Who is trying to sell it to you?

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

1) Only retirement plan option available from a past employer. Horrendous fees and very little options to invest.

2) When you are really close to retiring and want a solid income, they may be ok (depending on seller).

3) Any time you want to get somewhere.

4) see #2.

This.
I have inherited one that has gained about $17k in 13 years, which is not enough to justify the print on the monthly statements sent.
http://money.cnn.com/...de/Annuities/?iid=EL

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DISH is how we do it.

The seller loves the commission. He'll/she'll get more from it than you.

Are you maxing out your tax deferred options elsewhere? If so, then, an annuity is an option to do so further.

Are you at an age or risk tolerance where you want a fixed return with little risk and want to outperform a CD or money market? Then, an annuity is an option to do so.

^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^

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DFL > DNF > DNS

This exactly where I am. This is money from a previous 401k. I have kept it separate from my current jobs 401k.
I am fearing recession so I put it in a cash position a month ago.
Pete

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2017 Cervelo P2
2017 Cervelo S2
itraininla.com
#itraininla

You still have to decide long term what you want the annuity for. Do you have immediate income needs for a level income stream that would last your lifetime. That might be one reason to buy an annuity. Or have time to defer income for enough years that the living benefit can grow. Those scenarios would make sense for buying an annuity. I wouldn't advocate anyone putting all their money in one.

What would be bad is to need access to funds greater then what you can access free or by withdraws. Then you risk blowing it up and some have heavy surrender penalties.

If you decide on an annuity do your homework.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

I'm always fearing a recession as well but the issue is no one knows when it will happen. It could be tomorrow it could be in 2021.

Dollar cost averaging is your friend.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dollarcostaveraging.asp

An annuity is an insurance product.....
And it costs money to buy insurance.

One should ask....
What is it that you want to insure?
Can you "self insure" and save the money?

Annuities are NOT good "general purpose" investments.
Why pay for insurance that you don't need?

That said, there are legitimate reasons to buy insurance and annuities.

Thank you all for your responses.
I am looking at it for income purposes when I "retire", which is a least
another 12 to 15 years away.
Just trying to figure out a way to set up multiple revenue streams in retirement

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2017 Cervelo P2
2017 Cervelo S2
itraininla.com
#itraininla

my wife and I did place a portion of our investments in an index annuity to 'simulate' a pension style income flow - I wouldn't describe it as an excellent investment, however if one does not need or chooses not to embrace much risk it has a place.

Annuity guarantees are interest rate driven. Do you think interest rates are going to be higher in 10 years, or do you want to lock yourself into today's interest rates? Was that explained to you?

An annuity is a tool. There is nothing wrong with them but it seems that 9 times out of 10 the buyer doesn't understand what they have.

Small note but Interest during the accumulation stage can be fixed, indexed or variable. OP is ~12 years from retirement so an immediate annuity wouldn't make sense and the accumulation stage would definitely take a role here.