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Choosing the Best Term Life Insurance

Finance

This is a guest post.

Term life insurance is arguably the simplest form of life insurance offered by companies today. It is a dramatically different policy than universal or whole life plans. The latter tend to charge policyholders much higher premiums over the lifetime of their policies. However, whole life plans remain in effect for the lifetime of the insured, until death occurs or the policy is cancelled. On the other hand, term life insurance policies last for a fixed length of time, and the periods usually range from five, 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. With a term plan, the premiums you will pay are much lower, and if you pass away during the term of your policy, your beneficiaries will receive a full death benefit from your plan.

Types

Term life insurance generally falls into one of five different categories. Level, decreasing, renewable, return of premium, and convertible are the five kinds of term life insurance policies that companies typically offer their customers. The best method for selecting term life insurance is to consider your amount available to spend along with your age in order to decide which variety is the best fit for you and your family.

If you choose level term insurance, you will get a predetermined dollar amount of coverage for a set length of time. You will enjoy low overhead and you will have peace of mind knowing that your premiums will never fluctuate with the vicissitudes of the market. The predictability of a level term plan is perhaps the greatest feature of this type. Another type of term life insurance is decreasing term life insurance. It is strikingly similar to a level plan, and the only real variation is the amount of money your beneficiaries will receive if you die. With a decreasing term plan, the amount of your death benefit decreases over time. A good reason for choosing decreasing term life insurance is having small children. You know that you need the money more now while they are young, so paying less for life insurance in the short term is a good idea.

A convertible term plan is a hybrid. It lets a policyholder change their existing term life policy into a whole life plan without facing hefty penalties for doing so. Another option, a return of premium term life insurance plan, is very similar to level term plans. The major dividing factor between the two is that a return of premium plan actually gives back all the money paid in premiums to the beneficiaries if the insured dies during the term of the policy. It’s best to pick this plan if you want coverage for your family but you death is highly unlikely to occur during the term of your policy.

How to Qualify?

The uniting thread between most term life plans is that you are required to fill out a formal application first, and then you must pass a physical exam so that you may qualify for life insurance coverage. Additionally, most life insurance plans force you to repeat the exam each time you choose to renew your policy. However, if you choose a type of term life insurance called renewable term life insurance, you are allowed to bypass this stipulation entirely, so you can score some massive savings on premiums you will pay in the future. It’s best to choose this type of term life insurance if you are already older, or if you have health conditions that you expect to get dramatically worse during the term of your plan.

During the medical exam, your physician will take a full and extensive medical history from you. This is so that the insurance company can get a complete and accurate picture of your health in order to assign you the right amount of premium for your plan. Next, the insurance company will consider your motor vehicle record. This is so the insurance company can get a feel for whether you pose a big enough risk on the road to have a high likelihood of an accident that may cause your death and end your policy.

Then, your doctor may ask you other health and lifestyle questions if the life insurance company requires him or her to do so. You will need Attending Physician Statements (APS) that certify your answers and the results of your medical tests were true and accurate to the best of your knowledge. You will also need Medical Information Bureau (MIB) reports for your application as well as corporate documents if you are applying for business coverage. After you have submitted all of these materials, your insurance company should be able to render a decision about whether they will award you a term life insurance policy, as well as how much your annual premiums will cost you.

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Carnival Roundup and Life Update

Misc

The last few months have been insane for me.

  • I’ve been working 50+ hours per week at my day job, but we’ve hired more programmers, so that’s going to calm down.
  • I’ve been putting 30+ hours per week  into my side businesses.
  • Until two weeks ago, we had wrestling practice or meets 3-4 nights a week.
  • I’ve got so much going on, my insomnia is going nuts.  I wake up at 2AM with my mind racing, and fall back asleep between 4 and 5 every night.   I’ve got meds for that, but I have to take them by 9PM or I’m too drowsy in the morning.   Taking sleeping pills at 9 cuts into my side-hustle productivity.

If I’ve been out of touch, that’s why and I’m sorry.  I’ve been feeling a bit neglectful around here.   I am actively working to reduce my day-job hours to a reasonable 40-45 per week, without increasing the time spent on the other things in the list.  I need to spend more time with my family and friends and spend some more of the side-hustle time here.

Live Real, Now was included in following carnivals recently:

Yakezie Carnival – Easter Edition hosted by Roshawn Watson

Carnival of Personal Finance #356 hosted by Money Drain

Totally Money Carnival #62 hosted by Stupid Cents

Carnival of Tax #101 hosted by Don’t Mess with Taxes

Festival of Frugality #331 hosted by One Smart Dollar

Yakezie Carnival – Have Fun Edition hosted by Tackling Our Debt

Yakezie Carnival – April Fool’s Edition hosted by Passive Income to Retire

Yakezie Carnival – Severe Weather Edition hosted by Money Qanda

Carnival of Money Pros – Tax Rush Edition hosted by Novel Investor

Thanks for including my posts.

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Have a great weekend!

How to Complain – The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease

Finance

A U.S. riverboat deploying napalm during the V...
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Have you ever been screwed by a company?  Have they sent you the wrong item, or an empty box, or left your order backordered for so long that you can’t even dispute it with your credit card company any more?

What can you do?

I know you’ve heard the phrase, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”  That means, he whines loudest, gets the most.  The thing is, you have to whine effectively, or you’ll just get round-filed.

Targeting Subsystems On

Who you complain to matters more than what you complain about.  The clerk at your local big-box retailer isn’t going to refund your online purchase.  You need to complain to someone who can make a decision to help you.   First, find the customer service email address.   Next, if you are complaining about a recurring service, find the retention department’s email address.  Finally, find the email address for absolutely everybody Vice-President or above for that company, including the board of directors.   Go to their website, find the email for some PR drone and figure out the format.  First.Last@Company.com or FirstInitial.LastName@Company.com or whatever.   Look up the company in Google Finance and translate everyone’s name into the email format.   You might not have the perfect list, but it should be close.

Target Locked On

Now that you know who you are about to blast, what are you going to say?   A few things to include are:

  • Your contact information.   If they can’t get back to you, they can’t make it up to you.
  • Details of the problem.  Include the date of purchase, date of delivery, and a detailed description of what actually went wrong.
  • Scanned copies of receipts.
  • Any names of anybody you’ve had to deal with, either in the original transaction or when the problem occurred, if you have the names.

Engage!

What to say, what to say?

  • Don’t be abusive.  It’s okay to be angry, and it’s okay to let them know your are angry, but swearing or threatening their lives will–at best–only get you ignored.  Worst case, threats are illegal and they can pass your email along to the police.
  • Stay brief.   It doesn’t matter that your daddy took you to Starbucks to use their free wi-fi when you were just three years old.   Don’t talk about that time the aliens abducted you or how sad you are that they never call like they promised they would.   Keep to the point.   “This is who I am.  This is what happened.  This is what I want you to do about it.”

Send that sucker out.   If you feeling particularly perturbed, send a CC to your state’s Attorney General and any possibly related regulatory agencies.   I tend to save this step for round 2.

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Answer: How Much Term Life Insurance Do I Need to Buy?

Finance

From a question posted here:

Thank you for all your help in my previous question. After meeting with the agent, I’ve decided on term life insurance over whole life. But I am still not sure how much term life I should buy. Should I buy as much as I could afford or some specific amount?

My answer(edited a bit):

That question is far too open-ended.

Are you married?  If yes, are you the primary breadwinner?  Do you have children?  Investments?  Savings?

Here’s my situation:

I am married, with three children.  I have the primary income.

We have a mortgage, a car payment, and some consumer debt.

I added up all of the debt as my base level of term life insurance.  My family will not be burdened with debt if anything happens to me.

To the base level, I added 5 years of my net income.  Without changing a thing, my family will be supported exactly as is for 5 years if I die.   They won’t, however, have the same level of expenses, due to the base level of insurance paying off all debt.   All of my living expenses also evaporate.  For example, there will be one car sold, one less mouth to feed and body to dress, etc.

I figure with the lower expenses and no debt, my insurance will support my family for 10 to 15 years if my wife manages the money right.   If she continues to work, it should last almost forever.

How do you figure the “right” amount of life insurance?[ad name=”inlineright”]

How to Deal with Debt While You’re Out of a Job

Finance

This is a guest post from Marc Chase of My Credit Group.

Dealing with a lot of unpaid debt can be a hassle on its own.  Having to pay those debts when you don’t even have a job to provide you with the money to do so can be a nightmare.  While you’re hunting for a job to help make ends meet, your debts continue to pile up, leaving you scrambling to find a way to take care of them before they cause you to slip further into the poor house, and leave your finances needing credit repair services.

Since you’re likely more concerned about finding a job than anything else, we put together this handy checklist of what you should do to avoid your unpaid bills and debts getting the best of you while you search for a new job.

•     Apply for unemployment benefits. This should be your first order of business after you’ve lost your job, especially if you’re one of the many Americans currently living paycheck to paycheck.  Unemployment benefits go a long way towards helping consumers stay on top of their bills and credit accounts.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking another job is just around the corner – there’s a good chance you can’t afford to wait.

•    Keep paying the minimum balance. If you’re on the verge of drowning completely in unpaid debt, you may be tempted to stop paying your bills completely, at least until you get some additional funds in your account.  Do this, and you’ll find yourself in need of credit score repair before you even get that call back for a follow-up interview.

Instead, do everything you can to at least pay the minimum balance on all of your credit accounts and bills.  This will ensure that your credit history doesn’t take too much of a beating, and saves you from paying even more in interest fees down the line.

•     Stop spending money like you have it. Because the sad truth is, while you’re still unemployed, you likely don’t have a lot of money to spare.  If you’re still living your life as though you can afford to pay for everything – eating lunch and/or dinner out more than twice a week, generally buying things you don’t NEED – now’s the time to stop.

Stop charging every purchase you make to your credit card – break them out only in an emergency.  This will help keep you from sinking further into debt while you’re out looking for a way to pay for your purchases.

•     Eliminate and prioritize your bills. Now’s a great time to take a long look at some of the bills you’re paying, and deciding if they’re even worth the service.  That doesn’t mean you should stop paying bills you consider “less important” than others; it means looking at some of the things that might have once been necessities (a land phone line if you primarily use a cell phone, a full package TV cable bill, etc.) and re-evaluating your stance on how important they are now that you can’t afford them all.  In many cases, you can get in contact with your service provider(s) and talk about ways to reduce your bill (say, cancel cable but keep internet).

This is a guest post from Marc Chase, President of Product Development for My Credit Group, a website dedicated to helping consumers with managing their credit.

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Why Kelly Rutherford’s bankruptcy should make you more prudent about your finances

Celebrities, Gossip

Kelly Rutherford is an actress. Not just an actress, but a working actress. She is not a familiar looking extra or an actress who Kelly Rutherfordfrequently guest stars on television, but someone who has appeared as a series regular on multiple high profile shows since the 1990s. She recently ended a six-season run on the CW hit “Gossip Girl.” This all makes the recent revelations of her bankruptcy that much more surprising. How does someone who has made it in an ultra-competitive, well-compensated field end up with over $2 million in debt? There are several lessons that we can learn from Kelly Rutherford’s unfortunate bankruptcy.

1. Divorce not only has an emotional cost, but can also have a steep financial cost The vast majority of Kelly Rutherford’s debt is related to her divorce and custody battle with her ex-husband German businessman Daniel Giersch. The legal battle with her ex-husband has cost her over $1.5 million.If you are considering getting a divorce, be cognizant of the fact that divorce proceedings may end up being expensive. Between attorney fees and court costs, your expenses can quickly ramp up. Try to have an objective assessment of how you expect the divorce proceedings to go. Do you expect the divorce to be amicable or acrimonious? If you have children, do you expect that you and your spouse will battle for custody? Do you have a plan in place to divide the marital assets? The more questions you can answer and plan for before divorce proceedings occur, the better chance you will have of keeping your costs down.

2. Have a plan for paying your taxes

In addition to the $1.5 million in legal fees, Kelly owes $350,000 in income tax for 2012. For the majority of us, paying taxes is simple. Your company automatically takes deductions out of your paycheck that pay for your income tax.

If you are a contractor or self-employed, it’s important to remember that not all the money you earn is yours. Make sure to set aside a certain percentage of each paycheck that you will use to pay your taxes at the end of the year. Try to estimate your expected income and taxes for the year and set up a separate account that you can use to settle your tax bill. If possible, get some guidance from an accountant on how to pay your estimated taxes quarterly.

3. Set up an emergency fund

Kelly works in a profession in which rapid changes in income are quite common. One month you are earning $40,000 per month for being on a hit show, the next month your character is written off the show or the show comes to an end and you no longer have any income coming in. In any field in which income tends to drastically change, it is especially important to set aside an emergency fund to help account for the uncertainty in income stream.

While the majority of us likely have more certainty about how much we expect to earn in the future, it is still important to set aside some funds in an emergency account. Whether you are an actor or an office worker, there is always some uncertainty about the future, and having an emergency account can make it easier to ride the ups and downs as you encounter them.

While Kelly Rutherford’s bankruptcy is sad and alarming, there are lessons we can derive from it to make us all more prudent about our financial future.

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