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BUYING LIFE INSURANCE ONLINE: THE PROS & CONS
This is a guest post.
In today’s day and age, nearly everything that we do in our day-to-day lives can be done online and we’ve come to not only expect that, but somewhat rely on that convenience. Insurance, however, is kind of a grey area when it comes to online purchases – no matter what kind of insurance you’re purchasing. After all, an insurance policy is no small purchase; it’s major and can have a profound financial effect on your life, and the lives of your loved ones.
Think about it like this – how wary are you of even just making a small eBay purchase? Most of us look at the seller’s rating, read their feedback, and try to accurately gauge what the risk is compared to the reward. This same mentality should apply to making a life insurance policy online and is far more deserving of it. You can follow this link to learn more from Suncorp today.
This isn’t to say that making an online life insurance purchase can’t be beneficial; depending on your situation, it can be very beneficial, indeed. However, it is going to take substantially more research on your part to get to where an insurance agent might be able to get you, sometimes in half the time.
Pros of Buying Online
One of the most alluring reason for life insurance seekers to buy online are the prices, the comparing conveniences, and sometimes the lack of medical exam. There’s plenty of aggregator sites out there that can take a sampling from across the internet and return you a quote within a matter of seconds – how’s that for convenience?
Probably the most favored feature, though, is the comparison shopping. Once an aggregator provides you with a slew of options, with a wide variety of price points, you’re able to compare all of the details among them, quickly and easily. Something that would easily take your hours if you were having to do all of that research yourself, one by one.
At the minimalist level, though, you’ll often find that some individuals just truly feel more comfortable making insurance purchases from the comfort of their own home, without any agents or appointments. Either because these situations make them nervous, or because they simply don’t have the time to sit down with an agent.
Cons of Buying Online
One of the big ones revolves around the last “pro” that I mentioned – if you don’t have the time to sit down with an agent for a limited amount of time, and let them do all of the work from there, you certainly don’t have the time to handle all of the research that comes along with going through this process on your own.
Also, you shouldn’t always assume that shopping around yourself is going to save you money with it comes to life insurance – after all, life insurance agents have personal connections, favors to call in, and think-on-their-feet knowledge that might drum up an innovative solution; something that online aggregators can’t do.
Furthermore, building that one-on-one relationship with your life insurance agent can be incredibly beneficial. For one thing, you can have every last little thing that you don’t understand about the fine print thoroughly explained to you – this is a big one. Another thing is having such a relationship with you agent, that you can call them at any time, when anything comes up, or when you need sound financial advice. Try calling an aggregator and see if you get much beyond the auto-answering system – I assure you, it’ll be a challenge.
If You Do Decide to Buy Online…
- Don’t Give Out all of your Personal Information – No matter what the insurer tells you, you don’t need to provide any crucial personal data just to obtain a quote.
- Enlist the Service of an Aggregator that Can Give You a Wide Variety of Options – Comparing an insurer there and an insurer there, means very little actually. You need a plethora of results in order to make a decision that will best be tailored to your situation.
- Don’t Get Swindled – Make sure that you’re getting the right information, from a reputable company, that doesn’t deal in the ole’ “Bait-and-Switch”; which refers to when crooked life insurance agents inflate your worth and buy you either a higher policy than requested, or even a different policy entirely – all for their commission!
- Thoroughly Research all Potential Candidates – Obtain the financial rating of any establishment, online or otherwise, to find out more about the reputability of both.
Giving It All Away
Monday, I start a new job, but I wasn’t actively looking for a new job.
In fact, over the last month, while I wasn’t actively looking for a new job, I’ve had 5 job offers. Solid job offers. Some of them came after I announced I was leaving.
How does that happen?
First, I’m good at what I do. At my last job, the company that developed the software system I managed would refer other customers to me if they wanted to do something the software wasn’t designed to do. I had a reputation for doing the impossible.
Second, I give it away. When somebody asks me for help, I do. When I can, I try to share as much of my knowledge as possible. I don’t hoard what I know, scared that somebody will steal it. That has led to a number of people who make it a habit to call me before pitching an idea or moving forward on a new strategy. “Jason, is this possible? What would it take?” If I can, I answer those questions, even if I’m not going to be doing the work.
Third, I’m not afraid of my limits. If I don’t know the answer, I say so. If I don’t know how to find the answer, I say that, too. Admitting you don’t know something automatically makes everything else you say sound more credible.
In the case of the job I’ve accepted, I was available for my new supervisor for more than a year before he started with the company. I helped him plan the websites and social media strategies around his book. When he accepted his job, our next conversation progressed from “Let me ask you something” to “I’d like to hire you” over the course of a lunch because of the long foundation we had together. At every step of the interview process, I continued to share. As we discussed the website, the social media, the marketing plans, I gave my feedback as thoroughly as possible, before I had a job offer.
Giving away my knowledge and experience with no expectations has consistently helped me to improve myself and my situation. It helps that I enjoy being helpful. I kind of dig being treated like an expert, too.
How about you? Do you share selflessly, or do you keep what you know to yourself?
Pros and Cons of Cashback Credit Cards
The news that the Bank of America is introducing a cashback credit card is of little surprise. The credit card industry is competitive and customers enjoy the thought of earning while they are spending!
There are both pros and cons of cashback credit cards however and they are not suitable for every circumstance. So, before committing to a card, consider the advantages and disadvantages.
Firstly, cashback cards can be financially profitable but this depends on whether you have the funds to make the repayments. If you are having difficulties with debt, these cards are probably not the most suitable.
The strategies for maximizing your benefits from cashback credit cards depend on making repayment deadlines. Prioritize cards that have a 0% APR introductory rate.
If you can make your repayments within this 0% interest rate, or on time each month, you will not incur any interest charges. It is important to be organized so that you always meet repayment dates.
Once the 0% APR has finished, cashback credit cards will often then revert to a high APR. If you cannot pay all your debt, these charges will mount up quickly.
If this is likely to happen to you, consider looking at alternative cards with a low but constant APR, so that you do not encounter such high charges while repaying your debt.
Cashback cards are not always the smartest move financially when it comes to outstanding debt. Although they may offer a 0% balance transfer, this is not always as simple as it sounds.
If you transfer an outstanding balance to a new card, even with a 0% APR introductory period, any repayments made will be charged against your newest purchases.
This means that it is more difficult to pay off the original balance transfer if you are also using the card to purchase new items and of course, it is very tempting to do so as you have the 0% APR available.
Be aware that if you do not pay the balance transfer amount by the end of the 0% period, you will then have to pay a much higher rate on this amount.
So you either need to be sure that you can pay off the balance transfer in full in addition to new purchases or consider using a separate card just for a balance transfer.
Although this may seem more work, it can potentially save you a great deal of money in interest charges. Remember any credit card is only worthwhile if it helps you manage your money.
Some cashback cards also have a minimum spend requirement and often this is paired with a specific time frame. Read all the criteria about the card before committing to it.
Otherwise, you could be charged for not reaching the minimum spend limit or not doing so within the required time frame. Consider these issues when choosing a card.
Cashback cards can be very useful and allow you to earn money while you are spending, but they need to be used with wisdom. Research your options to ensure you select the right card for you.
Post by MoneySupermarket.
Horseback Riding Lessons
For the past couple of years, my daughters have been riding in horse shows with a local saddle club. We’ve been lucky in that my wife’s cousin has let us borrow her horse for the shows, so costs have been minimal.
Unfortunately, that horse isn’t available this year. We knew that a few months ago, so the plan was to take a year off from the shows and focus on lessons, to get the girls some real skills. We found a great instructor at a stable about 30 miles from our house. Since we live less than two miles from the border of the biggest city in the state, that’s a comparatively short drive.
We pay her $200 per month for 1 lesson per week for both girls. They each get 30-45 minutes on the horse during each lesson.
Now that show season has started, the plan seems to have changed. The girls will be riding a different borrowed pony tomorrow. The shows cost about $50 for registration, lunch, and gas. Our club has 1 show per month, but my wife has assured me they’ll only be hitting three shows this season and limiting the number of events to keep the cost down.
The direct costs aren’t too bad, but there’s a problem with keeping-up-with-the-Joneses accessorizing. Vests and boots and helmets and belts and shirts, oh my.
I’d guess our costs for the summer will be $300 per month.
One thing we’ve been considering is buying a pony. We can get an older pony for around $500-1000. Older is good because they are calmer and slower. Boarding the thing will cost another $200 per month. We’ve been slowly accumulating the stuff to own a horse, so I’m guessing the “OMG, he let me buy a horse, now I need X” shopping bill will come to around $1500, but I’ll figure $2000 to be safe. We already have a trailer, a saddle, blankets, buddy-straps, combs, brushes, buckets, rakes, shovels, and I-bought-this-but-I-will-just-put-it-in-the-pile-of-horse-stuff-so-Jason-will-never-notice stuff. We’re certainly close to being ready to buy.
(FYI: If you’re starting from scratch, don’t think you’re going to get into horse ownership for less than $10,000 the first year, and that’s being a very efficient price-shopper.)
So we’re looking at $5400 for a horse, gear, and boarding the first year. If we cancel the lessons, by spring we’d have $2000 of that saved and most of the rest can be bought over time.
On the other hand, if we go that route, we’ll never save enough to buy the hobby farm we’re looking for.
Decisions, decisions. I should just buy a new motorcycle. Within a year, I win financially.
The High Cost of Keeping Richard Ramirez in Prison
Serial killers in the United States often gain cult status due to their strange courtroom antics and dramatic personalities. Recently deceased death row inmate Richard Ramirez was definitely one of the most famous serial killers of all time before he passed away of liver failure in California’s San Quentin State Prison.
After a dramatic arrest in 1985 in East Los Angeles by residents who recognized Ramirez from photographs displayed all over the news, Ramirez would sit in jail for years while awaiting a trial that finally began in 1989. There would be no more expensive trial in the history of Los Angeles County except for the O.J. Simpson trial that occurred a few years later.
At a cost of $1.8 million dollars, Los Angelinos would pay dearly for the privilege of trying Ramirez in a court of law. Incredibly, however, this massive sum wasn’t the only cost associated with this vicious serial killer. Because he was sentenced to death and due to the incredibly long appeals process associated with death row inmates, Ramirez sat in jail for over two decades without any fear of actually being put to death by the state of California.
Over the past hundred years, the number of individuals incarcerated in the United States has ballooned from a few hundred thousand people to almost 2.5 million prisoners. The most expensive people to incarcerate are death row inmates, who sit in a type of solitary confinement for decades. A moratorium on future executions in California has ensured that inmates like Ramirez have been costing taxpayers millions of dollars for housing and appeals with no likelihood of being put to death.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, there are around 700 people sitting on death row in California, which require a massive investment of tax dollars. The state’s ongoing budget crisis and inability to balance its budget has put great strain on the prison system to house so many death row inmates at such an incredible cost.
Richard Ramirez’s untimely death at the age of 53 and his decades-long residency within a state prison brings to light a disturbing fact: more inmates die of natural causes while on death row than are actually put to death. Whether support for the death penalty exists or not, the billions of dollars spent by the state to keep inmates on death row has resulted in just 13 executions since the late 1970s.
A study in 2011 that was conducted by a judge and professor in the state suggested that California has spent over $4 billion since the death penalty was reinstituted. Out of those funds spent, at least a billion dollars was used for housing and incarceration of the inmates, including serial killers like Richard Ramirez.
A further study presented by the Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice in 2008 suggested that keeping the system intact with inmates on death row would cost around $137 million dollars a year. On the other hand, if California was to commute those death sentences to life in prison and abolish the death penalty, the yearly cost would drop to $11.5 million a year.
Offering the families of victims of death penalty-worthy crimes the chance to see a killer or other criminal experience the ultimate punishment may offer some sort of closure. Unfortunately, with the expectation that individuals on death row are more likely to die of natural causes than be put to death in California, the implementation of the death penalty in the state must be reexamined.
