A unique primer for the 21st century investor who seeks retirement security as we emerge from the most sustained economic downturn since the 1930's. The book’s special significance is that its author, Jerry Golden, is an industry giant, the “founding father” of Variable Annuities whose ideas have made possible the efficient management of billions of dollars of retirement assets. For the first time, Golden distills 40 years of institutional insights into rules for the average investor, elevating the predictable and controllable above misguided notions of “risk/reward” which, he maintains, have led to a disastrous mis-alignment of retirement expectations and investment risk. Golden asserts that the average investor must now focus on maximizing “spendable retirement income” through tax-control, low fees and carefully managed risk. While he supports the view that passive investment vehicles such as index funds provide an important foundation, he skewers certain prevailing myths about what does and doesn’t work. Notably, Golden asserts that only by managing investment and insurance products as related parts of a single strategy can today’s investor achieve retirement security, arguing that for decades a key piece of the puzzle has been “hiding in plain sight”: the often-maligned annuity products he helped invent, and whose proper uses he understands perhaps better than anyone alive.