Seek and Find!
To illustrate how life insurance can help you plan your estate wisely, let’s compare what happened upon the death of two friends: Frank, who bought life insurance, and Dave, who did not. (Please note that these illustrations are hypothetical.)
As we walked out of the hospital, my sister turned to her kids and said, “Please take care of me at home if I get as sick as your grandmother.” I turned to my husband and said, “Just put me in a nursing home and go on with your life.”
These days, it’s not unusual to hear of $2 million, $10 million, and even $20 million court judgments against individuals. If someone is injured in your home, or if you cause a serious auto accident, you could have to pay such a judgment. If you don’t have an umbrella liability policy at the time of the accident, anything above the limits of your homeowners, renters, or auto insurance policy will have to come out of your pocket.
When it comes to saving and investing for retirement, there may be a quiet battle of the sexes going on in many households.
My father is a big fan of the K.I.S.S. principle (“Keep it simple, sweetie.” What? Your father calls it something else?).
What really happened to Cinderella after she married Prince Charming? Did she live happily ever after?
Many people can’t wait for retirement. They have visions of playing golf, fly-fishing, reading, volunteering, spending hours with their grandchildren, and engaging in all manner of activities they never had time to do before. But several questions often weigh heavily: Do I have enough money tucked away to make my retirement vision a reality? Or will I end up barely scraping by? Can I afford to continue to live in my current home? Or should I downsize or move to a cheaper area of the country?
“The key to building wealth is simple in theory but difficult to do: Spend less than you make and invest the rest,” says Jean Duffy, a CAPTRUST financial advisor in West Des Moines, Iowa.
