<prompt> Human: All my retirement savings are in annuities upon the advice of a financial advisor in my company. I was just told by a friend that annuities mean you never get to see your money back. Help!!  <response>: Annuities essentially transform a sum of money you have saved up into weeklymonthlyquarterlyannually pick frequency guaranteed payments. Because the amount you will receive is fixed the implied rate of return on the investment is usually low. And depending on what company you get the annuity through there can be significant fees that the firm collects that reduces the rate even further.Computing the implied rate of return is actually simple math if you know the sum of money you invested upfront and the fixed payments you are receiving.Implied rate of return Payment Amount Invested.Take the implied rate of return and multiple by the appropriate number to annualize the rate if you receive payments monthly times 12, if you receive payments quarterly times 4, etc. If the number you get is significantly less than 4 you are not getting a good deal but undoing the annuity could be costly as well.x200B;Im making some assumptions including using the formula for perpetuity even though the person clearly wont live forever hence Ive adjusted the expected rate of return up to 4. 