Discover the tips and strategies that will help you achieve your retirement goals.

I'm your host, James Canole, and this is the podcast dedicated to helping you retire well.

It all starts right here of Ready for Retirement. I'm

your host, James Cannell. And on today's episode, we're going to be talking all about pensions.

And specifically, for those of you who are fortunate enough to have a pension,

how should you elect to take it? Should you take it as a lump sum? Should you take it as an annuity?

What are the pros and cons of each and when might both make sense? So this question comes from a listener and this listener, we're going to call her Samantha. And Samantha says this. She says,

Hi, I love your podcast and your YouTube channel.

I've learned so much.

I have a question related to the pension that I will get when I reach 65 years old, and I'm currently 54.

When I reach age 65, I will need to choose the pension as either an annuity of $3,790 per month,

or I can get a lump sum distribution of $713,266.

My question is, should I take the lump sum distribution of my pension when I reach 65,

or should I do the monthly payments?

What is the average annual rate of return if I were to take the lump sum so it will come out better than taking the annuity?

I tried to do the math to calculate the internal rate of return, but I was not able to determine how long I will live.

I am healthy, knock on wood, I don't see myself living past 95, but my grandfather lived until age 88.

A lot of my coworkers said the lump sum option is a no-brainer, but I am single and with no

kids or dependents, and this is a big difference to them. Some facts. As I mentioned, I am single,

no dependence. I have about $700,000 in a traditional 401k, and hopefully this will be closer to

$1.1 when I choose to retire at age 62. I am contributing the maximum amount to my Roth 401k

starting this year,

...