A Not So Important Blog About Nothing

I know it’s been awhile since my last post, and I know I promised to post more.  What can I say? I have no excuses.  So what is this one for now out of the blue? Simple.  I’m starting another 90 day challenge effective December 1.

I have been trying to transition into my financial business for so long, I forgot how.  So, I am going to re-double my efforts.  I NEED to get it going to do all the good that I can do.  I made a 5 year game plan to have 10 direct recruits making 100k+ a year.  And 5 years after that another 10 direct (plus 10 direct to each of the previous directs).  And repeat that process every 5 years after that.  How am I going to do that with being a 0 now? Simple.  2 recruits a month.

So, in the next 90 days, I must go from Dud to Stud.  Based on my offices averages, that comes out to 6 recruits, 22.5k in premium (total team).  That includes the 7500 I must do.  The rest is based on an average sale and average number of sales.

Bottom line, I’m heading to the top and I ain’t letting nothing stop me this time.  I’ll post updates every night before passing out on my progress.  If I don’t, feel free to harass me endlessly and tell me how much of a loser I am for not taking care of my family.

I’ll add a text block to the side bar (or in the about box to the right) that will keep the score displayed.  Every 90 days will be a new challenge and increase the numbers.  This first 90 days, is all personal (in the sense of I’m signing).

I’ll see you at the top!

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.

I’d like to take this moment to publicly welcome our latest addition to the family.  Jillian Alexis, born June 29, 2009 around 18:30 to Josh and Jean.  6lbs, 7oz of Joy.

Welcome to the family.

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.

Before I get back to my regularly unscheduled postings, I thought I would share this.

My cousin sent me this as an email.  Normally  I just file them in either my Personal folder or the Trash depending on what it is.  I don’t know if this really happened or not.  It is still a god story.

I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight. ’I’m glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will get a short nap,‘ I thought.

Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation.. ‘Where are you headed?‘ I asked the soldier seated nearest to me.

‘Petawawa. We’ll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we’re being deployed to Afghanistan.‘

After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars. It would be several hours before we reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time.

As I reached for my wallet, I overheard soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch.

‘No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn’t be worth five bucks. I’ll wait till we get to base.‘

His friend agreed.

I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty dollar bill. ‘Take a lunch to all those soldiers.‘ She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. ‘My son was a soldier in Iraq; it’s almost like you are doing it for him.‘

Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked, ’Which do you like best – beef or chicken?‘  ’Chicken,‘ I replied, wondering why she asked. She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class.

‘This is your thanks.‘

After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room. A man stopped me.

‘I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.‘ He handed me twenty-five dollars.

Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand, an said, ‘I want to shake your hand.‘

Quickly unfastening my seatbelt I stood and took the Captain’s hand. With a booming voice he said, ‘I was a soldier and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.‘ I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers.

Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.

When we landed I gathered my belongings and started to deplane. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word. Another twenty-five dollars!

Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their trip to the base. I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars. ‘It will take you some time to reach the base. It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.’

Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers. As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return. These soldiers were giving their all for our country. I could only give them a couple of meals.

It seemed so little…

A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to ‘United States of America‘ for an amount of ‘up to and including my life.‘

That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.

Pass this link on to your friends and family.  If you see a solider or know a veteran, make sure you thank them.  You probably wouldn’t be here if not for the Men and Women protecting this country and our way of life.  Freedom isn’t free, and these people are paying for it for us.

I know everone is just DYING to know about this (it’s nice to dream right?), but I’ve been keeping tabs on my weight since starting at 24 Hour Fitness.  Almost daily actually.  Since Mar 16th I have lost 13 lbs.  And it shows.  I look slimer, I feel better, have more energy, and my love handles don’t bounce as much when I run (more of a jog really).

Wife and I also started on a 90 day sprint.  Might post up weekely updates on that as well.

Also began work on Arlington’s 4th of July website.  It needs MASSIVE work.  The current incarnation is NOT of my creation, but it slowly turning into one.  The Google Maps screenshots have been turned into real GMaps, the search on the main page has turned into Google Custom Search, and Google Analytics has also been added to all pages.  BTW, Google, you can send those endorsement checks to my creditors, they are hurting so bad without my payments that they could really use the help.  Why else would they be raising rates right? They wouldn’t do such a decietfull thing as raise rates just because they can right?

I’ve also been having a good talk with Larry Wiedel this week.  Made me realize that I really need to not work so hard.  What’s the point of working 30 hour days for your family, if you never spend time with them?  For that sir, I thank you.

Anyways, I better get back to catching up so I can spend quality time with my daughter and wife today.  And I’m glad I did make time this week just to spend with them.

See you in the next post!

Alright guys and gals, all 6 of ya.  I’m about to head out of town to visit family I haven’t seen in almost a decade.  Gee, I hope I still remember who is who.  Anyways, this is just to let you know what I have planned in the next few weeks/months.

• A bunch of personal posts about me, my wife, my girlfriend (same person), and my beautiful baby girl!
• How to buy Insurance
• How insurance works
• Debt management
• “Snow balling” debt
• Why the interest rate on a loan is not the ONLY thing to look at when deciding (sometimes a higher rate is better, honest)
• Differences between college savings plans
• Different retirement accounts
• and much much more

So stay tuned.  I will make this clear now and on every page.  Nothing on this site is a solicitation or a recommendation to ANYONE.  There is no offer to sell to anyone.  Any requests for work through this site, or any site linked from here, will not be accepted by me.  If you want me to do something for you, you have to track me down the old fashioned way.  Sorry, just legalities.  Although I am not a fan of ads, some will be placed to help offset some costs.  If you don’t like them, use Firefox with the AdBlock extension.

I will be back in a week and will start getting those posts in line.  I may through a few other suprises out there including situation and policy breakdowns.

See ya’ll later!

I’m Back!!!

Despite a short reprieve, I am back and ready to go.  I had to take the last site down due to a request from home office.  No biggie, no threats, just a request.  Since it was basically a “take it down” or “you’re fired” move, I decided my clients were more important.

I’ve changed the overall aspect of the site, look, feel, content, etc.  There will still be some finance related posts, just more generic.  There will be additional posts for my personal life as well as PR stunts related to my computer business.  I may even throw in some stuff about the little OS I’m working on.

Anyways, to make a short post shorter, I’m back with plenty of good stuff to come!