
A Reddit user posed a question that hits home for a lot of families trying to help their aging parents navigate retirement: Does it make sense to buy an annuity?
The post laid it all out. Their dad is 80. Mom is 65. They've got around $687,000 in investments and roughly $69,000 in annual income from Social Security and a pension. The user considered letting them follow the variable percentage withdrawal method—basically taking around 5.1% from the portfolio each year. That would give them about $85,000 in income annually, which should cover their estimated $75,000 in yearly expenses.