The great novel Animal Farm written by the legendary author George Orwell is about animals and how they live together in a hierarchical society. As it turns out, he may have been talking about the stock market.

The market is full of these named animals, and each has a different place on the investment pole.

Pigs are greedy, chickens fearful, bears hide and sleep, bulls charge ahead. Over the years, these names have become synonymous with a person’s investment interest or view of how the market is going to move. The names of the animals signify an individual’s approach or philosophical investment strategy.

Here are the animal definitions converted to investment philosophies:

Bull: A Bull Market means the economy is growing and means investor confidence and anticipation of market growth.

Bear: A Bear Market is the opposite; the economy is weakened or expected to weaken.  The stock market is expected to be lower in the future.

Pig: A Pig Market is a big high-risk score (or big loss) position. Pigs are impatient, greedy, and emotional towards their investments and only think of themselves.  Pigs normally get slaughtered.

Chicken: A Chicken Market is a fear.  Chickens have no specific plan and are driven by fear of losing their money. Fear overrides common sense, and any plan is quickly changed if a loss occurs.

If you have a plan based on reality, you are probably not a pig or a chicken.  It means you have used sound, available information and are heading towards your goal.  As we age, the goal can also change, from accumulation to income.

But what about this….what if you can’t afford to lose any of your important money!  How do you evolve from the barnyard descriptions with a philosophy that makes sense to you?  In other words, how do your retirement plans relate to safety, security, and stability?

While no one approach makes sense for everyone, using a new financial vehicle called a Fixed Indexed Annuity with an income rider attached works for many people.  The annuity provides total protection from any downside movement in the stock market while providing a guaranteed yield in the range of 4% to8% when used as income. (income rider)

If it is time to take a new approach to some of your essential retirement funds, consider this powerful option, then maybe you will no longer be a barnyard animal, you could be soaring like an eagle.