Well, I was in a similar situation at age 55 when I retired and about 1 yr before, I only had played with MF's and didn't take the time going deeper into using them.
1. I set up a List of Questions and Different Conservative Portfolio's I like
2. Started going and Seeing Investment Firms to get their Input , Idea's and Opinions
3. Being 55, but using being 65 for my Bonds % and even more ( 70%) and the Firms that Hit on that approach got more of my Interest and time to use them..
4. I gave the best one of the bunch 25% of my $ and I handled the rest..Just following their Lead and a few tweaks now and then on my own..
5. a 3% WDR would provide me with the $ I needed " Forever".. and I didn't even need that much over the next 30 yrs FP's I went thru..
6. Ave about 7% apy from them and 8.3% apy on my own $ has exceeded my expectations.
7. Not to mention having some gambling $ set aside to try my luck with has done pretty well, with their other Depts they have for that purpose..along with what I pick up along the way on my own..
Sure, Lost about -24% last yr with the gambling $, but was over 300% ahead of the game before then and the Core $ lost about -6% , but was almost Double before that happene and paid the Bills along the way..
and after you go see a couple of the first few firms, you get alittle wiser and what to look for when you go see the others.. Go see at least 6 firms..
and Vanguard has a course on What to Look for In using an Investment Firm to get you started..
OH BTW? Hint..Using just a simple port of VWELX, VWINX, A Global and EMD Bond Fund can get the job done pretty well too.
Sorry, Annuities aren't in my Portfolio yet..Don't they will be either..If we rode out 08' pretty well , I don't see much reason why too..