We’re reminded daily as we read the news that our housing prices and our retirement plan balances are down, while uncertainty is up. We encourage you to adopt a different perspective: to focus less on the wealth you currently have — or have seen diminished — and more on whether your assets are capable of producing enough income in retirement.
GuideStone offers a variety of retirement income approaches for our participants. For our Southern Baptist participants, GuideStone offers a fixed lifetime benefit with many options to fit your unique family needs. This benefit can help produce a reliable income during retirement. Our fixed lifetime benefit is one of the highest paying available.
It might be an option to take part of your retirement account balance as a fixed lifetime benefit — to cover your daily living expenses — while leaving the rest of your account invested in the market to allow it time to recover. You could access that money later with an additional benefit or through systematic withdrawals.
If a lifetime benefit doesn’t fit your situation, we offer a broad range of other benefit options to choose from. You can receive more information about various retirement benefit options by calling our toll-free number 1-888-98-GUIDE (1-888-984-8433). Elsewhere on our website, we offer our Benefit Options Brochure.
After reviewing your benefit options, if you determine you are not financially able to retire, there are several options available to you:
- Adjust your budget and expectations.
- Continue working a few more years. That gives you two benefits: time for your retirement investments to recover and your Social Security payments will be larger the longer you defer, until you reach age 70. Note, the Social Security Administration recommends, even if you delay Social Security until your full retirement age or until age 70, that you apply for Medicare at age 65.
- Move to a more affordable location. Perhaps your current — or dream — locale is more expensive than areas where you might enjoy living just as much.
- Consider part-time or temporary employment to fill the gaps in your retirement income.
If retirement is a choice that you are considering now, it may very well be a possibility, even in a market far from its highs in 2007. With some planning and working with a trusted provider like GuideStone, your retirement dreams could still be very much in reach.