Life Insurance?

Hey man it sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders. I've read all your posts and it seems you truely care for your family. Good for you buddy. I'm a life salesman and this is exactly what I teach. 8-10x your annual salary. Someone could take $500,000 and pay off all debts. Then take the rest of it and invest it. Spouse can then have money coming in monthly. Everything I educate clients with.

just out of curiousity where do you live? because in the more expensive parts of this country very few families can get by with just one pay check so your insults about not being a man are interesting.

$100,000 which is a good salary gets you and a family a lot further in Greensboro, NC than it will get you in NYC, LA or Boston.

How do you all feel about permanent life insurance? It's kind of like a 401K only it provides some pretty big payouts if you continue to increase the amount you put in as you get older.

Sweet Lou wrote:

just out of curiousity where do you live? because in the more expensive parts of this country very few families can get by with just one pay check so your insults about not being a man are interesting.

$100,000 which is a good salary gets you and a family a lot further in Greensboro, NC than it will get you in NYC, LA or Boston.

I live in one of the more expensive areas outside one of the most expensive cities; we bought our house with two incomes, then got by on one paycheck as, soon after, our first child was born.

My wife has been very supportive as I continued to build my expertise and skill set in my industry (e.g,. mo' skoolin', professional designations, etc.).

Yes, I am fortunate, but I also never felt the need to drive a new car or vacation in Aruba or take the offspring to Dizzying World. I *definitely* "get by" with much less income than my neighbors (not per capita but on a household income basis). It has been my experience that those whose wives "must" work cannot control their spending. "Cable TV" is NOT a "utility."

If I could not afford to live where I live, I would maintain the same lifestyle, but with a longer commute...

we should make the distinction between term life and whole life. i'm not too knowledgable about the subject, but it seems that for most healthy young people, esp those married and/or with kids, there's very little reason not to have some sort of term life policy, which pays out if you die in say, the next 10 years. For a healthy 25 yr old, it won't be more than a few dollars a month to take out a substantial 10yr policy.

Whole life policies seem like a ripoff though.

Business prof in college was vehemently against life insurance. He said if you are so concerned about your future, take the amount of the premium and invest in some kind of compounding interest investment.

Remember, what happens if you don't die.

What happens if you do. Ignorant post if I may say. Why not do both. Lower premiums with higher face value. Invest the rest. Really simple to figure out.

I'm working with a couple right now that look like this. Both smokers, both work, and both need insurance on the other. They have $150,000 on him and $100,000 on her. They pay $208 a month on this whole life policy. I can put them in the same coverage for $69 a month. Would be in the thirties if they didn't smoke. In turn we can now take the $130 a month savings and invest it for them over a 30+ year period and obtain over $400,000. Now this is in a moderate Roth IRA getting 8-10%. Sounds alot better than the whole life crap to me.

desert rodent wrote:

Business prof in college was vehemently against life insurance. He said if you are so concerned about your future, take the amount of the premium and invest in some kind of compounding interest investment.

Remember, what happens if you don't die.

"what happens if you don't die" is not a good approach to buying insurance. does this prof have the same outlook on health insurance? what happens if you don't get sick? well, the whole purpose of "insurance" is to deal with small chance something big will happen. This prof may be addressing whole life, but again, with term life, the premiums can be so small. Investing $5/month into a "compounding interest investment" won't help your family out very much if, God forbid, you get hit by a truck on your run tomorrow, or a year from now, or 10years from now.

hmmm so you lectured everyone about being a man before and now you tell us that your wife supported you while you were getting schooled or am I misunderstanding you?

you are right though many people have their needs and their wants mixed up. i've driven by some public housing places to see 40 inch plasmas on the wall...explain that.

however as time goes on a lot of wants (cable tv) from the past just become essentials sort of like a/c...i don't know maybe you don't use yours if you have it. we could all live with out electricity...why consider that a utility...you don't need it to survive.

I recently worked on a lady that had a policy for 20+ years. Of course it was a whole life policy so it was crap. Anyway she was paying $49 a month for get this. $5000 in coverage. I read over the policy and it said her cash value was growing at over 10%. But when we really got into things she only has $200 in cash value. Think about that on for a minute and all you whole life slum out their go kill yourselfs.

Regional Leader wrote:

I'm working with a couple right now that look like this. Both smokers, both work, and both need insurance on the other. They have $150,000 on him and $100,000 on her. They pay $208 a month on this whole life policy. I can put them in the same coverage for $69 a month. Would be in the thirties if they didn't smoke. In turn we can now take the $130 a month savings and invest it for them over a 30+ year period and obtain over $400,000. Now this is in a moderate Roth IRA getting 8-10%. Sounds alot better than the whole life crap to me.

Whole life is CRAP. NEVER buy whole life insurance. They sell it to you as an investment, but it is the worst investment possible.

Term life though is a necessity for anyone with dependents. In my case, my term life insurance ends at age 60, and at that time the kids willbe gone, we should have more money, and so life insurance will not be needed. At age 60 is the year when you should by long term care insurance. Chatted about this once with Top Cat, but I've since become stronger in my belief to buy it but not before age 60. It is needed especially for married people. You don't want one of you to end up in a nursing home for years taking all the family money away and then dying leaving the spouse to live for 20 more years on nothing.

Wow, Great response. Flagpole got his stuff together as well.

Scatmandu wrote:

Seriously, makes you nigh on superfluous. In a marriage situation, the man exists to facilitate the chosen lifestyle of the wife--in my opinion, of course--and if you cannot support her universe of reasonable choices, well, perhaps you are not ready...

Seriously if your view of marriage is that you exist to "support the lifestyle of your wife", you will never be ready. For a real marriage, that is.

What a singularly pathetic, empty outlook on life.

In a real marriage situation, both parties are grownups who understand that they are their to support each other. A shame you never managed to meet a woman who understood this. There are quite a few of them out there you know.

Also with long term care the government will allow you to deduct the premiums on your tax returns. It takes pressure off of them.

Sweet Lou wrote:

hmmm so you lectured everyone about being a man before and now you tell us that your wife supported you while you were getting schooled or am I misunderstanding you?

"Support," in this case, meant that she held down the home front (to include raising the children) while I both worked and studied...

we could all live with out electricity...why consider that a utility...you don't need it to survive.

My comment regarding cable TV was a specific reference: in calculating so-called "poverty statistics" (usually set, weirdly, at 200% of the federal poverty level), many groups label "cable TV" a utility in calculating the bare minimum income requirement for civilized living.

I'm very suspicious of the life insurance industry and wouldn't patronize it if I didn't have to. Of course, I'm not really family-oriented enough to care about that.

marijuologist wrote:

I'm very suspicious of the life insurance industry and wouldn't patronize it if I didn't have to. Of course, I'm not really family-oriented enough to care about that.

Term life insurance for healthy people is outrageously cheap. Go look into it. It's next to nothing for great piece of mind. Again, don't buy whole life.

goobie loobie boobie wrote:

Do you have life insurance? Why? Why not?

Should a runner who is married and who is under 30yo get life insurance? How about someone who is single?

Of course I have life insurance, I'm a grown up. Responsible adults protect those who depend upon them. It's a no-brainer. If you're not a functioning adult, if you don't have people you love whom depend on you to provide for them, you probably don't need life insurance. It's not a difficult question.