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Whole Life Insurance vs. Term Life Insurance

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Determining whether to purchase a life insurance policy can be complicated, and the issue becomes even more confusing as you consider personal factors (such as family make-up and budget) and the different types of life insurance (whole life and term life.) As you assess your needs, you may wonder whether you need the coverage, which type is best for your situation, and how much insurance to get. Before starting, it’s important to understand the differences between and the pros and cons of both whole and term life insurance.

Whole Life Insurance

A whole life insurance policy provides protection for the rest of your life, as long as you’re still paying the premiums. If the policy is still effective when you die, your beneficiaries will receive a sum. This type of insurance is often chosen as an investment of the cash value. These plans usually consist of a death benefit, premium, cash value, and dividends. Most people consider buying whole life insurance when they want to provide money for funeral expenses, leave an inheritance, or save their family from estate taxes.

The Pros

  •          Coverage lasts until the age of 100 instead of 80 which is when term insurance expires.
  •          Your heirs won’t have to pay estate taxes or will have a reduced amount of taxes.
  •          Your loved ones can receive a tax-free payout at your death.
  •          As long as you pay premiums, their amount is fixed, and the death benefit is guaranteed.
  •          The policies build cash value and may be counted as an investment after other options have been maxed out.

The Cons

  •          The primary purpose of whole life insurance is not as an investment, so your returns are sure to be conservative.
  •          This type of life insurance tends to be most expensive.
  •          You may end up paying for coverage you never really need.
  •          The money in your policy doesn’t really belong to you; if you borrow from the policy, the withdrawal is treated like any other loan.

Term Life Insurance

The purpose of term life insurance is to give your family or beneficiaries a temporary financial resource if you pass away. This type of coverage offers a death benefit but doesn’t carry any cash value. The policies usually span a set amount of time, such as three or thirty years. The premium is affected by the age and health of the policyholder.

The Pros

  •          Term life insurance is very affordable, sometimes no more than a dollar or two a day.
  •          The coverage is easy to understand and rarely include an exam plan.
  •          This type of insurance can be converted to a whole life or universal life plan.
  •          Many add-ons are available for customized plans.

The Cons

  •          These Columbus life insurance policies will expire when their terms are up. The annual renewable term is much more expensive, and the cost continues to increase at that point.
  •          There’s no savings or investment option with this type of policy.

How to Choose

The best way to determine which type of Columbus life insurance is best for you and your loved ones is to talk over the options with an agent. Some customers begin with coverage they can afford and adapt their policies to meet changing needs. Which type of insurance coverage sounds best for your situation?

3 Tips For Analysing Cryptocurrencies

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If you’ve been thinking about investing in cryptocurrencies, there are a few things you should know. While some are common sense, others are less so. Here, we discuss a couple of tips to help you out with the proper analysis of cryptocurrencies.

  1. What problem will your investing solve?

Before you invest your hard-earned cash, ask yourself what problem your investment will solve.

Take bitcoin as an example. It was the very first project that brought a real use case for blockchain technology. It was presented to the world as a cryptocurrency with extremely small fees, almost instantaneous transaction times, a degree of anonymity and a decentralised ledger.

Click here to find out how to buy Bitcoin in Australia.

  1. Transparency

One incredibly important factor to take into consideration if you are wanting to invest in cryptocurrencies is the team behind the crypto. Here are a few important questions to think about:

  • Does the team have previous experience in the industry that the project may be tackling? While previous experience isn’t a necessity, it certainly helps if the team has knowledge and expertise in the industry. Take the Enjin team as an example. They’ve been in the gaming industry for quite some time and do have the relevant understanding and skills to launch a cryptocurrency within the online gaming space.
  • Does the team engage with the community and provide regular updates? Do they seem to be running to time in terms of delivering their roadmap? A good example of this is districtox – they communicate effectively and when necessary.
  • If the team is anonymous and the project doesn’t require them to be, what are they hiding? For instance, it’s perfectly understandable if they are at work developing a privacy coin, but less so if they’re developing a cryptocurrency for, say, esports.

Fortunately, we live in a digital era where you can spend some time online looking for all the information you need in terms of who is behind a cryptocurrency project.

  1. Partnerships and Investors

One particularly positive thing when you are considering what to invest in, is to analyse the project partnerships and investor. While it’s a fairly self-explanatory reason, having the backing of reputable and renowned entities does give the project even greater legitimacy. Here are a few examples of projects with top-notch partnerships and investors:

  • VeChain partners with DNV GL, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Kuehne+Nagel
  • Request Network is backed by Y Combinator
  • Stellar (XLM) partners with IBM
  • IOTA received hefty investment from Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH

Final Word

These are just 3 ways to conduct proper analysis of cryptocurrencies you are thinking about investing in. It is important to know what you are going to be spending your money on. Just jumping on the latest and most popular coin may well bring short-term gains, but if you want serious long-term investments, you do need to carry out a proper analysis.

Can Betting On Horse Racing Be Profitable?

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Horse racing is a hugely unpredictable sport and gambling isn’t necessarily renowned for increasing bank balances. However, with sensible staking and a healthy working knowledge of the sport, it can be possible to make a small profit and have plenty of fun along the way.

Source: The Racing Post via Twitter

There are a number of different strategies and techniques used by professional gamblers but making a long-term profit is far from easy. There are always going to be ups and downs but it’s important to take your time, follow patterns and race results and not jump in feet first.

The first rule is to only bet money that you can afford to lose. Betting is great if you have budgeted for the month and still have a surplus £20 but if things are tight, it is advised to simply take a watching break. Just because you aren’t able to have a wager, it doesn’t mean you can’t check the result and make a note of things such as the winning trainer and jockey.

Sensible staking is absolutely imperative. It is generally advised that you should never place more than 5% of your starting bank on any one bet. For example, if you’re starting with £5o, your first bet should be in the region of £2.50. Naturally, if you make a profit, this will gradually increase. This will help ensure longevity and won’t have you scrambling around for further funds.

Source: OTI Racing via Twitter

One misconception amongst gamblers is that there is an obligation to bet on every single race. There are often upwards of thirty races per day in the UK and very few people have enough time on their hands to meticulously study every single card. If you don’t feel confident about a horse’s chances, it is generally advised to abstain and wait for the next race to come along. Races such as Novice Stakes on all-weather tracks are often incredibly difficult to call and should probably be avoided.

Races such as the Grand National are a terrific spectacle but they can also be hugely unpredictable. By following the sport throughout the season, you are more likely to pick up clues and it is often possible to find the early-value in the ante-post markets. Shantou Flyer was priced at 100/1 prior to the Cheltenham Festival but following a solid run in the Ultima Handicap, the Sue Smith-trained runner has been cut to 25/1 according to Oddschecker. It is possible to place a bet months in advance and can often ensure a bigger payout than those who only got involved on the day of the race.

Profiting from horse racing takes tremendous dedication and hours of hard-work It isn’t easy to leaf through pages-upon-pages of previous form, but this will pay dividends in the long-run. If you aren’t willing to put in the effort, you are likely to fall short. Those who stake sensibly, select their races carefully and aren’t afraid to take a watching brief are likely to find it a hugely enjoyable and potentially money-making experience.

Three Critical Investing Tips For Millennials

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As it stands, the millennial demographic is larger than any other generation. Having said that, do they plan and save better for retirement than the other generations? Maybe, maybe not.

As millennials move into the critical earning years of their lives, it’s essential for them to save as much for retirement as possible. While it may be challenging to sock away a significant portion of your paycheck, investing wisely in the market could prove to be very beneficial in the long run.

But how?

Jason A. Sugarman suggests following the following three tips to investing in the right kinds of stocks.

Avoid Trends

Steering clear of fads will yield positive results. Just because you love snapchat, doesn’t mean you should throw all of your money into Snap Inc. We see way too often company’s stock diminishing after an IPO.

In order to avoid this pitfall, consider whether or not a company truly has potential for growth based on personnel and product advancement.

Let the Market Grow With Time

Sometimes, the best advice is to just “do nothing”. In this sense, investing in a mutual or index fund can yield some nice returns in the long-run. This may be a great option for millennials who really don’t have the time to monitor stocks and analyze the market.

It’s amazing how often an index fund will outperform a hand-picked hedge fund (not to mention the high fees that come with actively managed funds).

By removing the guesswork out of investing, indexing is a great way to go. You can also consider a target-dated fund, which rebalances your account automatically with age.

Early is Better than Later, More is Better than Less

As an investor, the biggest benefit that you can have on your side is time. When you’re young, you have leniency to take risks and suffer losses through the turbulence of the market. In regards to your retirement, risk really doesn’t matter that much due to the amount of time that you have on your side.

As history shows us, the stock market (over time) moves in a positive direction. We’re never going to have a 35 year recession. Unless we have some catastrophic event that ruins capitalism, you’re guaranteed to earn money in the long-run.

Investing in the stock market when you’re young is much akin to going shopping and buying something on sale. You’d purchase an item on sale even though you may not wear it until later, right? Millennials should look at stocks in the same light.

Recap 

Sure, investing can be very tricky. Having said that, if you follow these three tips, you’ll be sure to have some nice earnings later in life. Get started today!

Advice From Brennan & Clark Collection Agency – How to Avoid Falling Behind On Your Debt Repayments

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Debt is a affliction which many people are suffering under the weight of, not everyone of course, but there are many who are finding it difficult. Well managed debt is absolutely fine and will not cause any issues to you at all, poorly managed debt is a large problem however that affects many aspects of the life of those in financial difficulty. The key to staying on top of your debts, is to stay on top of your repayments, and we spoke to the Brennan & Clark collection agency, to give you some pointers on how to ensure that you are on top of your debt repayments.  

Review and Negotiate

The first step is to look at all of you debts, and the repayment amounts, and then cross reference that with your salary and the bills which you will have to pay each month. When reviewing your debts, you should also pay particular attention to the date on which the payment is required. After reviewing your repayment details, you can then speak with your creditors, to tweak the agreement somewhat. For example make sure that the date of repayment, is shortly after the date that you receive your wages, making the payments easier to make. If you have found that with all of you bills and repayments, you don’t have enough money to survive each month, speak with your creditors and try to make an agreement to pay less over a longer period of time.  

Prioritise

Debt repayments are something that you can’t forget about, or put off for another month, they are vital payments that must be made monthly. And so when you receive your salary, you ought to consider repayments in the same way that you would think about paying rent, or your gas bill. Make sure that you understand the importance of these repayments, and that you give them high priority to avoid falling behind.

Communicate

It is vital that any changes in your personal circumstances is known about by your creditors. It is up to you to notify your creditors of a change in salary, sudden unemployment, unexpected medical bills or any other situation which impacts your ability to repay your debts. Once you notify the creditors, in most cases you will find them more than happy to make alterations to your agreement with them, in order to keep your repayment plan up to date. The key is not to hide, but to notify your creditors of the changes.  

No More Borrowing

One thing which you must ensure that you avoid, is borrowing more money. Whilst in the short term, loaning money to cover your repayments and give you some cash on the hip may seem like a good idea, in the long run this will only compound your debt issues, and ensure that your repayments are made far more difficult in the future.

Jonah Engler Reviews Latest Wall Street Moves on Investors

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There have been a number of investigations and allegations made on how the millions of people in this country who have their money invested in insurance policies, mutual funds, and pension plans, are being fleeced. Brokers and investments must, by law, give their clients the most favorable terms, looking at 12 different exchanges and choosing the best one. Unfortunately, however, it seems that brokers are not sticking to these rules. This is something Jonah Engler has recently uncovered and is now trying to change.

The Business of Brokerage According to Jonah Engler

It is a known fact that brokers often take rebates for choosing certain exchanges over others. What this means is that investors do not get the best outcome possible, but brokers gain more. In a sense, the system is rigger. On the grand scheme of things, the harm done is minuscule on a trade by trade basis, but it is much greater on non-professional investors who have placed their financial future into these trades.

If a broker is to find the best financial option out there, then they should look at incentives to buy and sell with a queue that is as short as possible. The longer the queue, the worse the outcome. However, it seems brokers still choose the longer queues and that these queues are also the ones that offer the greatest rebates.

There are exchanges that don’t engage in these tactics. For instance, the IEX does not pay any rebates at all. They also have a type of speed bump in place, so that ordinary investors have a fighting chance against the high frequency trading. They opened on August 19, 2016 with a simple promise: to execute trades better.

Another option to consider is BATS, which was founded by a high frequency trader and is now a significant rival stock exchanges. Their website shows what the execution quality is of all the different exchanges. This website, which uses data from FINRA and other debt knowledge sources, has shown that Nasdaq, which has always led the spread rankings in the S&P500, is losing ground to IEX.

Yet, the overall market share that IEX currently enjoys is just 2% of the total market, despite having much more effective spreads. According to Jonah Engler, this is because IEX is a principled exchange that does not pay kickbacks – or rebates. Both the New York Exchange and BATS are following suit in this, reverting some of their exchanges back to a model that does not use kickbacks.

If more would follow suit, then the securities market in this country would have far greater quality and integrity. It makes the whole system fair and would increase people’s faith and trust in the industry as well. With kickbacks in place, it becomes impossible for a broker to truly follow their best execution duty, even if they are legally obliged to do so.

Jonah Engler belies that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should also be involved in this, as they are the ones who can enforce brokers working with the best options for their clients, not themselves.

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