Archive for April 22nd, 2008
Personally I kind of like the idea of everyone having availability to health care. The idea that people who don’t see doctors now might start getting regular checkups would dramatically decrease those conditions that are discovered only when it is out of control, or too late.
But what about life insurance? It would cost a lot less than health care and would likely have just as dramatic an impact on people’s lives, specifically families. Think about all of the families that are devastated when the breadwinner dies and there isn’t any life insurance. Think about all of the children that could go to college rather than crawl into minimum wage lives without any help. Think about all of the newly single mothers who would have the means to start over, perhaps with the time and money to re-educate themselves.
Bottom line. Whether it is health insurance or life insurance, the lack of either can ruin a family’s future. Just another political moment!!
April 22nd, 2008
I caught the title of an article on prostate cancer out of the corner of my eye today and immediately drew the wrong conclusion. The article, “Exercise may lead to faster prostate tumor growth” drew an immediate reaction from me since I exercise daily. I started weighing the quality of my life with and without exercise and balancing that against a quicker death should I be diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Read the whole article Ed!! As I read on I learned that this test was in mice and that indeed, those that exercised daily experienced tumor growth almost twice of those that were sedentary. The conclusion was that due to increased blood flow to the tumor (and everything else), the tumor was able to grow quicker.
Still a bit up in arms, I read on. Where they were headed with this presumably bad news was in the direction of potential good news. The fact that exercise seemed to increase blood flow to prostate cancer tumors (and potentially other types of cancer as well), meant that exercise might very well deliver blood with anti cancer drugs more quickly and potently. In fact, exercise might be the key to stopping the growth of a tumor in it’s tracks.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men, but has a very good survival rate if caught early. That’s why all of us old guys get PSA tests annually. Some of you younger guys ought to consider using that as a good example and doing the same.
The other good news about prostate cancer caught at an early stage and low grade is that life insurance, a year or so out from the end of treatment, is generally available at standard or better rates. This is kind of a luxury call for a cancer survivor as most of them give some thought to the whole mortality issue after the experience, but with many kinds of cancer your chances of acquiring life insurance at affordable rates for the foreseeable future is slim to none.
Bottom line. Keep exercising. Only the mice are dying quicker from it and that is only because they didn’t treat the cancer. In the next round of tests they will be treating the cancer to see if the same exercise speeds up elimination of the tumor.
April 22nd, 2008
It seems that every time I write about whole life insurance and the fact that any positive attributes it may have had at some point in history are gone, someone feels the need to point out what an idiot I am. I take it all with a grain of salt since the stern correction usually comes from someone who sells whole life.
Let’s be real about this issue though. If I couldn’t prove what I assert about whole life, I simply wouldn’t keep pounding away at it. The real truth is that newer, fully guaranteed permanent products don’t rely on huge amounts of your cash to keep the policy glued together. That frees up the extra money to go into real investments.
But, they argue, the cash value builds income tax free. Let me see! Even at the astounding rates that Northwest Mutual claims they will pay on their whole life, 6-7% (most pay around 3%), it still seems to me that long term mutual funds that historically pay over 12% will provide more bang for your buck. But you can’t borrow it they argue! If you’re managing your money correctly and have an emergency fund set up, you shouldn’t be touching your investments until retirement anyway.
Bottom line. Whole life started stinking a very long time ago and, like fish, it doesn’t seem to improve with age. Term insurance or universal life insurance with a no lapse guarantee provide the coverage and the guarantees needed for any portfolio. So, consider the gauntlet thrown. If anyone out there wants to offer a whole life illustration, I will be gladly prove that I can better serve a customer with other products. After all, this is about our customers isn’t it?
April 22nd, 2008
