ltangel,

You wrote, At 59 and half I will be able to take out money from my variable annuity.Quesion:since i have had it for 17 years and it just recently bounced back to where it was 17years ago plus 10,000-I am thinking of moving 20% into the annuity moneymarket fund from the index 500 fund just so it stays at least at principle and move 20% to a growth fund and pray that in 14 months when i can start withdrawing this step will serve me well- When i called today to find out when I could start withdrawing the rep suggested a FIXED anniuty for some of the monies that I plan to withdraw at that time - my thoughts - would do better in a couple of dividend stocks or even CD's -if I had just put it in the bank -rule of 72 I would have doubled it for that length of time!!
Any thoughts on this strategy? Many thanks!!!

I don't know much about annuities, but I think you'd have to provide numbers for anyone to evaluate this decision. Do you even know the numbers? Or are you just relying on some insurance salesman's opinion here?

BTW, I think annuities are great - for the people that sell them. But personally, I'm not an uneducated investor, so I think I can probably do as well or better without loosing a bunch of the money in sales commissions.

If you're looking at another annuity, make sure you're not getting stuck with high fees and expenses. Vanguard is supposed to be a great place to buy a fixed annuity product with your investments, if you want to lock in a guaranteed income stream. However, buying into an annuity wrapped investment product is usually a suckers game ... except in a few circumstances.

Fixed annuities at retirement are fine with me so long as you know what you're getting into...

- Joel