Saving was the part everyone tells you about. Turning it into a paycheck that lasts — without wrecking your taxes — is the part nobody explains. We do, in plain English, for free.
No pitch. No pressure. A real person reviews every request.
Two retirees. Same $1,000,000. Same $40,000 a year. The exact same 25 years of market returns — just in the opposite order. One finishes with $1.9 million. The other finishes with less than half of what she started with.
That's called sequence-of-returns risk, and it's the thing nobody explained when you were saving. While you're putting money in, order doesn't matter. The day you start taking money out, it's the whole game.
A 20% drop at 35 is a buying opportunity. A 20% drop at 66, while you're pulling out $4,000 a month, is a hole you may never climb out of.
A couple at 65 has about a 50% chance one of them sees 92. The plan has to work for the one who's still here, not the average.
Groceries, insurance, property tax. At 3% a year, what costs $5,000 a month today costs $9,000 a month at 85. Your income has to keep up.
Diversify, pick a risk score, withdraw about 4% a year, and trust that the long-run average shows up on schedule. It's what most advisors learned, and it works beautifully — right up until the order of returns goes against you.
First, cover the bills that can't be missed with income that can't be missed — Social Security, a pension if you have one, and a guaranteed income annuity for the gap. Then invest the rest for growth, because now a bad year is an inconvenience, not a catastrophe.
No judgment. Let's find your starting point.
Thirty-four plain-English answers, searchable, no email wall.
Fair. Start with exactly how we get paid.
Two sliders, three strategies, your real Social Security and bills.
You don't need to know anything about retirement planning to use this. Just move two sliders — your age and how much you've saved — and see three real ways that money could work for you: what it pays you every year, and what's left over for your family.
We'll project this out to age 90 and show you exactly what each path pays — and leaves behind.
Educational illustration only, not a quote or an offer. "Just Invest It" assumes a 60/40 portfolio averaging 6%/year, with 4% withdrawn as income and 1% going to advisory fees, leaving 1% net growth on the balance each year. "Guarantee It All" and "Split It" use illustrative single-life income annuity payout rates by age (actual rates vary by carrier and rate environment). "Split It" annuitizes 65% of the amount shown and invests the remaining 35% at a hypothetical 9% average annual return (S&P 500 illustrative, not guaranteed, subject to market risk and loss) left untouched to grow. Real plans account for Social Security, spending needs, and taxes — see the detailed tool below.
This version accounts for income you already have coming in and what your actual bills cost, and lets you compare Just Invest It, Guarantee It All, and Split It side by side.
Educational illustration only — not financial, tax, or legal advice and not an offer of any product. Hypothetical figures: assumes the income gap is funded from pre-tax accounts, 2.5% annual inflation on rising withdrawals/bills, and illustrative single-life annuity payout rates by age (actual quotes vary by carrier, product, state, and rate environment). "Just Invest It" assumes a 60/40 portfolio averaging 6%/year, with 4% withdrawn as income and 1% going to advisory fees, leaving 1% net growth on the balance each year. Under "Split It," the invested remainder is illustrated at a 9% average annual return — hypothetical, not guaranteed, and subject to market risk; actual returns vary and may be negative. Cost-of-living increases are modeled as withdrawals from the invested side (structured tax-free via Roth in Viking plans) and therefore do not appear as taxable income. Annuitization is capped at 65% of the portfolio under Viking's Split It (BIID) framework. Annuity guarantees are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company and are not FDIC insured.
Any advisor you talk to is using one of them — most just won't tell you which.
Paid by the company when a product is put in place — life insurance, an annuity, a mutual fund. Doesn't come out of your deposit or reduce your rate.
An hourly or flat charge for the professional's time, whether or not you ever buy anything.
A percentage of everything you have invested — usually about 1% a year, every year, in good markets and bad.
Nine minutes, no slides. Before you book anything, hear it from the person you'd actually be talking to.
Pulled straight from Google, lightly trimmed for length — never reworded.
Thirty-four answers, organized so you can find your exact question in seconds. No email wall.
Nothing matches that search — but that doesn't mean we don't have the answer. Ask us directly →
Which one of these is for you? All three are "safe money" — the difference is how long your money is tied up and who backs it. Rates on all three move constantly, so instead of a number that's stale by the time you read it, here's the honest comparison.
Pays the highest interest of the three — but has contractual timelines that lock your money up for years (typically 3–10). Taking money out early triggers a surrender charge. Issued by an insurance company, not a bank.
Backed by the issuing insurer's claims-paying ability — not FDIC insured.
Goes through a bank and pays a lesser rate than a MYGA — but the contract periods are shorter, so your money isn't tied up as long. Early withdrawal usually costs you some interest rather than a surrender charge.
FDIC insured up to applicable limits.
Pays less than a CD, but it's fully liquid — no contract period at all, money in and out whenever you want. The tradeoff is that the rate can change at any time, in either direction.
FDIC insured up to applicable limits.
Tap any category above to see today's rates on Google — or skip the homework and let us pull them for you.
We shop MYGAs across multiple carriers and can tell you where CDs and high-yield savings stand right now — free, no pressure, in about 10 minutes.
Get Today's Rates →Annuity guarantees are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company and are not FDIC insured. Viking is not affiliated with and receives no compensation from any bank. Nothing here is a rate quote or an offer.
Nothing. It's a real conversation with a real person about your situation — not a webinar replay, not a sales script. You'll leave knowing more than you came with, whether or not we ever work together.
No. The first call is discovery — understanding your income, accounts, taxes, and what you're worried about. If something we offer fits, we'll show you the math and you decide. If it doesn't fit, we'll tell you that too.
No — we're independent. We're contracted with hundreds of companies, so we're not stuck selling whatever one shop happens to carry. We shop the whole field and the option that wins on math wins the case.
There's no such thing as a call that's too early. Roth conversions, a personal pension, life insurance, estate planning, tax planning — every one of them works better with time on your side.
No. Most first calls end with "keep what you have." If something's working, we'll say so. If something's quietly costing you, we'll show you the number and let you decide.
You hand an insurance company a lump sum, and they send you a check every month for the rest of your life — guaranteed, no matter what the market does or how long you live. It's the private version of a pension. The trade-off is that money is no longer yours to spend in a lump, which is exactly why we only use it for the bills that can't be missed.
Rough numbers are fine: what you've saved, what Social Security says you'll get, and what your monthly bills are. If you have an old annuity or pension statement, have it handy. If you don't have any of it, come anyway — we'll work with what you know.
Thirty minutes, free, no pitch, by video or phone — we work with clients in all 50 states. Bring your accounts, your Social Security estimate, or just your questions.