Putting Investments in front of Strategies & Solutions is one. Start with a Strategy and a Solution, and then pick your investments.
Bring your knowledge level up; try to understand as much as you can. The help of a good trusted Financial Professional can be invaluable, but the more you know the better he/she can assist you.

First, we are giving you choices. We are trying to educate you so you can make a good decision alone or with the help of a good trusted Financial Professional. Many calculators favor a particular type of Investment. Some calculators are straight line (or linear) and do not take into account market fluctuations.

You should review your strategy at least once a year, or sooner, like you do with your investments. A review is in order with any life events, major changes, or large purchases or expenditures.

Don’t rely on single investment solutions. Remember you need to go Strategy first, then Investments. MyIncomeStrategy.com shows you and guides you through different income strategies, so you can choose on your own, or with the help of a good trusted Financial Professional.

MyIncomeStrategy.com uses close approximations to real numbers. What we have found is that by starting with a really good and conservative estimate, you can then apply your investments to these estimates and come up with a ‘real life’ solution that works as well, in many cases better than the original answer. This is also the best way to compare strategies.

If you were to look at historical returns you would see that there is a tremendous amount of risk in the stock market from day to day. As time goes on that risk has dissipated. If you look at the potential gain over 5 years vs. the potential loss, do the same for 10 years, then do it again for 7 years. You will see that 7-year increments have picked up most of the upside of 10 years, while shedding most of the downside of 5 years. In other words it is a compromise. 5 Years can be too short, and 10 years might be too long. 14 year increments are extensions of 7 year plans that is understanding what rate of return you need on a portion of your assets in order to not run out of money.

Yes. The strategies that are tied to specific number of years were done too capitalize on historical stock market performance (increase reward/reduce risk). But you can tailor the programs for any number of years. If you would like a tailored strategy, please see our member page at http://www.MyIncomeStrategy.com/members/tailored.

Based on our experience, and studies done by many firms and independent Advisors, there seems to be a strong correlation between a withdrawal rate of 4% and running out of money. That is if you put your money in a diversified portfolio and remove at a rate > 4% there is a strong possibility that you will run out of money. If you are over 90 years old, that possibility does decrease, but why would you be taking that type of risk at that age anyway? For more information please refer to the DVD/Online Video, review the Market Withdrawal strategy, and special attention to the section on Reverse Dollar Cost Averaging.

Typically the math of lifetime instruments have a payoff after life expectancy (50/50) half the folks live past this date. If you do not have longevity in your family this might not be an option to consider. For more information please refer to the DVD/Online Video Strategies that include a Lifetime Income component.

Yes you can. You can use one strategy for a portion of your assets and another strategy for another portion of your assets. If you would like a tailored proposal ‘have us do it or you’ please visit: http://www.MyIncomeStrategy.com/members/tailored.

Or for a more complete analysis that takes account your investments and taxes please visit:

http://www.MyIncomeStrategy.com/members/advisory

and we’ll include taxes and your current investments.

Help is available with our DVD/Online Video. Please visit http://www.MyIncomeStrategy.com/members/video or e-mail us at help@MyIncomeStrategy.com.

An Investment Strategy is specific to certain types of investments; this can include a method or approach to investing (example Dollar Cost Averaging).

An Income Strategy provides a means of turning your investments into spendable cash (a steady paycheck) over a period of time. An Income Strategy will incorporate Investment Strategies, one or more, depending on the situation.

A Lifetime Income Strategy incorporates lifetime income sources generated from investments (like Annuities, Trusts, Reverse Mortgages, Charitable strategies, and others)

Yes. Including combinations of strategies, (visit http://www.MyIncomeStrategy.com/members/advisory for a tailored investment strategy that takes into account your investments and taxes). There are strategies that take into account reverse mortgages, charitable annuities, different types of trusts that pay income, (and may have provisions to pay principal), hedge funds, other non-traditional investments, even Real Estate. These strategies use investments (like the ones listed above) that have special tax implications. These tax implications may favor one over the other (depending on your circumstance), but many of these bear a resemblance to the strategies in MyIncomeStrategy.com Please see your tax and financial professionals for a review of these other strategies.

Taxes do not affect the structure of the Strategies; taxes effect the investments within the Strategies, and the allocation of dollars depending on the type of money you have (Retirement vs. Non-Retirement). Meaning that one strategy is not more tax efficient than the other. The strategies were written assuming you included your tax obligations. But when it comes to investments, some investments pay taxable income, while others pay tax-free. There are even investments that pay part taxable and part tax-free. The type of account you have also dictates taxes. Retirement accounts generally grow without taxes. Some retirement accounts have a tax obligation when you remove money others do not. It is conservative to assume that all of the income is taxable, this way when you actually put your strategy in place, if any of your income is not taxable then you end up with more than you expected. It is best to check with a tax professional and a financial advisor to understand the effect of taxes on your portfolio on specific investments, and to understand the type of money you have. For example if you need money in a short period of time, you probably would want the least volatile, least taxing investment. If you are growing money for a long period of time you probably want the best growth potential and the type of assets you have (Retirement vs. Non-Retirement) will help you decide what investments fit best. Again, consult with a tax advisor and a financial professional to get the best understanding of your situation and what investments for the type(s) of monies you have. A tailored investment strategy, which can look at the type of dollars you have, and the type of tax treatment on investments, is available at: http://www.MyIncomeStrategy.com/members/advisory.

We would like you to include Social Security in your income need calculations. That is, take the total expenses and subtract off all income coming in (including Social Security). If Social Security doesn’t kick in until later, then we suggest using a strategy that gets you to Social Security age, then picking the strategy which works best at that time in your life. Remember your situation will change over time, and it is important for you to constantly check back and re-evaluate your income strategy. You can get an estimate of your Social Security Benefit by looking at your most recent statement, or by going to .

In the savings calculator there is no way to know what rate of return you will receive in the future. The assumptions made reflect historical rates of return and then are weighted for the assets you have told us are in your portfolio. It is very possible that you can do much better or much worse than the ‘try this’ assumption posted. We also assume you are looking to grow your money for 10 years or more. The assumptions used are 10% for stocks/equities, 4.5% for bonds/fixed income, and 3% for cash/cash equivalents.

As in other parts of MyIncomeStrategy.com, we are taking very conservative estimates of income that could be generated through a lifetime income source. You do need to consult with a financial professional and a tax advisor to see which investment selection is right for you. In any event, if you end up with more money than we project, then you are in better shape financially.