A Not So Important Blog About Nothing

In early 1999 I found myself in a very frustrating situation. I was 29 years old. I was working extremely hard as a fiber optics salesman… and I was broke. My wife and I had been married for over six years. We’d just had our first child, whom we were thrilled about, however, when it came to work, money and time, we were struggling. We started praying for a better way.

My wife received a phone call one evening from a lady she had met recently. She said that she was in training with a company that was expanding, and that we should take a look at it. She said this company, Primerica, might be able to help us. We decided to meet up with her and see what this company was all about.

Neither of us had ever even heard of Primerica and I admit we were skeptical. After about 30 minutes into our meeting with the Primerica reps, I began to realize that what they were saying actually made sense. They spoke about developing “a written program to monitor and eliminate debt, term life insurance being the foundation to your financial house, and the basics of successful investing.”

At 29, I’d never been taught these principles before. I never finished college and I had no experience with “financial stuff.” He assured me that they could help educate us about our finances. The first step would be to fill out a Financial Needs Analysis (FNA) and based on where we stood financially and what our goals were, we would see what could be done.

We met again two weeks later and went through the results. It was simple: Follow a plan to pay off credit card debts, put some term insurance in place to protect my young family (we had no insurance at that time) and find a way to make more money. They said that Primerica would teach us how to do all of the above. They would even offer us an opportunity to start part-time and show us how to build a business by teaching other people what they taught us.

I guess we were just so eager to change our lives we believed them. We paid a small start-up fee, started the training process, and moved forward in faith.

Now it’s 10 years later and I’m 40 years old. I can’t help but think about how different my life could’ve turned out.

What if I hadn’t agreed to that appointment? What if I trusted my initial skeptical feelings? What if I’d listened to several friends who insisted Primerica had to be a scam? What if I believed Internet chat rooms, unregulated Web sites, and less than credible sources?

Well, my family’s life would be a lot different. See, what’s happened in the past 10 years is that we have grown tremendously — as people and as leaders. We have built amazing friendships. We’ve helped thousands of families get back on track financially. We are financially independent and have been able to give away more money each year than we used to earn before Primerica. The opportunity turned out to be a bigger blessing that we could have ever imagined.

We now have seven offices across upstate New York and many great people working with us. We love what Primerica does for families and we love the freedom we now have. We don’t punch a time clock. Each day is our own. I’ve spent countless mornings with my children. When my son turned one, I took each Friday off and we spent the day together. We did that for four years until he went to kindergarten.

We’ve traveled together as a family to so many amazing places all over the world, and created lifelong memories. My children are so much more confident because of the “family” business. We just returned from a trip to Montreal together where we spoke to over 500 people about changing their lives through this great opportunity.

The most amazing part about that is that my 11-year old daughter spoke in that meeting about how the business has impacted her personally. Imagine an 11-year old speaking to 500 people with confidence and grace so she could impact their lives. The list of benefits of winning in Primerica is extensive.

I have found tremendous success with Primerica and so have countless others. But that is not to say that Primerica is easy. It is not a “get rich quick” scheme. It would be ridiculous to think so. But to say it is a scam, or a pyramid, is far more ridiculous. My life is proof that it is real, and there are thousands of other people around the world who would laugh just as hard at the thought of Primerica being called a scam.

The Federal Trade Commission doesn’t call Primerica a scam. Neither does the Better Business Bureau, FINRA or any of the other regulatory agencies in this country. I encourage you to check the facts and to get your information from these credible sources.

I am living proof that Primerica is real. I was a skeptic who is now a successful businessman with the freedom to live the life of his dreams. There are a lot of scams out there you should be aware of. Primerica is not, and has never been, one of them.

I think we have to create our own experience in life, and we have to move forward in faith. When we do that, put forth an honest effort, and do the right things long enough — only then can we look back and really see the “real picture.”

Alright, second in a series on life insurance.  We are going to go a bit more in depth on the different kinds of term insurance.  I wish I could say that there was only one kind, but sadly, there are a great number of different kinds.  On the plus side, the break down into 2 main types.  Annually Renewable Term and Decreasing Term.

Annually Renewable Term

This one is by far the most common.  Every renewal, the price goes up.  You don’t have to prove insurability (traditionally) so long as you are willing to pay the premiums.  The premiums can get quite high, to the tune of $20k/month in the MUCH later years (80+).  No, that is not a typo.  As with all life insurance, it is meant to cover loss of income during your income producing years.  Not to cover you during retirement.

Decreasing Term

This one is common for elderly to slowly reduce the face amount as well as being used as mortgage insurance.  It’s purpose is to slowly drop to 0 over a given set of time, thus why it is used as mortgage insurance.

It should be noted that EVERY kind of life insurance out there, is a variety of one of these two.  These are also the purest form of life insurance, just cover.  Before you leave though, there is more.

Level Term

This is ART from above, but the premiums are averaged over a set amount of time.  The shorter the term, the lower the cost.  You have to be careful with who you buy this from though.  Many companies lower their prices just to attract customers and may be unable to pay claims.  Is it better to have lower premiums, of course, but not at the expense of the company not paying claims.

After the set time is up (typically from 10 to 35 years), the policy reverts back to ART with the premiums practically sky-rocketing afterwards.  In addition, most policies, at renewal, will give you 4 options.

1. Drop Coverage
2. Re-qualify Medically for another Term
3. Leave alone and pay the higher premiums
4. Convert to a form of cash value/permanent insurance (will go over this later).

If you have medical issues, #2 probably isn’t possible, #1 and #3 aren’t desirable, and #4 would probably cut your coverage down so that it barely covers even half of what it did before or your current expenses.  That being said, if you have serious medical issues, having a whole life/permanent policy may be the only way to pass on/reduce final expenses if you don’t have a sizable estate.

Return Of Premium

This is generally a rider added onto a policy.  It does cost more.  How this works is, as you pay your policy, the extra premium goes into a separate account to earn some interest.  At the end of the policy, you will get up to 100% of your premiums paid back.  However, if you cancel the policy at any time, you will NOT get all your premiums back.  It works off of a graduated chart.  Typically, the first 5 years, you will get nothing back. In addition, in some states, even if you go till the end of term, you will only get 95% of your premiums back.

When dealing with these policies, you must run the numbers.  Thus far, 9 times out of 10, ROP is a waste of money.  You can generally do better by taking the difference and putting it into a conservative fund or a tin can in your backyard.

With ROP though, you do have one additional option at the end of term (besides getting some of your money back), and that is taking out a paid-up insurance policy.

Credit Life

This is a rip off.  You are basically paying for term insurance for the balance of your credit card and that is it.  When you die, the credit company gets their money.  That is it.  Your family doesn’t get anything, and the money that could be better served helping your surviving family members, is gone.

Mortgage Life

This is also a rip off and is sometimes financed into your mortgage.  This is pure decreasing term insurance.  The face amount drops with the balance of the note.  Same as credit life, you die, it pays the mortgage company.  It generally costs more than just getting level term by it self.  If you have this, replace it.  Your surviving family will think better of you when they can actually pay the bills with the proceeds instead of giving it to the mortgage company.

Accidental Death & Dismemberment

This one, is more of a rip off than the last 2 combined.  Lets break this up into it’s 2 parts shall we.

Accidental Death – If you death is caused by accident, it pays.  What does this mean? Well, you get into a wreck, you die at the scene.  Death by accident.  Same scenario but the paramedics arrive while you have a pulse.  You die en-route or at the hospital.  Death due to complications as a result of an accident. Doesn’t pay.  But wait? Your died because of an accident and it wont pay? It’s splitting hairs, but basically yes.  It all depends on what is on the death certificate.  One wrong word and it wont pay.

Accidental Dismemberment – This has so many crazy restrictions, it’s actually funny.  It changes based on the policy itself.  In some cases, you have to loose 2 appendages (1 leg and 1 arm; 2 legs; 2 arms; 1 eye and a foot).  And in some, you have to actually have to have it in one piece so they can verify that it is yours and you really did loose it.  IE, you can’t show up with your arm chopped off and not have your arm.

I have even heard of cases where they didn’t pay unless you were fully disabled as a result, although, these are rare.

For both of these policies, just get rid of them.  They are dirt cheap because they pay out even LESS than a pure term policy.

Conclusion

Now, many cash value agents like barging that term only pays out 2% of the time in order to sell a permanent/cash value policy that, so long as you live long enough, pays out regardless.  Although this is true, lets put it into perspective shall we.  That 2% also counts all the policies that have lapsed, been replaced, canceled, etc.  It is not an accurate figure to say the least.  Of all policies that are in force at the time of the policy holders death, I’d say (my guess) 95% pay out regardless of which kind of life insurance it is.  Why not 100%? Well, you have a 2 year contestability clause that gets activated sometimes.

Death my suicide, mis-statement of information on the policy, etc can cause that clause to activate and the insurance company to not pay.  There was a recent article about a women whose house was in foreclosure.  She was given a sub-prime loan and the mortgage company refused to help.  She took out a life insurance policy equal to the balance of the note so her family could pay it off and keep the house.  Within a few weeks of it being issued, she committed suicide so the policy would pay out.  She even left a note to that effect.  Upon reading that, my heart went out to the family.  Not only did they loose a loved one, but they also lost the house because the insurance company wouldn’t pay.  They didn’t report that, but I know it happened.

Keep an eye out for upcoming articles on the other types of life insurance as well as more examples of debt killing and various other products to help you better navigate this crazy world.

This is a bit of a weird post.  First, it’s dedicated to all of use nerds who play BattleTech.  Second, it’s a 2 page sheet a friend of mine gave me many a years ago and I’d figure I’d immortalize it online.

1. Leather Upholstery
2. Fuzzy Dice
3. Ice chest next to heat sinks filled with Old English 800
4. Radar detector on dashboard
5. Flame decals on sides
6. Tinted windows
7. CD Player w/ Dolby Surround-Sound
8. Satellite TV with “Premium” access
9. Gun rack
10. Spoilers
11. Custom exhaust manifold
12. Luggage rack over Tactical Targeting Module
13. 3 year or 30,000 mile service contract
14. Plays the “Might Mouse” theme if you honk the horn
15. Bored out cylinders increase horsepower by 24%
16. Hotplate over fusion reactor
17. Glowing neon blue lights illuminate feet for cruising at night
18. Really big glove compartment
19. PSP option under Fire-Control system
20. Clapper hooked up to ejection system
21. Targeting computer that critiques battle performance
22. Neon-green windshield wipers
23. Client Eastwood sample can be played over loudspeakers (“Do you feel lucky punk?”)
24. “Flight of the Valkyries” played when Jump Jets are engaged
25. “The Four Horsemen” by Metallica played when going full throttle
26. Friendly message that informs pilot “Radiation seal has been broken.  Your children will have 4 arms.”
27. 68″ Bose Speakers for the proper bass. (Medium Laser only does 3 points and cabin lights dim while on)
28. Cell phone link directly to closest ComStar HyperPulse Generator station.  25% discount for call between 11 and 8
29. Cruise Control
30. Zebra skin roof covering
31. Strobe lights mounted on feet
32. 500Watt CB with an echo mic and sound effects
33. Ceiling mounted licorice dispenser
34. A direct com-link to Pizza Hut
35. Rad hatch marks on side to give impression that it is a ‘96 Camaro
36. Liquor cabinet behind the command couch
37. King sized bumper sticker “Get any closer, and I’ll eat you.”
38. Pair of Nike’s painted on feet of ‘Mech
39. Hood ornament of a ram head from an old Dodge Ram
40. Yosamite Sam mud flaps.
41. Special voice added to scanners when pickup up enemy units – “Danger! Danger!” in Robby the Robot’s voice
42. Trailer hitch to pull around all that extra ordinance
43. Authentic wood paneling
44. A little hula dance on the dashboard
45. Three stooges sound effects when you score a kill
46. Offensive language written on weapons
47. James Brown security alarm
48. Dirt Devil Car Vac (modified for ‘mech use) stored under command couch
49. Automatic seatbelts
50. Internal rollcage (for offroading)
51. “Have a nice day” with a happy face painted on the back
52. Disco ball hanging in cockpit
53. Big Screen TV
54. Cargo compartment for the Harley you wish you owned
55. Waterbed located underneath command couch
56. Off-road KC Halogen lamps with the little happy face covers
57. Sunglass shaped window covers (for sunny days)
58. Rear window defogger
59. 2 words – Air Conditioning

Ok, so it’s only 59 ways.  Whom ever wrote it up put an extra return at the bottom of the page that split one line.  Look for some of these in upcoming games.

I just received an invite for Google Voice and got it setup.  To the right is the widget Google provides for websites to allow people to call it.  By all means use it to get in touch with me.  Just please respect times (Only call between 8a and 8p central).

I may send some of you to voicemail just to see how the transcribing works, just don’t take offense if I do.  Either way, I will still get in touch with you.

If you want the direct line, it’s (682) 478-5088. I may change the number later once business expands to other areas (such as CO, AR, CA, or any other state).  I still have my GoSolo number (866) 887-1060.  I may cancel that if Google adds 800 support and fax support.

Stay tuned, I do have more posts coming including one to start a 90 day challenge.

Howdy howdy. I know it’s been around a month since my last post and I promised this time would be different. Well, I’ve been busy saving families financial lives so this took a bit of a back seat. Anyways, on to the post!!!

This post will be about the bare bones basics. No frills. In later posts, I’ll get into the differences between specifics and will even include graphics demonstrating various concepts. Don’t laugh at them, I’m a programmer/money coach, not a designer.

When dealing with Life Insurance, there are so many different kinds that it becomes easy to get confused. The insurance companies LOVE it that way. The problem is, many of the agents also get confused. Lets see, we have Credit Life, Mortgage Life, Accidental Death and Dismemberment, Level Term, Whole Life, Variable Life, Universal Life, Variable Universal, Return Of Premium, Permanent, Annually Renewable, Decreasing, etc. Actually, I think that is all of them. If I missed one, put it in the comments.

When you break every single one of these down to the bare bones basics, they are all 1 of 2 kinds of policies. Annually Renewable Term or Decreasing Term. What a minute, we have 12 listed policy types and they are all varieties of 2 of them? Yup. So why are there so many different varieties, well, profits. In general, the more complex the policy, the greater the profits.

Annually Renewable Term

This is probably the most common type.  Usually found in group, level term, and most types of cash value policies.  Every year, the policy renews and the price increases based on a schedule in the policy.

Decreasing Term

The face amount of the policy decreases every year but the premium stays the same.  It is typically used as mortgage insurance and in whole life policies.

It’s important to know these 2 policy types since they are the basis for the rest.  I’ll go over the basics of them now and expand on them in later posts.

Credit Life, Mortgage Life, Accidental Death and Dismemberment

You should avoid these types of life policies.  They are pure profit makers for the insurance companies and don’t benefit your family one iota.  Credit Life is usually bought on a monthly basis by the lender (on your behalf, that you pay for) to cover the current balance.  The beneficiary, the lender. Mortgage Life is typically bought and paid for when you get the mortgage.  Many times, it is rolled INTO the note so you don’t have to pay for it out of pocket.  Several issues with this.

1. It’s typically paid up for 30 years based on expected balance.
2. If rolled into the note, you now pay INTEREST on the premium.
3. If the note is paid off early, unless you make an effort for it, you typically don’t get your unearned premiums back.

AD&D is the worst of all.  Many policies have very strict conditions for their death benefits hence why it is the cheapest of all.  General scenario on how most pay out.  You get in a wreck, die BEFORE the paramedics get their, death by accident, policy pays.  If you are alive when the paramedics get there, you get in the ambulance/care flight and die either en route or at the hospital, it typically wont pay.  Why? Simple, you died due to COMPLICATIONS as a result of an accident, not DUE to the accident.  Splitting hairs right? Now you know why it’s so cheap.

Level Term, Return Of Premium

Both of these are variants of ART (annually renewable term).  Level term is exactly as it sounds, ART with a level period.  You die while policy is in force, it pays.  ROP (return of premium) is a variant of Level Term.  It’s a rider added on that allows you to get your premium back at the end of the term.  Typically the first 5 years, you would get $0 back.  After that, it’s a graduated percentage till the policy term is up.  And even then, you still may not get all of the premiums back.

Now, ROP sounds great doesn’t it? You make it to the end of the term and get all/most of your money back? What they don’t tell you is that you actually LOST money in the process.  How? Inflation.  The reality is in year 6 you start seeing a balance.  That balance grows interest.  But the interest and 5 year loss equals out to an actual interest of 0% and an effective interest of -4%!  Yea, that’s a great deal.

Permanent

This is a tricky one.  This can be virtually any kind of policy.  It can be a term policy that expires at age 95, it can also be a cash value type policy . This is now a more universal term than anything.  Basically, any policy that expires/matures between ages 80 and 120 can be technically be classified as one.

Whole Life

This is decreasing term with a savings account.  The policies are designed so that when they mature, the cash value that is built up equals the face amount.

Variable Life

This is an interesting policy.  It has a minimal death benefit, if you pay for it.  With this kind of policy, your face amount changes with the underlying investments.  Assuming you decide to use investments.  When the market is good, your face amount is usually great.  When the market is down (like as of this writing), your face amount is down.  You pay the same premium either way, and may get a rate hike if the cash value drops to $0.

Universal Life/Variable Universal Life

A universal life policy is an evolution of whole life.  Instead of being DT (decreasing term), it’s ART.  You get a minimal death benefit with a cash account that is invested in the market.  You have the flexibility to decide the premiums and the coverage while the policy is in place.  A variable version adds the ability to determine a wider variety of investments for the cash account.  On both of these, you typically have 2 options.  Option A and option B.  Option A, your beneficiaries get the face amount ONLY.  Option B, you pay MORE so your survivors can have both the face amount and the cash.

This is just a rough overview.  I’ll spend more time on each one individually here in the coming days/weeks/months/years.

This post is about the recent experience my wife and I have had at the CarMax on Eastchase in Arlington/Ft. Worth.  The names and facts have NOT been changes to allow throwing stones at the guilty.

This story started end of March.  March 27th, 2009.  A few days before our old ‘89 Buick Skylark bit the dust.  Brakes failed, stearing became a problem, and the oncoming traffic didn’t help matters either.  We looked around online at CarMax and a few other local dealerships wanting to stay below the $10k mark.  Their site made it easy to search about the 5 or 6 dealerships within a 300 mile radius.  That being said, they had about 15 cars below that mark.  All and all, we settled on a 99 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport.  As an added bonus, it only had 63k miles on.  A 99 with 63k miles, for $8200, would you turn that down?

The following week, we sold the Buick to them.  Got $100 for it.  Double what I was expecting.  So far at this point, it has been a good experience.  Bill Dearman (the sales rep that helped us) was curtious the entire time and let us take our time.  He earned our repeat business AND my recommendation.  Both things I don’t take lightly.

Well, fast forward about 33 days.  Fuel pump goes out.  I’m no machanic, but for a 10 year old car, the fuel pump probably should have been replaced just due to old age.  At least those are my thoughts.  I call up Bill and asked his opinion.  He said to call the service center and ask up the chain until I got the top dog or the answer I wanted.  That was my first mistake, I should have listend and done just that.  Instead, I called one, and the rep on the other end (don’t recall the name), was very rude about the 30 day warrenty.  I understand that 30 days was it and they have no obligation to do anything after that period.  But in the same token, this is a major repair shortly after warrenty period.  It’s just good customer service to take care of.  Now, 10 days? 15 days? 30 days after expiry, I wouldn’t have even bothered to try to get it for free or even discounted.

I made a few complaints on Twitter about the bill we got from Pepboys ($730).  That was my second mistake, I took it to Pepboys.  They insisted that more work needed to be done than was required.  Some services they were suggesting were completed not but 2k miles before.  On top of that, had I just went back to CarMax anyways, even paying for it, would have saved between $200 and $300 off the repair!  Well, @CarMaxChris spoke up and suggested I call the Customer Service Center (Executive Response Team) to see if they can fix this.

Called them and spoke with a women named Paige.  She asked for some details about what happened and said she’ll make a call to the same store and see what the Service Manager could do (His name was also Bill.  Don’t ask for his last name because frankly, I’d buther it).  He called about 5 mins later and asked a few more questions.  By the time he called though, the tank was already dropped at Pepboys so he couldn’t tow it over.  When all was said and done, he confirmed what Bill Dearman said.  Had I gone straight to him in the first place, it would have been towed and repaired at no cost.  30 Days is the rule, but most are handled on a case by case basis.  In cases like mine, they let it slide.  It was just a few days out of warrenty and good customer service to just do it.

Needless to say, they have earned a repeat customer.