Money is an asset! Try living a week to 10 days without it and you will appreciate just what an asset it really is. But most people do not treat money like an asset and therefore they destroy moneys best quality. You see money treated as an asset multiplies exponentially.

It has been written that “The value of an asset increases exponentially while the value of your labor only increases incrementally.”

The return of your money is more important than the rate of return on your money. Those that fail to grasp this concept lose the real value of money by losing the control of their money.

What about this:

Where does all your money go when you get a paycheck?

Into a Bank owned by someone else?

Who benefits the most by this process? You or the other guy?

It has been written that “you can’t multiply wealth by dividing it.” Habitually letting others have first right to your money by depositing your paycheck into their bank, gives them control over your money and not you. This will wind up costing you thousands of dollars, if not more, over time. Each time you give up management of your money to someone else you lose wealth. When you allow others to manage your money your money now can be subject to account charges, service fees and management fees. Plus the managers of your money will make money off your money and pay you very little in comparison to what they are making.

That is why everyone needs to read about the Infinite Banking Concept in the book Becoming Your Own Banker by R. Nelson Nash. Nash explains how, you can take control of your money, which is the asset that can build real riches and lasting wealth. This process is called the Infinite Banking Concept or IBC. IBC allows those who utilize Becoming Your Own Banker, aka BYOB, to recover the costs associated with the banking equation. What is the banking equation you might ask? The banking equation is simply this:

You finance everything that you purchase in life. You either pay someone interest to use their money to make a purchase, or you give up the interest you could have made on your money when you make a purchase with your own money. Either way you lose.

When you Become Your Own Banker, you recover the cost of interest you pay out when you borrow from your own banking system and pay yourself back. You are now using your own money as an asset and it will multiply.

Thanks to advances in healthcare, people are living longer than ever. This also means that more and more people are finding themselves in the position of paying for long term care services, either for themselves or for their loved ones. These types of expenses are typically very costly when paid for out of pocket.

Individuals who are interested in exploring their long term care insurance options should start shopping for policies once they reach middle age, since this will increase their chances of qualifying, and also for locking in a low premium rate.

The cost of long term insurance can be high, but health care costs can add up as well, which is why it is important to weight the costs and benefits before deciding to purchase a policy. The goal of a long term care insurance policy should be to reduce your independence on your loved ones, to retain control over your assets, and to have a say in where and how you will receive long term care in the event that it becomes necessary.

There are different types of long term care insurance policies that you may qualify for, depending on your health and your care needs. Some long term care insurance policies pay for a friend or family member to care with you in your own home, while others are designed to provide coverage for home care, nursing home care, or both. Among the many considerations to weigh is the monthly or daily benefit amount that you will receive from your insurance company. If the benefit amount is less than your care expenses, you will be required to pay for the difference out of pocket. When it comes to long term care or any other type of insurance, it is important to weigh your options carefully and discuss them with your insurance broker before deciding.

LTC insurance is an important financial tool to help you protect your assets and preserve your independence. The potential expense of long term care could easily deplete your entire savings. It is an expensive and complicated product. It’s sold by a shrinking number of financially challenged insurers and subject to differing state rules that aren’t always effectively enforced

Life insurance can be as complicated as you want to make it. As simple as term life policies are there are many elements to be considered carefully in order to arrive at the correct type and benefit in Akron Ohio . It is the technical aspects of life insurance that most people can deal with rather than trying to get a handle on how much coverage they need and why.

This article will briefly examine the 10 most common misconceptions surrounding life insurance and the realities that may be distorted.

First Myth: The amount of life insurance coverage, I need, is equal to twice the amount of my annual salary. That depends. You need an amount of life insurance equal to the amount that is actually required. In addition to obvious bills and expenses, you may need to pay off larger debts such as the mortgage and provide an income for a number of years. A cash flow analysis is usually helpful in order to determine the actual amount of insurance that must be bought - the days of simply computing life coverage based only on one’s income earning ability is long gone.

Second Myth: I only need an amount of life insurance coverage equal to twice the amount of my annual salary. That depends. You need an amount of life insurance equal to the amount that is needed based on your families needs. In addition to obvious bills and expenses, you may need to pay off larger debts such as the mortgage and provide an income for a number of years, in Akron Ohio. A cash flow analysis is usually helpful in order to determine the actual amount of insurance that must be bought - the days of simply computing life coverage based only on one’s income-earning ability is long gone.

Myth No.3: My term life insurance coverage at work is sufficient. Maybe it is or maybe it is not. For a single person of modest means, employer-paid or provided term coverage may well be enough. But if you have a spouse or other dependents, or know that you will need coverage upon your death to pay estate taxes or create an estate for charity, then additional coverage may be necessary if the term policy does not meet the needs of the policyholder.

Fourth Myth: I can deduct my premiums from my taxes in Akron Ohio. This is not true, in most cases. The personal life insurance premiums are never deductible unless the policyholder is self-employed and the coverage is used to insure his business. Then the premiums are deductible on the Schedule C of the Form 1040. With that said the death benefit could be taxed. So be careful.

Fifth Myth: I need to have life insurance no matter what the cost. In some cases, this is probably true. However, if you have no debt or dependents and enough assets you may be better off self-insuring. If you have no debt and medical and funeral costs are covered, then your need for life insurance is eliminated.

Sixth Myth: I am always better off buying term and investing the difference. Not always. The cost of term life coverage can become very expensive in the later years, so those who know for certain that they must have coverage until death, should consider permanent coverage. The overall premium outlay for a more expensive permanent policy may be less than the rising premiums that could last for years longer with a less expensive term policy.

There is also the risk of non-insurability to consider, which could be disastrous for those who may have estate tax issues and need life insurance to pay them. But this risk can be avoided with permanent coverage, which becomes paid up after a certain amount of premium has been paid and then remains in force until death.

Myth No.7: Variable universal life policies are always superior to straight universal life policies. Many universal policies pay competitive interest rates, and variable universal life (VUL) policies contain several layers of fees relating to both the insurance and securities elements present in the policy. Therefore, if the variable sub accounts within the policy do not perform well; the variable policyholder may well see a lower cash value compared to a non variable universal life policy.

Sub par market performance can also generate substantial cash calls inside variable policies that require additional premiums to be paid in order to keep the life insurance portion of the policy in force.

Eighth Myth: Variable universal life policies are always superior to straight universal life policies. Many universal policies pay competitive interest rates, and variable universal life (VUL) policies contain several layers of fees relating to both the insurance and securities elements present in the policy. Therefore, if the variable sub accounts within the policy under perform, then the variable policyholder may well see a lower cash value than someone owning a straight universal life policy.

Ninth Myth: When purchasing term in Akron Ohio always add the return of premium (ROP) benefit. There are several different levels of ROP riders available for policies that offer this feature. Some financial advisors will tell you that this rider is not cost-effective and should be avoided. Whether you include this rider will depend on your risk tolerance and other possible investment objectives.

A cash flow analysis will reveal whether you could come out ahead by investing the additional premium amount, of the rider elsewhere, instead of putting it into the policy. Riders are available to provide additional benefits that help you customize your policy.

Myth No.10: I’m better off investing my money than buying life insurance of any kind. Complete nonsense. Until you reach the breakeven point of asset accumulation, you need life coverage of some sort, barring the exception discussed in Myth No.5. Once you amass $1 million of liquid assets, you can consider whether to discontinue, or at least reduce, your million-dollar policy. But you take a big chance when you depend solely on your investments, especially if you have dependents. If you die without coverage for them, there may be no other means of provision after the depletion of your current assets.

In closing, these are just some of the more common mistruths concerning life insurance. The key idea to understand is that you cannot eliminate life insurance out of your budget unless you have sufficient assets to cover expenses, several years after you have passed away.

Life insurance is not a simple product. Even term life policies have many elements that must be considered carefully in order to arrive at the proper type and amount of coverage. But the technical aspects of a life insurance policy are far less difficult for most people to deal with than trying to determine how much life insurance coverage they need in Akron Oh.

What you read will briefly take a look at the some of the most common myths surrounding life insurance and the truths that they distort.

First Myth: I’m single and have no kids, with that being said, I don’t need any life insurance. As a single person there is still the need of at least enough life insurance to cover the costs of personal debts, medical and funeral bills. If you are uninsured, you may leave a burden of unpaid expenses for your family or executor to deal with. Plus, this can be a good way for low-income singles to leave something to a favorite charity or other cause.

Myth No.2: I only need an amount of life insurance coverage equal to twice the amount of my annual salary I earn in Akron Ohio. You need an amount of life insurance equal to the amount that is actually required. In addition to medical and funeral bills, you may need to pay off debts such as your mortgage and provide for your family for several years. A cash flow analysis is usually necessary in order to determine the true amount of insurance that must be purchased. The days of computing life coverage based only on one’s income-earning ability are long gone.

Myth No.3: My term life insurance coverage at work is sufficient. Maybe it is or maybe it is not. For a single person of modest means, employer-paid or provided term coverage may well be enough. But if you have a spouse or other dependents, or know that you will need coverage upon your death to pay estate taxes or create an estate for charity, then additional coverage may be necessary if the term policy does not meet the needs of the policyholder.

Fourth Myth: My premiums are tax deductible. Most often they are not. The personal life insurance premiums, in Akron Ohio are never deductible unless the policyholder is self-employed and the coverage is used to insure his business. Then the premiums are deductible on the Schedule C of the Form 1040. With that being said, the death benefit may then be taxed. So be careful.

Myth No.5: I absolutely MUST have life insurance at any cost. In many cases, this is probably true. However, persons with no debt or dependents and sizable assets may be better off self-insuring. If you have no debt and medical and funeral costs are covered, and then life insurance coverage may be optional.

Sixth Myth: I am always better off buying term and investing the difference. Not always. The cost of term life coverage can become very expensive in the later years, so those who know for certain that they must have coverage until death, should consider permanent coverage. The overall premium outlay for a more expensive permanent policy may be less than the rising premiums that could last for years longer with a less expensive term policy.

There is also the chance of being uninsurable, which could be disastrous for those who may have estate tax issues will use life insurance to pay them. But this risk can be eliminated with permanent coverage, which can become paid up after a certain amount of premiums have been paid and then remains in force the rest of your life.

Seventh Myth: You will always better off buying term and investing the difference. Not always. Term life coverage can become very expensive as you get older, so those who know that they must have coverage until death should consider some form of permanent coverage. The overall premium outlay for a more expensive permanent policy may be less than the increased premiums that could last for years longer with a less expensive term policy.

Poor market performance can even generate substantial cash calls inside variable policies that requires additional premiums to be paid in order to keep the policy in force.

Myth No.8: Only breadwinners need life insurance coverage. That is nonsense. The cost of replacing the services formerly provided by a deceased homemaker can be higher than you think, especially when it comes to cleaning and daycare in Akron Ohio.

Myth No.9: I should always purchase the return-of-premium (ROP) rider on any term policy. There are usually different levels of ROP riders available for policies that offer this feature. Many financial planners will tell you that this rider is not cost-effective and it should be avoided. Whether you include this rider or not, will depend on your risk tolerance and your other possible investment objectives.

A cash flow analysis will reveal whether you could come out ahead by investing the same amount of the rider elsewhere instead of including it in the policy. Riders are available to provide additional benefits that help you customize your policy.

Tenth Myth: I will be better off investing my money than buying life insurance of any kind. Complete nonsense. Until you reach the breakeven point of asset accumulation, you need life coverage of some sort, barring the exception discussed in fifth myth. Once you amass $1 million of liquid assets, you can consider whether to discontinue, or at least reduce, your million-dollar policy. But you take a big chance when you depend solely on your investments in the early years of your life, especially if you have dependents. If you die without coverage for them, there may be no other means to provide for them after the use of your saved assets.

In conclusion, these are just some of the more common mistruths concerning life insurance. The key idea to understand is that you eliminate life insurance out of your budget unless you have sufficient assets to cover expenses, several years after you’ve passed away.

The necessity of life insurance today is based around the idea of a family with one or both spouses working outside of the home, and that if one of them dies, the other will be left with financial obligations that will not be able to be met. Most advisers agree that life insurance is supposed to fill that gap.

However, financial professionals often disagree about how much and what type of insurance one should carry. The perception is that term insurance is always the easiest and most cost effective. To this end, many advisers and financial “gurus” like Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey often suggest that their audience forget about cash value insurance and instead focus on good-sounding investments. In short…they hate whole life insurance.

Life insurance agents of course love cash value insurance. The investment industry does a pretty good job of putting down the insurance industry. So…who’s right?

It is sometimes surprising that the financial industry is charged with the responsibility of informing and educating the rest of society about saving and investing principles, and yet many of the advisors that represent the industry seem to be less concerned about truth and honesty, and more concerned about injecting their own personal agenda.

I say that in light of the fact that on both sides of the debate, neither is doing a very good job of defending their position. Many financial professionals are simply leaving out critical information, or appear to not have a very good grasp of how life insurance really works.

Their reasons for lying can be many. Now, there’s nothing wrong with pointing out the shortcomings in a financial product. In the case of life insurance; however, the attacks being made are completely baseless. This is especially disheartening because most, if not all, of these attacks are originating from well known financial “gurus”. Here are a few of the lies being spread around:

Lie Number One:

Don’t waste your money on cash value insurance. It is a complete waste of money because the insurance company collects premiums from you for 20 years and then when you die you only get the death benefit. They keep all of your cash and your family gets ripped off. Besides, you could make more money by buying term and investing the difference.

Fact: Term insurance can be the best type of insurance if all you are considering is the cost. But it is generally the worst type of insurance you can buy to insure your life if you want it to pay off, at least statistically speaking. To understand this, we need to understand how life insurance companies position their product line, and how they make money.

Insurance uses something called the Law of Large Numbers. Basically this is how it works: the larger the group of people you are insuring, the more certain you can be about the number of losses you will sustain.

If I started a life insurance company and I only had one customer, I would be taking on an incredible risk because of the nature of life insurance, if that one person dies, I could be out of business very quickly. If, however, I have thousands or millions of customers, then I can manage the risk. Since no one can predict when a specific individual will die (i.e. no one can predict when I will die), I need a large number of people to study to formulate a statistic. With a large enough number of people, I can make surprisingly accurate predictions about the number of individuals within a particular group that will die in any given year. So…what do the statistics say?

Term insurance just doesn’t pay, at least not for policy owners. That’s because most people live to age 65. Term is expensive long-term. Permanent is a good deal long-term. A few critics will still say “no Dave, term is cheaper - always cheaper”. Oh yeah? Watch this:

A male (let’s use Jim again), age 25 and in good health with a wife and a child finds that he needs life insurance. Jim is looking for $250,000 in coverage. A typical 30-year term policy - a policy that has level premium payments for 30 years - should cost Jim around $370 per year until he reaches age fifty-five. At that point, the premiums jump up significantly (as all term insurance premiums do) to a tad over $4,700 per year.

At age 65, he will have spent $58,780 on policy premiums. Keep in mind that this is money that the insurance company collected but never had to pay back. Since there’s no cash value in a pure insurance (term) plan, the insurance contract pays off only when Jim dies.

What would have happened if Jim had just purchased the same amount of death benefit but used a universal life insurance policy instead? His premiums would have been higher - about $145 per month or $1739 per year. At age 65, Jim has paid $69,560 ($1739 x 40) in premiums. That’s a little more than the term insurance, but he also has $157,000 of cash value inside the policy.

That money can be used on a tax-free basis to supplement his retirement or left alone to continue growing. This is an example of one of many living benefits that permanent insurance has (didn’t your adviser tell you about that?). Some permanent policies also offer an option to spend down up to 100% of the death benefit for any reason in the event of a critical, chronic, or terminal illness. This can be especially useful if you haven’t been able to accumulate a lot of money and something tragic happens to you…and you live!

Lie number two:

Cash value life insurance is overpriced. You can never tell how much money you are spending on death benefit and how much money is actually going into the cash value of the policy. With term insurance, the costs are clear.

Fact: Whole life insurance is not very transparent. So it is difficult to determine how much the death benefit is costing you. That bothers some people. That’s OK. Just don’t buy whole life insurance. Universal life insurance, on the other hand, is very transparent. That’s because UL policies are a term policy with a separate savings account. You can easily determine the cost per thousand dollars of insurance, how much is going to pay the death benefit, and how much is going into the cash value of the policy. Cash value insurance seems expensive in comparison to term insurance (at least initially) because insurance contracts are front loaded as far as fees are concerned. That’s a good thing…because the contract becomes cheaper over time. Unfortunately, the initial cost is really driven home by the anti-cash value life insurance crowd.

Be thankful that you pay some of the fees that you do. It makes saving and investing money a lot easier. In regard to life insurance, you have a choice: the contract can be set up to maximize the death benefit (maximizing the cost of the contract), or it can be set up to focus on cash accumulation (minimizing expense charges). All of the expenses associated with permanent life insurance can be made just as efficient and in some cases more efficient than an investment product. But why compare insurance to an investment?

You will usually get all of your money back that you put into a permanent policy plus interest (depending on how you structured the contract). Additionally, the policy can give you a substantial tax-free income at retirement. The only exception to this is variable life, which typically has no guarantee on cash values

Lie number three:

If you are smart with your money, pay off your mortgage and other loans, and put money into retirement plans you won’t need insurance 30 years from now to protect your family.

Fact: You may not need life insurance in 30 years to protect your children from financial ruin when you die. But you may need it to protect your beneficiaries (whoever they may be) from taxes. And, even if you are “smart” with your money, you can’t predict the investment returns in a mutual fund (or a stock for that matter) inside of a 401(k) or IRA unless you are very good at researching stocks (hint: 99% of the general population is not). It takes years of practice, and even some of the best stock brokers and financial analysts don’t always get it right. The stock market ebbs and flows, and goes through cycles of boom and bust. If your investments take a hit right before you are ready to retire, it doesn’t matter how “smart” you were with your money.

Is life insurance is necessary as you get older? You will be shocked at the costs of even a modest funeral these days. What does the average funeral cost in your home town? Ask a funeral director. What is the inflation effect in the funeral industry. If it costs $12,000 today, what will it cost in 10 years? 20 years? 30 years? Ask any beneficiary who has been left any amount of money what they paid in taxes and if it was financially disruptive to them personally.

That cash value life insurance policy that your financial guru told you to ditch could have bypassed probate, provided an income tax free death benefit and, inside of a life insurance trust, completely avoided the estate tax thereby giving your heirs what they deserve.

Although many so-called experts try to compare life insurance to an investment, don’t be fooled. Yes, life insurance, if properly structured, can build very strong cash values that rival investment products (my guess as to why the investment folks are upset). They try to tell you what a lousy investment cash value life insurance is. But comparing this type of insurance to investing is nonsensical. It’s like asking “how many walkmans does it take to equal an Ipod?”…cash value insurance serves a different purpose from an investment. Each has their own different objectives.

Before you make any decision on whether to buy term or cash value life insurance, think about what you are trying to accomplish. If you want to invest your money, then learn about investing. Learn how to value corporations and buy stocks, bonds, no load mutual funds. If you want a long-term savings, then find an adviser that can maximize your savings through cash value life insurance.