A Financial Bunker For Scary Times

A Financial Bunker For Scary Times
John E. Girouard  via Forbes  6:30 PM ET

Suppose there was a financial instrument with a track record stretching back 140 years; that was
so solid it could survive the Great Depression intact; that earned untaxed interest at a competitive
rate; that could be borrowed against at will regardless of credit conditions; and that could be used
by individuals as well as major corporations and banks as a safe harbor during economic turmoil?

You'd call it a financial bunker for scary times, and you'd be talking about mutual whole life insurance.

This is not the life insurance that only pays when you die. Mutual whole life is the kind of
insurance owned in the good old days before the stock market began to boom in the 1980s and 1990s. Mutual whole life saw our elders through thick and thin,
and after several decades of being muscled aside by the allure of the stock market, it's making a comeback.

Mutual whole life policies have been an essential part of my financial planning practice for many
years. But I'm astonished at how few of the many investment advisers I meet understand how
mutual whole life policies work, or don't offer them to clients because they aren't sexy or new.

Mutual whole life fell so far out of favor in the 1990s that insurer Swiss Re-issued a report in 1999
headlined, "Are mutual insurers an endangered species?" Not anymore.

Mutual life insurance is making a comeback now that our speculative economy has blown up and
financial disaster is driving people away from risk and back to basics.

Mutual or "participating" whole life insurance is the closest thing to owning your own bank.
As New York Life has said in its ads, "We're Main Street. Not Wall Street."
The concept of mutual unsurance is rather simple, especially compared with the complex annuity products that were so popular until recently. And the benefits include all those listed in my opening paragraph.

Here, for the curious, is Mutual Whole Life 101, or The Life Insurance Policy for the Living:

--You Own The Bank: Mutual insurance companies are owned by the people who buy the
policies. These companies are the modern equivalent of mutual "societies" among European
trade guilds of the 1600s. Guild members pooled their money to help each other and their families
in times of sickness or death. Because mutual companies have no shareholders, they serve one
constituency--the policyholders. Mutuals have no need to report good earnings every three
months to justify a stock price, so there is no pressure for them to take on extra risk to make a profit.

--Your Premium Payments Belong To You: Unlike traditional term insurance, the premiums you
pay for your mutual whole life policy belong to you in the form of the accumulated "cash value" of
your policy. On top of that, the cash value of the accumulated premiums earns interest at a rate
set once each year. In 2008, Guardian Life paid a record 7.3% dividend interest, and those
earnings are untaxed! That's spectacular compared with a 10% decline in the stock
markets, bank CDs paying under 2% taxable, or money market rates under 0.1% taxable.

--You Can Borrow Back Your Premium Payments: Because your premiums "belong" to you as
a policyholder-owner of the company, you can borrow them back any time you want for any
reason you need, regardless of your creditworthiness. The death benefit of the life insurance will
be reduced by the amount you borrow, and you will lose the interest you would have earned. But
you can choose to pay the interest as you would for any loan, except you are paying yourself
instead of the stockholders of a bank. If you pay the loan back as well, the death benefit goes back up.

--Mutuals Offer Ironclad Guarantees: Few people realize that the insurance industry
 was the one sector that made it through the Great Depression without a
disaster and with policyholders financially intact. The cash value and the death benefit are
guaranteed and tightly regulated by the states. That means your cash value is there regardless of
market conditions, and when you die your heirs will receive the full face value of the policy. |

While stockholder-owned insurance companies saw their values fall sharply (remember when
we taxpayers bailed out AIG?), the top mutually-owned insurers saw their book values remain
stable or rise.

--Even Banks and Corporations Buy Mutual Policies: One of the lesser-known aspects of
mutual insurance is that major corporations and banks buy policies on the lives of their
employees and use the cash value to fund employee benefits and as a safe harbor for working
capital. By some estimates Fortune 500 companies and large banks have policies covering some
5 million employees.

Instead of doing what banks say--put your money in our CDs at low rates so
we can turn around and lend your money out at a profit to us--do what banks do.

--Mutual Insurance Is One Leg of The Money Stool: Investing should be approached as a
three-legged stool. One leg is the money you need to live on in the near future (cash in the bank),
one leg is the money you invest for long-term growth (equities) and one leg is the financial bunker
you can retreat to when the rest of the world is falling apart and you can't sleep.

Life Insurance got our grandparents through the Great Depression, and it's going to get a lot of the people
through our current calamity.


John E. Girouard (www.johngirouard.com) is author of The Ten Truths of Wealth Creation, CEO
of Capital Asset Management Group in Bethesda, Md., and founder of the Institute for Financial
Independence, which provides investor education programs to financial professionals.

被延遲的快樂，不會產生利息 -- 對生活必須有興趣~ 用定存的方式，一天一天累積快樂的利息

三月 記錄

阿班牧師提到Lent 我選擇故意不看電視 跟神聊多一滴
結果聖經讀的不多 倒是忙得很.

主要是因為 忽然要跑去22 分鐘遠的地方修房子
還有開始帶領個財經查經班 與 在財務輔導講座當助手
又硬去"幫忙"唱個5首彌撒亞 (其實是站著聽美麗的主珍姐 然後跟著唱 呵呵)

現在住的家房客搬出去了 然後水管在水泥下爆裂. 
喔對了還帶了個完全不擅長的 活泉團契敬拜
別人很輕鬆 因為常常做  一下子就搞定
我兩次 都至少花了8小時 加帶歌 大概 就是10平吧/

臉書也用得不少 大約每週有6到8小時吧
反正就是不懂得空出時間 好好與神 與人聊.

------------------所以這篇是大提醒  一起定存快樂吧! ^_^--------------------------

[人生哲理] 被延遲的快樂，不會產生利息

發佈者: 城市通小編 Arlene| 發佈時間: 2011-4-14 10:22| 瀏覽數: 19310| 回覆數: 17

文／王文華 被延遲的快樂，不會產生利息 我當老闆時和一位來應徵工作的年輕人面談 我問他的頭四個問題是： 「有沒有女朋友？」他說： 「我還年輕，想專心拼事業，目前不想交女朋友。」 「你去過最好玩的地方是哪里？」 「我不喜歡出去玩，我喜歡在家研究電腦。」 「那你吃過最好吃的東西是什麼？」 「我都全心全意工作，吃得很隨便。」 「會做菜嗎？」 「我家附近有很多吃的，不用自己做。」 他可能以為這些答案都展現出專業精神，會為自己加分，於是得意地看著我。 但我連學歷和經驗都懶得問，就跟他拜拜了。 我已經活得夠粗糙了，但就連我都知道： 除非是極度專業的人才（比如說實驗室的科學家），一般來說，好的員工，必須先是一個好的情人。 工作要做得好，生活品質得高。 或是說，好的員工，對生活必須有起碼的興趣。 這位應徵者沒有興趣，也沒有謙虛。 他沒有生活能力也就罷了，他還看輕那些能力，覺得自己花錢就可以買到，何必自己學。 花錢可以上好的餐廳？但體會不出美食背後的文化意義。 花錢可以坐頭等艙去義大利，但站在競技場中央不會有思古之幽情。 「吃」只需要像機器人一樣張嘴閉嘴，但「品嘗」就需要用到五官和心。我也曾經張嘴閉嘴過。 在美國念書時，覺得讀書最大，其他一切都是浪費時間。 有一段時間，我請中國餐廳每晚送便當給我。 他們五點送到大樓門口，進不了大門，就把便當放在地上。 我六七點回到家，有時下著雨，就在公寓門口地上，一堆廣告傳單之間，挖出又濕又冷的晚飯。 上樓後一邊吃，還一邊翻著課本。 多年後，我的經濟狀況比當學生時好的多，吃的東西卻一樣濕冷。 六七點窩在辦公室，沒事做了，但也不想回家。 跑到附近面小吃攤上隨便吃碗麵，匆匆又趕回公司，生怕錯過了重要的E-mail。 肚子飽了，甚至因為吃得太快而很脹，但味蕾很懶散，心情很空虛。 我也曾是個賭徒，野心勃勃地想：一旦我考上第一志願，或是當上總經理， 或是找到天命真女，一切的問題都迎刃而解，那天以後，我就會過著幸福快樂的日子。 為了那些快樂的日子，現在苦一點沒關係，繼續做夢吧。 在聯考制度下長大的我們，我們都是延遲快樂的高手，擅長讓人生在未來某個終點線等候。 但聯考制度下長大的我們，後來也都發現：得到第一志願和天命真女之後，他媽的竟然有新的問題！ 被延遲的快樂不但不生利息，反而連本金都沒有了。 人生不會在未來某個終點線等候，她與你打一個照面，你不抓住她，她說走就走。 陪伴你的只剩感歎，和打不完的玻尿酸。 於是我戒了賭，開始用定存的方式，一天一天累積快樂的利息。 如果沒有命一把贏到大的快樂，那我就一餐一餐累積小小的幸福。 今年以來，我開始講究每一餐。 未必要山珍海味，但就算是蚵仔煎，也要細嚼慢嚥。 未必去大飯店，但就算是路邊攤，資料也要搜集齊全。 我把每一餐，當做生命給我的一個機會。 當我打開餐巾、舉起刀叉，我聽見生命對我說： 「你可以透過食物和旅行來認識、享受我。」 用這種方式你賺不到錢，得不到名，但是快樂卻一點一滴地發生。原汁原味，絕對實在。 和愛情相比，食物不會可歌可泣，但至少不會騙你。 沒有愛情的時候，你就多吃！ 我飽讀詩書，卻發現這才是真正的醒世箴言！ 九月初的週末，晚上點吃完美食，和一位老友在街上巧遇。 「最近忙什麼？」我問。 「忙著補習考金融證照，」他感歎地說 「沒想到我們這個年紀，還要上補習班。」 「有什麼關係？我也在補習。」我說。 「你補什麼？」 「想報一個旅行團，到瑞士學烹飪。」 他愣了一下，然後慢慢笑出來。Yes，我的老友懂了！ 那微笑的源頭是一種醒悟，醒悟到經歷了名、利、愛、恨， 到頭來人唯一能真正擁有的，是一顆熱騰騰馬鈴薯。 醒悟到天上會飛來很多真、假、虛、實，真正對你好的東西，都是從地底下長出來的。 「報名時別忘了我。」他叮囑。 我點頭，就像高中時答應幫他報英文補習班一樣。 對工作，我們都已鞠躬盡瘁。對人生，我們才剛要開始！