What was the last financial product you purchased and why?

We just bought an annuity with some of our money in stocks. We liked that because we figured how much worse can the stock market get? It’s going to rebound at some point, and then we can benefit from those returns–or at least that’s how the thinking goes. I think we’re protected against it going down, which is important once you get to retirement age. But we have other investments–we are pretty conservative with our money. We bought it mostly to pass on to our kids.
-Janice, 75, Port Saint Lucie, Fla.

Well, I guess that would be our long-term care policies. We both had parents who died of Alzheimer’s–and in my mother-in-law’s case, she lived a long, long time in a home–so it seemed like the sensible thing to do. No one wants their fortune to be squandered by an illness like that. We mentioned to our accountant that we were interested in something like that, and he referred us to a guy who helped us pick out a good policy.
-Ed, 70, Concord, N.H.