Life insurance has always been an important purchase for people to make. The death benefit your beneficiaries receive when a life insurance policy pays out can be used to pay off debt, keep your family in the home you worked so hard to create for them and help ease the financial burden caused by the loss of a family wage earner.



But now, while college savings and retirement accounts struggle to get back up to pre economic downturn values, life insurance can provide an even more valuab… Continue

I am about to rock your world with a startling confession. Alright, so this confession probably won't rock your world and it probably isn't all that startling... but it hurts my pride to speak of it, so please pretend you're rocked and startled since that will make the pain a little more bearable.

When it comes to taxes, I am like a clueless infant. Worse than that, I am like a weeping, clueless infant. I can read IRS code and understand it pretty well, but when it comes to figuring ou… Continue

The Credit CARD Act of 2009 is a 45 page long amendment to the Truth in Lending Act that makes for a wonderful cat bed—at least, that’s what my cats seem to think as they both stretch out luxuriously on its pages. And that’s fine for them, after all, they don’t have to worry about interest rates, late payment penalties, underage consumers and financial literacy because those are all human problems.

Honestly though, I’m not sure my understanding of the verbose Credit CARD Act of 2009 is… Continue

For some people, a frugal way of life is very easy to adopt. It could be because of a job loss, the birth of a child or a lifestyle change, but for whatever reason these people find switching over to a frugal lifestyle easy, fun, challenging and exciting.

Some people find frugality less fun. Whether it’s because they have a high paying job and don’t see the need for frugality, because they don’t have a family to support, or because they don’t think they have time for frugality, these fo… Continue

Now we’ve come to the benefit riders. These are riders that add additional benefits to your life insurance policy.

Benefit Riders

Accelerated Death Benefit Rider: The accelerated death benefit rider is a rider that pays out a portion of your death benefit before you pass away. Obviously, this rider has some very important caveats or life insurance companies would be advancing payments every five mi… Continue

This week, let’s talk about premium riders. Those are riders that somehow affect your life insurance premium.

Premium Riders

Waiver of premium: The waiver of premium rider is one which waives your annual life insurance premium if you become disabled over the life of your policy. It is important to remember that the waiver of premium rider generally only kicks in when you lose your income as a result of a qualifying disability. This keeps your life insurance policy in-force even w… Continue

Like any complex financial product, life insurance isn't really a point-and-click type of purchase. In order to maximize your premium dollars and create a policy with real value for you and your family, you must consider the purchase of life insurance riders.

A rider is basically an additional benefit you can tack on to your policy. It's kind of like buying a model home with upgraded counter tops. The rider costs a little bit of extra money but provides an additional benefit and they are genera… Continue

Rollover your workplace retirement plan investments from a former employer into your IRA.
A surprisingly large percentage of individuals who change jobs (either voluntarily or involuntarily) leave their retirement plan money - 401(k), 403(b), 457 plans - with their former employer. This may not be wise because most such plans offer a very limited range of investment choices and many plan investm… Continue

You'll probably get cheaper airfares and a better choice of accommodations at a better price if you plan your vacation now. Also, you don't have to travel great distances and spend gobs of money to have an enjoyable vacation.

Think about it: you probably live close to areas that other people travel thousands of miles to visit.… Continue

I was watching some footage of Anderson Cooper saving a young boy's life in Haiti and I started thinking about natural disasters. The tsunami in 2004, hurricane Katrina, this earthquake (and aftershock) in Haiti, the wild fires in California, and all the other disasters in between.

You know as well as I do that there is no way to insure yourself against being in a state, country or area that experiences a natural disaster. There is no insurance you can buy that makes sure you are never affected… Continue