Public pensions. Private pension are Stone Age. Many companies turned them into annuity. Too costly

I had 21 vested years in a private pension before it was discounted. The plans funding status is rapidly deteriorating with the market and my benefits will be cut substantially if it’s taken over by the PBGC. That’s the primary reason I took my savings out of equities a year ago, too much exposure through the plan. Another 10% correction in the market and I will begin to average in at cheaper levels.

You can’t time the market!
 

You will never be able to avoid a loss to your portfolio in a major correction. You can greatly minimize the impact with a proper allocation—well chosen stocks and fixed income securities. You will not protect yourself by going “all cash” because you’ll miss the beginning of the correction and you’ll absolutely miss the beginning of what is usually a very quick recovery. And while you’re in cash, inflation will kill you. ALLOCATION is the key to minimizing the effect of a major correction!

Can't lose what you don't have.

There is one group of people making more money than ever and seems to be a good investment at this time and that is the oil companies

How do you think a portfolio is holding up - pull your head out of the sand!

They finally learned capital discipline but are constantly abused by federal and state governments. Historically high prices do not last. If the Russian guy is eliminated prices plummet

Annuities
 

My financial advisor several years ago told me to put my money in annuities. I can select my own strategies at the beginning of each portfolio year. For example: My portfolio renews in March. My strategies I selected 1. 20% declared (fixed) rate - 3.2%. 2. 40% Gold 1year Point to point. capped @7.75%, if gold goes down you loose zero. 3. S&P500 1year Point to Point capped 6.1%, if S&P goes down you loose zero. Other choices are, Real Estate 1year Point to Point 8.7%. they're are a couple of other choices with less risk that pay around 2.3%. Bottom line, market goes up you make money. Market goes down you don't loose. As a retiree this appears to me to be a safe and secure investment plan. I am with Great American Life Ins. Co. They just this past month got bought out by Mass Mutual. No changes to my two contracts.

The Russian / Afghan war lasted 10 years - 1981 - 1991.

buy low/sell high

Any idea how much your financial advisor made in commission from your "investments".

If the market goes up and in the long run it does, you will make money but not nearly as much as others who invest in other vehicles like mutual funds. Bet he showed you a 20 year trend of the market where annuities did the best. Nest time ask him what happens if he changes the 20 year period to several other periods.

Nothing wrong with a balance portfolio to limit your risk

There is an old saying about annuities, they are sold they are never bought.

Cash is kill. I pulled out every single cent out of my ira/401k accts in January 2022, a 77% portfolio pullout. I did put a few hundred thousand in an energy fund that has made almost 6 digit gains since February.
Dow is down 12%, Nasdaq 27% ytd. I will probably day trade a couple of tech stocks during this month but overall, until fundamentals change, we haven’t seen the bottom yet IMO

A typical sales commission for selling an annuity is about 10 percent of the contract amount. They can pay such high commissions because there is usually a 7 to 10 year surrender fee for selling early. Also, the annual fees to the insurance company are much higher than other investments, and these fees are added on to the internal fund management fees. When they say you can't lose money, they are only referring to the market fluctuations, not the fees. So, the money you get back can be less than what you invested, but they will claim that you didn't actually lose money, you just had to pay the fees. But, my main complaint with annuities is that, it is a contract with an insurance company that is typically more than 100 pages, and they will not allow you to read it before you sign it. To me, that is a non-starter.

You will almost always make more money by investing your money in the same products within a mutual fund instead of an annuity. And, another thing that you need to consider is that any money you do make with an annuity will be taxed at your ordinary income tax rate. So, if you have capital gains, you don't get the tax advantage of a lower income tax rate like you do with mutual funds or other investment products.

Lost a bunch this year so far and it wasn't even fun!