I am told there is a 10% penalty and additional withholding tax if I don’t roll the lump sum immediately into an IRA or 401k, etc. The funds would sit there until I am almost 60. So any more aggressive investments, if I commenced them immediately, would have to make back up that lost ground.
As for long term care, I plan on being perfectly healthy indefinitely. :) But you raise a good point. If it came down to death panels, I have already outlived many of my betters, and would only want to hang around to help my wife and children as long as possible. I am honestly not sure what that means in terms of Title XIX. My hope would be I go till I drop outright and not make any use of it.
excellent. But you still have us confused. This is an US Military pension? When would the payments start?
You have narrowed the choice down to:
1. keep the annuity.
2. move it into an IRA.
Cashing out is for the fool. The taxes reduce the value so low you could never recoup.
We need more information. Is there a beneficiary on the annuity? What happens to the payments when you die?