For many myself included at one time, why do I need life insurance or a savings plan. The long and short of it is that most of us make our decisions based of 100% income. We tell ourselves things like I make $$,$$$ (you fill in the number) and I can afford this. The realization is that we don’t have access to 100% of our income. In fact lets do some basic math here:
Income = $100,000
Tax Bracket= 25% ($25,000)
Tithe/Charity= 10% -20% ($10,000 – $20,000)
Savings/Investments= 10% -20% ($10,000 – $20,000)
So let’s go into the math here for just a minute we will use the low end of all for this example.
$100,000-$25,000-$10,000-$10,000= $55,000 (Far cry from where we started)
So how do we change all of this, we have to plan. Without a plan we have planned, but it is planned to fail and need assistance from others later in life or during emergencies that happen in our life time. We each must spend hours studying and learning all that we can and do it ourselves or we find an Adviser that can help us through this process. It isn’t a short process but a life time process. I have learned this not only personally by not looking at things this way but also from the experience of from my Mother and Father.
You see my father lived to be 80 years old. He literally passed away 6 months after he could no longer find employment that provided him purpose. I am a workaholic honestly. My mother who is now 75 as of this writing is still working full time. But one big difference for her is that she wants too and doesn’t have too.
You see my father was still needing to work to support the life style had become accustomed to, and hadn’t saved not one dime over all those years (I had to borrow the money to pay for his funeral, please support your military through the Navy & Marine Corps Relief Society, as they assisted me in this desperate time of need). In fact because of the year he was born (1919) he was also given reduced Social Security Benefits (SS). You see for those of you that may not know SS wasn’t even enacted until 1935 (SS Act in Wikipedia). As a result those born in certain earlier years would not have paid in as much, so they would have to take less. Seems fair, except that we have a SS system that is broken and by the governments own paper work will be paying out more in benefits than they take in SS Tax by 2016.
Social Security Statement Example (Dated January 4th, 2010)
So what are our options?
Meet with a professional adviser. I don’t think that there is ever a cookie cutter answer here either. No two plans are alike, just as no two people are exactly alike, not even identical twins are exactly alike, same DNA but different characteristics (See article on Identical Twins Finger Prints click here).
I have included here some other reference information too for your education! Please take a few minutes a learn some interesting facts here about what is happening in our society right now. None of us are really prepared, I don’t think I have ever met a single person that was so completely together that all bases were covered. I have counseled with litterally thousands of people about financial concerns. I spent 20 years in the US Navy counseling our Sailors, I have spent 8 years since retiring from the military in the Financial Services Arena as a Mortgage Planner, Insurance Adviser, and Debt Management Specialist. I have spent thousands of hours reviewing financial records of people just during the professional phase of my career and have seen many different cases. One thing that they all had in common though, is that all they had to do was have a sincere desire to change their situation and be ready to commit to a plan of action. Some plans are very basic, because of the natural instincts of the client. We can go back to my parents again here. My mother and father weren’t married at his death, I only tell you this because what my mother has accomplished with the natural instincts has been nothing short of amazing. I say this not only as her son but also her Executor and Adviser. Every detail is planned and was done so by her and out of Love. I can honestly say that the passing of my father was the only argument that my younger brother and I have had in our adult life. It was all over when to take Dad off of life support. I wanted all the arrangements in place as everyone in the process had their hand out for money once it was done.
I believe personally from experience and knowledge, that planning for us not being here and how that is passed on to our heirs is one of the most loving gestures that we can do for our families! Please take the time now, for tomorrow may be to late. I would be honored to assist you through this process if you aren’t working with someone now. If you are working with an adviser who is only Securities Licensed, I suggest that you get a Great Insurance Adviser on the team too. Be prepared for the two to compete for the same money and keep in mind the end results that you are trying to achieve.
