had everyone dumping "their portion" of Social Security into dot-com stocks in 1999. The bubble would have been even worse, and the crash more devastating.

Fast forward ten years, and we have come off of the "lost decade" and specifically a recent market crash. So, what is the answer? Time to get super conservative and invest our retirement portfolios in annuities. Great job timing the market two years after the fact.

Comments

[Roger]

I don't see what the problem is encouraging people to get annuities. You effectively already get one today in the form of social security, so doing more of the same is fine. Annuities are not a bad thing like gambling on the stock market.

Note that you always have the option to decide you are financially smarter and do whatever you want. They also did something a year or two ago which enrolled new employees in 401K with default investments with the new employee having to opt out of that. It increased the amount of money people put away for retirement savings.

Remember that if people do not save for retirement then you'll end up paying for their retirement unless you are okay with older people starving to death while homeless. So the question then becomes how can you ensure that doesn't happen while allowing people the amount of freedom your political beliefs think they should have.

[Daddy Paul]

I would like to point out Social Security is a Government annuity. The money is safe in a lock box. The government has never missed a payment…..yet!

[Daddy Paul]

After reading Rogers comment I would recommend reading
http://hubpages.com/hub/mutualfundbad
Mutual funds are not horrible investments.

[todd]

interesting post, I like the insight given on the white house selling annuities. My client, Assured Guaranty offers credit insurance policies designed to help wedge against market downturns.

[Griff (Financial Freedom 5G Team)]

Yea, we need to tell the White House to get out of the financial consulting biz. They can't even handle their own money!

[Jerry]

The White House is considering selling annuities? What's next?

[Harvey31SUSANA]

Various people in the world receive the loans from various banks, just because it's easy.

[Denise]

Very interesting article. Can't wait to read more.
www.dougmcclure.kyfb.com

[loan]

Houses and cars are quite expensive and not everybody can buy it. However, credit loans was invented to support different people in such situations.

[Premium Finance]

Amazing read. Interesting take on finances. This is a very important aspect of peoples' lives nowadays.

[Get Best Annuity Rates]

Would you like to sell your annuity payments or receive an advance on your annuity? If the answer is "Yes." Settlement Quotes can help. Settlement Quotes will provide you 6 cash offers from the top annuity buyers in the industry. Our free service is here to help you acquire the largest advance or cash out options for your annuity payments.

[New Era Hat]

White House has so much money!

[Pneumatic fittings]

Excellently written article, if only all bloggers offered the same content as you, the internet would be a much better place. Please keep it up!

[golf swing tips]

very happy to read your blog.
Thanks for sharing this nice post.I will keep your article in my idea.

[Chanel Mens Watches]

ask the White House to get out of the financial consulting biz. They can't even handle their own money!

[Chanel Mens Watches]

It’s really great post. I would like to appreciate your work and would like to tell to my friends. Thanks for sharing

[Jordan Shoes]

I peruse your articles about this topic and get a lot of facts that I never realize whereas.

[wholesale laptop battery]

eed digitally to an on-site fabric printer and voila! a customized t-shirt of your very own.

[gearbox]

I am glad to talk with you and you give me great help! Thanks for that,I am wonderring if I can contact you via email when I meet problems.

[ray ban]

ask the White House to get out of the financial consulting biz. They can't even handle their own money!

[ray ban]

I am glad to talk with you and you give me great help!

[autoboss v30]

Thanks a lot for sharing the article on cash. That's a awesome article. I enjoyed the article a lot while reading. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful article. I want to say very thank you for this great informations, now I understand about it,thank you!

[nike shox]

Excellent piece of writing and definitely helps with becoming familiar with the subject matter much better.

[fashion glasses]

Excellent piece of writing and definitely helps with becoming familiar with the subject matter much better.

[nike air max]

Very useful information. I love this article. I have hunting it for a long time. So happy I got it today. I hope that our owners can share more good things with us.