re: Annuity Owners, please share your experiences.

Annuities are not for everyone and many on the money board look down on them because they don't return as well as the stock market. I have used then two different ways. Early in our investing career, my wife was risk adverse so we put away whatever we could into a fixed annuity earning 4, 5, 6 or 7% and also maxed out our 401k, 403g, simple, sepp, self directed 401k, etc. The interest grew tax deferred, and kept getting rolled over. We never planned on actually annuitizing, rather looked at it as guaranteed retirement money earning a rate better than a bank. Now that I am closer to retirement, it is one of several sources I will use to balance what I will owe to the IRS from my retirement funds. I have several with different maturity dates that continue to earn 4.5% or higher. They are just a part of a portfolio that contains stocks, bonds, ETF's, mutual funds, etc.. I was comfortable the last few times the market had a downturn and not all of my money was at risk and my losses were not as great.