7 Ways to Guarantee Yourself a Steady Retirement Income

If you want to have a good retirement, it's not enough to just save some of your money while you're working and worry about the rest when you stop working.

The sooner you look at your choices, the less bumpy your retirement ride will be. Here are some things you can do now to make sure you have a steady income when you retire.

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1. Create a Social Security claiming strategy

People often think of Social Security as their first source of income in retirement. In the end, it's a steady income that grows with inflation and doesn't require us to take chances. And most of it happens by itself.

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2. Find a job with a pension — if you can

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3. Consider a reverse mortgage

This is still a debt on your home, but the money is going to you instead of the bank. In reality, you are getting money and putting your house up as collateral.

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4. Look into annuitie

With an instant annuity, you give the insurance company a lump sum of money. In exchange, you get a monthly income for a set number of years, the rest of your life, or both yours and your spouse's lives, based on the annuity plan.

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5. Build a bond ladder

The idea behind bond laddering is to spread out the money you want to put in bonds over different time periods. This way, you can get a range of interest rates while making sure you always have money coming in.

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6. Use the 4% rule

This is less of an investment strategy and more of an exit strategy. Its goal is to make sure you have a steady income in your later years without leaving you short.

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Floral Pattern

7. Dividend stock

When something "pays dividends," it gives benefits in the future. But that's not just a way to say it; some stocks pay dividends in a very specific way.

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