This article was originally published on Yahoo! Finance.

When it comes to retirement planning or income planning, many Americans subscribe to one of two approaches. The first suggests that you take around 4% from your stock/bond portfolio each year as income. The second suggests that you place a significant portion of your assets into an annuity so that you can generate guaranteed income for life.

Mike Decker, founder of Kedrec and author of the book, "How to Retire on Time," believes that these strategies may be riskier than people realize.

According to Decker, "the first option risks accentuating losses by potentially taking income at the wrong time. This is called ‘Sequence of Returns Risk.' That doesn't seem prudent when you consider the retirement principle of income, which suggests that you never pull income from accounts that have received significant losses."

For those who have not heard about Sequence of Returns Risk, here's an example. If your accounts were down 10 percent, it would take an 11 percent gain just to break even. If your account goes down 30 percent, it would take a 43 percent gain just to break even. If you withdrew income from that account, it would be even harder to recover.

The greater the loss, the harder it is to recover. When you pull income from an account that has already experienced a significant loss, you accentuate the loss even more, which can compromise your ability to stay retired.

"The other common retirement strategy," Decker says, "suggests that you lock up a significant amount of your assets into annuitized income streams that may not keep up with inflation. It seems risky to make irrevocable decisions when the financial environment can drastically over 30 years."

With many Americans deciding between two very different retirement income strategies, Kedrec, a Registered Investment Advisory firm in the State of Kansas, is proud to release The Principal Guaranteed Reservoir™, a proprietary new retirement income strategy to consider.

The strategy was created to help retirees and near-retirees find a more balanced approach to help manage their retirement income needs when markets go up, down, or stay flat for an extended period of time.

"The concept is simple," explains Decker. "As you approach retirement, consider placing some of your assets in accounts that offer principal protection so that when markets go down or stay flat for an extended period of time, you can pull income without accentuating losses. This helps avoid Sequence of Returns Risk while giving the retiree a flexible way to maintain their retirement income."

"The Principal Guaranteed Reservoir™ is intended to be a complement to your standard retirement income or distribution plan, like our Fresh Wealth Plan™."

"Whether retirees want to manage their retirement on their own or have a professional manage it for them, we believe that the Principal Guaranteed Reservoir™ can help people enjoy a successful retirement."

Michael Decker is the author of the book, "How to Retire on Time," and the founder of Kedrec, a Registered Investment Advisory Firm located in Kansas State that specializes in comprehensive wealth plans and management at a flat fee. He helps people create retirement plans that are designed to last longer than the client without relying solely on annuitized income streams or risky stock/bond portfolios.