When a football team gets the ball inside the opposing team’s 20-yard line, they are considered to be in the “red zone." There it's more likely that they will score.

If you are within ten years of retirement (either before or after), then you are in what many financial professionals consider to be the “retirement red zone.” Famously coined by Prudential, the retirement red zone is a crucial stage for your long-term lifestyle.

Why? Because how your retirement portfolio behaves during this period can substantially affect your standard of living during your golden years.

Just as it's critical that a football team can come away with points from the red zone, it's also imperative that you manage your assets well during this critical period.

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As you gear up for retirement, you may have heard of “safe money solutions.” Are they right for you? It’s an important question, especially since retirement planning is more difficult than it's ever been in history.

Past generations could count on company pensions that would pay them every month without fail until they died. But the disappearance of these pensions, coupled with the increase in longevity for retirees, has left many people with more questions than answers.

While Social Security will cover at least some of their expenses, most retirees will have to rely on income from their own investments and savings to make up the difference.

However, what many call a bewildering amount of financial choices in today’s market can leave people feeling frustrated.

According to the Investment Company Institute, nearly 120,000 regulated investment funds are available to retirement savers today. And what about other options? There are more annuities than hedge funds available, which doesn’t even begin to cover the universe of countless other instruments that can be tapped for retirement goals.

All that being said, what if you are looking for some choices that help guard your money and maximize income for retirement? Safe money solutions might be worth a look. And what are they? Generally speaking, a safe money solution:

• Provides some protection for your principal.
• Might pay out retirement income with higher confidence than, say, an equity position might give.
• Offer some growth potential with a guaranteed interest rate or other interest-earning opportunities.
  
  

Fixed-type annuities, bonds, and Treasuries are among the asset types that can be called “safe money solutions.” But among all of these, annuities are the only instrument capable of paying out a guaranteed income stream for life.

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