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Retirement

How Much Income Does a $100,000 Annuity Pay? Current Rates by Age

A pink piggy bank on a white background, with a sticky note reading “$625 a month?”.
Photo by Fabian Blank on Unsplash

Picture $100,000 sitting in savings at 65. Hand it to an insurer, and a check arrives every month for as long as you live. What that check comes to depends most on age, then on sex, state and which insurer you ask. Two quotes for the same person can land about 10% apart, and the gap repeats every year for life. The monthly figure also won't show what you give up to get it.

See why quotes differ by 10%

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By Margaret Linwood · Updated Sep 29, 2026 · Reviewed against Annuity.org payout analysis (via CBS News, Sept. 2, 2026), AnnuaLife rate survey (July 29, 2026), LIMRA, IRS, SSA, FINRA, NOLHGA

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Don't read the check as a return on your money. Part of every payment is your own money coming back. The rest comes from interest and from risk pooling, where money from buyers who die early helps pay the ones who live long. Break-even age is the fairer yardstick.

And most of what gets sold as an "annuity" isn't this product at all. With the plain kind, the money isn't yours anymore once you sign. In most contracts the decision can't be undone after a short free-look period, so it pays to know exactly what you're being shown.

See how to tell the plain kind apart

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Work out the gap before you shop

An annuity does one job well: it fills the space between the income you can count on and your basic bills. That space is worth measuring before any quote comes in.

  1. The two lines. On one, Social Security plus any pension. On the other, housing, food, utilities, insurance and taxes. The difference is what an annuity is for.
  2. Delaying Social Security. For anyone born in 1943 or later, each year of waiting past full retirement age adds 8% to the benefit, up to age 70. Using savings to bridge a few years of delay is often the smarter first move.
  3. How much to lock up. A common planning approach turns only enough savings into lifetime income to cover the gap and keeps the rest within reach. Putting everything into one contract is rarely wise.
  4. Who else depends on the check. A contract written on one spouse's life alone stops when that spouse dies. For a married couple, the joint version is usually the figure that counts.

Once you know the gap, the next question is what $100,000 buys at a given age, and what each payout option costs per month. The article has those figures, plus the fine print.

See what $100,000 pays at each age

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