I played golf today with a fellow who sells life insurance. He is new to the business, so he is full of the nonsense the insurance industry tries to peddle. This got me to thinking about the things insurance companies tell us that may not be so. Many agents will tell you that everyone need life insurance. I don't think so.
I don't have life insurance and haven't had any for a while now. My pension will continue until both Mrs. Sneed and I are both dead. Should I die first, Mrs. Sneed will not notice any meaningful change in her financial situation. Overall, her life will actually take a turn for the better, since I won't be around to annoy her.
Another thing you hear is that life insurance is a good way to save money. That is also a load. I never mix insurance with savings. Insurance is about transferring risk from you to someone else, not savings.
One of the things about life insurance that builds up cash value is that it is very expensive insurance. You can buy term life insurance for about one tenth the cost of cash value insurance. Put the ninety percent savings in a mutual fund and you will wind up miles ahead.
Plus, when you die you get the face value of the insurance or the value of the "savings" balance but not both. If you have a $25,000 policy and it has a cash value of $10,000, to my way of thinking, should you croak someone should collect $35,000. the insurance company will pay $25,000. So much for the savings plan.
I always feel uncomfortable when I have a conversation with someone about a job that I find distasteful. I never know what to say to them.
The other evening at the football game the woman seated next to me was telling me that she is a bill collector. She may be a perfectly lovely person, but one the whole, bill collectors are the scum of the earth. I didn't know what to say, so I said that must be a stressful job. She said it is a lot of fun. Yikes!
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
5 comments:
The big news is that Britney's performance last night was lackluster. I'm not sure how I would distinguish a bad Britney Spears performance from a good one.
I have nothing to contribute re. Britney.
But I will admit to being incredibly overinsured. My parents got into an insurance-buying craze when I was a kid, so I have FOUR -- count 'em, FOUR -- life insurance policies. Me, with no dependents and no need for insurance. It was the silliest financial decision they ever made. They thought they were saving money for my future, but yeah, there had to have been a better way! (Of course, the stock market wasn't going through the roof back then, so I guess they couldn't have known what would happen there...)
what about when you die, whos going to pay the funeral home? Thats what I was tought the life insurace was for. IN FACT when my father died, the first thing they asked us at the home, was "did he have L.I. ?" they let us proceed and pay 14 days later when the checks came in. THen my mother proceeded to pay off a house and debt my father left behind. In the end, it was a smart move. And the only move i would make with L.I. then agin these are MY opinions.
I can not stand BS...
and...
we have both kinds of life insurance ... thru the Knights of Columbus...
I can't remember the difference between whole and term..
but whatever it is..
it's hard to pay for the really expensive one b/c Mike says it pays for itself in the end ...
I feel we are insuranced to death!!!
So I shouldn't be paying into life insurance for Michael? My friend's father who set up our IRAs etc., said we really needed something as back up. Ironman is in a dangerous line of work, and I have no income. He convinced me it was the safest thing to do so that I'd have enough to pay off the mortgage and live for a year while I tried to find work, etc.
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