What Type Of Life Insurance Is Best?
Life Insurance (though
it shouldn't be) is to this day a very controversial issue. There seems to be a
lot of different types of life insurance out there, but there are really only
two kinds. They are Term Insurance and Whole Life (Cash Value) Insurance. Term
Insurance is pure insurance. It protects you over a certain period of time.
Whole Life Insurance is insurance plus a side account known as cash value.
Generally speaking, consumer reports recommend term insurance as the most
economical choice and they have for some time. But still, whole life insurance
is the most prevalent in today's society. Which one should we buy?
Let's talk about the
purpose of life insurance. Once we get the proper purpose of insurance down to
a science, then everything else will fall into place. The purpose of life
insurance is the same purpose as any other type of insurance. It is to
"insure against loss of". Car insurance is to insure your car or
someone else's car in case of an accident. So in other words, since you
probably couldn't pay for the damage yourself, insurance is in place. Home
owners insurance is to insure against loss of your home or items in it. So
since you probably couldn't pay for a new house, you buy an insurance policy to
cover it.
Life insurance is the
same way. It is to insure against loss of your life. If you had a family, it
would be impossible to support them after you died, so you buy life insurance
so that if something were to happen to you, your family could replace your
income. Life insurance is not to make you or your descendants rich or give them
a reason to kill you. Life insurance is not to help you retire (or else it
would be called retirement insurance)! Life insurance is to replace your income
if you die. But the wicked ones have made us believe otherwise, so that they
can overcharge us and sell all kinds of other things to us to get paid.
How Does Life
Insurance Work?
Rather than make this
complicated, I will give a very simple explanation on how and what goes down in
an insurance policy. As a matter of fact, it will be over simplified because we
would otherwise be here all day. This is an example. Let's say that you are 31
years old. A typical term insurance policy for 20 years for $200,000 would be
about $20/month. Now... if you wanted to buy a whole life insurance policy for
$200,000 you might pay $100/month for it. So instead of charging you $20 (which
is the true cost) you will be overcharged by $80, which will then be put into a
savings account.
Now, this $80 will
continue to accumulate in a separate account for you. Typically speaking, if
you want to get some of YOUR money out of the account, you can then BORROW IT
from the account and pay it back with interest. Now... let's say you were to
take $80 dollars a month and give it to your bank. If you went to withdraw the
money from your bank account and they told you that you had to BORROW your own
money from them and pay it back with interest, you would probably go clean
upside somebody's head. But somehow, when it comes to insurance, this is okay
This stems from the
fact that most people don't realize that they are borrowing their own money.
The "agent" (of the insurance Matrix) rarely will explain it that
way. You see, one of the ways that companies get rich, is by getting people to
pay them, and then turn around and borrow their own money back and pay more
interest! Home equity loans are another example of this, but that is a whole
different sermon.
Deal or No Deal
Let us stick with the
previous illustration. Let us say the one thousand 31 year olds ( all in good
health) bought the aforementioned term policy (20 years, $200,000 dollars at
$20/month). If these people were paying $20/month, that is $240 per year. If
you take that and multiply it over the 20 year term then you will have $4800.
So each individual will pay $4800 over the life of the term. Since one thousand
individuals bought the policy, they will end up paying 4.8 million in premiums
to the company. The insurance company has already calculated that around 20
people with good health (between the ages of 31 and 51) will die. So if 20
people pass away, then the company will have to pay out 20 x $200,000 or
$4,000,000. So, if the company pays out $4,000,000 and takes in $4,800,000 it
will then make a $800,000 profit.
This is of course OVER
simplifying because a lot of people will cancel the policy (which will also
bring down the number of death claims paid), and some of those premiums can be
used to accumulate interest, but you can get a general idea of how things work.
On the other hand,
let's look at whole life insurance. Let us say the one thousand 31 year olds
(all in good health) bought the aforementioned whole life policy ($200,000
dollars at $100/month). These people are paying $100/month. That is $1200 per
year. If the average person's lifespan (in good health people) goes to 75, then
on average, the people will pay 44 years worth of premiums. If you take that
and multiply it by $1200 you will get $52,800. So each individual will pay
$52,800 over the life of the policy. Since one thousand individuals bought the
policy, they will end up paying 52.8 million in premiums to the company. If you
buy a whole life policy, the insurance company has already calculated the
probability that you will die. What is that probability? 100%, because it is a
whole life (till death do us part) insurance policy! This means that if
everyone kept their policies, the insurance company would have to pay out 1000
x $200,000 = $2,000,000,000) That's right, two billion dollars!
Ladies and gentleman,
how can a company afford to pay out two billion dollars knowing that it will
only take in 52.8 million? Now just like in the previous example, this is an
oversimplification as policies will lapse. As a matter of fact, MOST whole life
policies do lapse because people can't afford them, I hope you see my point.
Let's take the individual. A 31 year old male bought a policy in which he is
suppose to pay in $52,800 and get $200,000 back? There no such thing as a free
lunch. The company somehow has to weasel $147,200 out of him, JUST TO BREAK
EVEN on this policy! Not to mention, pay the agents (who get paid much higher commissions
on whole life policies), underwriters, insurance fees, advertising fees, 30
story buildings... etc, etc.
This doesn't even take
into account these variable life and universal life policies that claim to be
so good for your retirement. So you are going to pay $52,800 into a policy and
this policy will make you rich, AND pay you the $200,000 death benefit, AND pay
the agents, staff and fees? This has to be a rip off.
Well, how could they
rip you off? Maybe for the first five years of the policy, no cash value will
accumulate (you may want to check your policy). Maybe it's misrepresenting the
value of the return (this is easy if the customer is not knowledgeable on
exactly how investments work). Also, if you read my article on the Rule of 72
you can clearly see that giving your money to someone else to invest can lose
you millions! You see, you may pay in $52,800 but that doesn't take into
account how much money you LOSE by not investing it yourself! This is
regardless of how well your agent may tell you the company will invest your
money! Plain and simple, they have to get over on you somehow or they would go
out of business!
How long do you need
life insurance?
Let me explain what is
called The Theory of Decreasing Responsibility, and maybe we can answer this
question. Let's say that you and your spouse just got married and have a child.
Like most people, when they are young they are also crazy, so they go out and
buy a new car and a new house. Now, here you are with a young child and debt up
to the neck! In this particular case, if one of you were to pass away, the loss
of income would be devastating to the other spouse and the child. This is the
case for life insurance. BUT, this is what happens. You and your spouse begin
to pay off that debt. Your child gets older and less dependent on you. You
start to build up your assets. Keep in mind that I am talking about REAL
assets, not fake or phantom assets like equity in a home (which is just a fixed
interest rate credit card)
In the end, the
situation is like this. The child is out of the house and no longer dependent
on you. You don't have any debt. You have enough money to live off of, and pay
for your funeral (which now costs thousands of dollars because the DEATH
INDUSTRY has found new ways to make money by having people spend more honor and
money on a person after they die then they did while that person was alive).
So... at this point, what do you need insurance for? Exactly... absolutely
nothing! So why would you buy Whole Life (a.k.a. DEATH) Insurance? The idea of
a 179 year old person with grown children who don't depend on him/her still
paying insurance premiums is asinine to say the least.
As a matter of fact,
the need for life insurance could be greatly decreased and quickly eliminated,
if one would learn not to accumulate liabilities, and quickly accumulate wealth
first. But I realize that this is almost impossible for most people in this
materialistic, Middle Classed matrixed society. But anyway, let's take it a
step further.
Confused Insurance
Policies
This next statement is
very obvious, but very profound. Living and dying are exact opposites of each
other. Why do I say this? The purpose of investing is to accumulate enough
money in case you live to retire. The purpose of buying insurance is to protect
your family and loved ones if you die before you can retire. These are two
diametrically opposed actions! So, if an "agent" waltzes into your
home selling you a whole life insurance policy and telling you that it can
insure your life AND it can help you retire, your Red Pill Question should be
this:
"If this plan
will help me retire securely, why will I always need insurance? And on the
other hand, if I will be broke enough later on in life that I will still need
insurance, then how is this a good retirement plan?"
Now if you ask an
insurance agent those questions, she/he may become confused. This of course
comes from selling confused policies that do two opposites at once.
Norman Dacey said it
best in the book "What's Wrong With Your Life Insurance"
"No one could
ever quarrel with the idea of providing protection for one's family while at
the same time accumulating a fund for some such purpose as education or
retirement. But if you try to do both of these jobs through the medium of one
insurance policy, it is inevitable that both jobs will be done badly."
So you see, even
though there are a lot of new variations of whole life, like variable life and
universal life, with various bells and whistles (claiming to be better than the
original, typical whole life policies), the Red Pill Question must always be
asked! If you are going to buy insurance, then buy insurance! If you are going
to invest, then invest. It's that simple. Don't let an insurance agent trick
you into buying a whole life policy based on the assumption that you are too
incompetent and undisciplined to invest your own money.
If you are afraid to
invest your money because you don't know how, then educate yourself! It may
take some time, but it is better than giving your money to somebody else so
they can invest it for you (and get rich with it). How can a company be
profitable when it takes the money from it's customers, invests it, and turns
around and gives it's customers all of the profits?
And don't fall for the
old "What if the term runs out and you can't get re-insured trick".
Listen, there are a lot of term policies out there that are guaranteed
renewable until an old age (75-100). Yes, the price is a lot higher, but you
must realize that if you buy a whole life policy, you will have been duped out
of even more money by the time you get to that point (if that even happens).
This is also yet another reason to be smart with your money. Don't buy confused
policies.
How much should you
buy?
I normally recommend
8-10 times your yearly income as a good face amount for your insurance. Why so
high? Here is the reason. Let's say that you make $50,000 per year. If you were
to pass away, your family could take $500,000 (10 times $50,000) and put it
into a fund that pays 10 percent (which will give them $40,000 per year) and
not touch the principle. So what you have done is replaced your income.
This is another reason
why Whole Life insurance is bad. It is impossible to afford the amount of
insurance you need trying to buy super high priced policies. Term insurance is
much cheaper. To add to this, don't let high face values scare you. If you have
a lot of liabilities and you are worried about your family, it is much better
to be underinsured than to have no insurance at all. Buy what you can manage. Don't
get sold what you can't manage.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Matt_Mason/140330
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