Terms to know: Annuity

If you've been studying retirement you probably already know the word (and if you don't, you haven't been studying very well). Annuity is one of those words that you simply must understand if you're thinking about retirement or thinking about planning for retirement or even thinking about thinking about retirement.
I'm not going to try to describe what an annuity is in very much detail here. I will come back to the topic at some future date. What I will say, though, is:

1. if you're within 5 years of retirement, and you don't know what an annuity is, then get some advice NOW
2. if you're within 10 years of retirement, and you don't know what an annuity is, then consider getting some advice
3. if you're more than 10 years from retirement, do some research
4. if you have children, try to persuade them to start saving for their retirement