Recently, a senior editor of the respected personal finance publication, Kiplinger, described the best financial move he’s ever made:
My wisest move was buying whole life insurance in the 1990s, precisely when countless books and articles mocked whole life as obsolete. My wife, Debbie, did the same. In the ten-plus years that we’ve paid $5,000 a year combined into our policies, both from extremely sound mutual-insurance companies, we’ve built substantial five-figure cash values, can borrow from them instantly at virtually no cost and haven’t paid a cent of tax on the earnings.”1
Like most people who have Bank On Yourself plans, Jeff’s only regret is probably that he didn’t put more into the policies!
It’s a virtual certainty that Jeff and Debbie’s policies are traditional dividend-paying whole life policies, rather than the specially-designed, super-charged variation used for the Bank On Yourself method.
Had Jeff and Debbie’s policies been designed the Bank On Yourself way, they’d have significantly more cash value now.
As the Dow moved through the 10,000 mark this week, a dose of reality is in order…
1. The Dow first closed above 10,000 on March 29, 1999 – more than a decade ago!
It’s just now catching up to where it was then.
By contrast, a Bank On Yourself-type policy grows by a guaranteed and predictable amount EVERY single year. It never takes a ten-year vacation… or even a one-year vacation! (For the record, the stock market takes a 10-year or longer “vacation” pretty often, as any glance at a stock market timeline reveals.)
Both your principal and gains are locked in – they don’t vanish in a market crash.
The growth is not only guaranteed, it’s exponential – it gets more efficient every year you have it. That gives you some built-in protection against inflation.
2. The typical mutual fund investor has actually been LOSING money every single year for the past TWENTY years, after adjusting for inflation!
That’s because most investors – and even most investment “experts” – continually buy and sell at precisely the wrong time.
(Source: DALBAR’s 2008 Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior)
3. For the past forty years, ordinary long-term treasury bonds have outpaced investing in the stock market!
That means the only “rewards” investors have received for taking the extra risk of stocks and equity mutual funds are sleepless nights and broken retirement dreams (Source: “Bonds Why Bother?” Journal of Indexes, May/June 2009 Issue)
Sheesh! Is this the best Wall Street has to offer us?
You’ve probably heard the old saying,
Fool me once, shame on you, Fool me twice, shame on me.”
How many times have you already been fooled and had your hopes raised, only to be dashed again and again?
If you’ve had enough of that, and want a financial plan that never takes a vacation, never goes backward, and never disappoints, why not take a step in a positive direction and request a free Bank On Yourself Analysis that will show you how much brighter your financial picture could be when you Bank On Yourself?
You know, I have to tell you, I really enjoy this blog and the insight from everyone who participates. I find it to be refreshing and very informative. I wish there were more blogs like it. Anyway, I felt it was about time I posted, I