Annuities and the Issue of Inflation
Friday, March 9th, 2007Inflation is a subtle, but nasty, factor that eats away at the value of your money over time. There are certain annuities designed to counter this loss of value.
One of the givens of the economic reality is the fact that the purchasing power of money declines as time goes on. This is known as inflation which indicates that the value of the money has inflated. It does not buy as much as it used to buy. This fact concerns people interested in annuities. It is especially true in the case of a long term fixed annuity. This problem is common to all fixed incomes. You are getting the same amount of money, but it is buying less and less.
The problem is not as acute with a variable annuity. The chance to make some extra earnings on the invested money counters the effects of inflation to some degree. This is not a satisfactory result for most people. They rightfully realize that inflation is eating up their earnings in their annuity in the same manner it is cutting into their earnings elsewhere. Ther (more...)
