Life is full of twists and turns. Well, a known fact is that life is highly uncertain and we ourselves do not know what is waiting us in the very next moment. At a given moment, we might feel at top of the world and in the very next moment we may land in some or the other problem. Therefore, it is very important that whatever things we do in life, we should make proper planning because planning is essential. Knowing that life is uncertain, we try to secure our self and the lives of our loved ones. Therefore, we try to do things like taking up life insurance policy, investing in the right investments and many similar things. There steps that we take are definitely wise and these things help us in the future. One such evidence is the life settlement scheme that was introduced to help the senior citizens who are in need of money. With the help of a life settlement policy, they can sell off their life insurance policy and get the insured amount in return. This is definitely a good thing because with old age comes the problem of shortage of money.
People who stay in Coventry can easily apply for Coventry life settlement because this gives them a chance to sell off their life insurance to a life settlement agent and get the insured sum of the money in return. Well, there are some basic criterions that need to be fulfilled while opting for life settlement policies. The person has to be of sixty-five years of age or more. Moreover, he or she should not be suffering from any terminal disease and should have a life expectancy of atleast twelve years. Once you match up to these criterions, then you can easily opt for a Coventry life settlement and can solve all your financial problems.
One can never avoid death; it is an inevitable truth associated with life. However, one can make it more secure and enjoyable by taking sensible step with life insurance policy; if you are thinking that how a life insurance policy can make your life enjoyable as it reimburse money only after death of the policy holder or after contracted period of time, then you must update your knowledge. Now one can sell his or her unwanted insurance policy anytime; this scheme is really very beneficial for everyone as it equally benefit the person who is investing in life settlement. Being the policyholder, you possess the privilege to sell it whenever you want; definitely it gives you double benefit as it provides you with good cash as well as relief from unaffordable premiums. By selling your policy you can meet variety of financial requirements right from medical treatment to home improvement or any vacation.
Life settlement is not only beneficial for the policyholder but also advantageous for the investor. Person, who is investing in life settlement, gets great financial benefits as after completion of settlement process he or she is the only owner of the policy. Basically, individual investors invest in policies that are of high valued and bear less risk; in cases where the policy has numerous unpaid premiums, only life settlement firms like investing in life settlement policies. There are n numbers of benefits associated with life settlement; the biggest advantage that an investor gets from such policies is lower face value. For policies, that are long term this face value is very high therefore when a person sells it this value gets transferred in the account of investor. In fact, by investing in life settlement one can get the great way earn money in future as a policy can be sold multiple times.
Since money is the major factor to live life happily, investing in life settlement offers every investor the great opportunity to fortify this factor. In bread sense, for a policy holder buying a life settlement policy is an investment itself; since it give him or her unexpected benefits at the time of financial crisis. Usually, this policy is sold to only those people who have a very low expected; this the basic reason why it offer such a high value and incredible monitory benefits. In many cases, people who suffer from any life threatening disease buy this policy with an intention to sell it in future; in fact this thought has helped many people in enjoying every aspect of life to the fullest.
If done properly, investing in life settlement can prove to be the most sensible decision of any investor. The popularity involvement of life settlement companies in every life settlement deal has made it more reasonable for both parties as these companies take care of every assessment and create justified deal for them. This procedure is really helping investors in establishing a better financial condition and giving seniors a reason to enjoy life to the fullest. Therefore if you are interested in any of available life settlement schemes, then go for it without any doubt and get best benefits.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Get Great Financial Benefits by Investing in Life Settlement
Monday, December 15, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
The Lowdown on Life Insurance Medical Exams
There are three main ways a new life insurance policy is priced: Underwritten policies are those where you answer questions on your personal and family medical history and undergo a medical exam arranged by the insurance company; a simplified issue life insurance policy application asks you some medical questions but does not require a medical exam; and a guaranteed issue life insurance policy requires no questions and no medical exam. If you're healthy, or even if you have a few medical problems, you're likely to get the best insurance value from an underwritten policy, which is priced specifically for you. Simplified issue and guaranteed issue life insurance policies set a price that assumes risk that you may not have.
Whether you're buying term life insurance or whole life insurance, you'll likely be asked to undergo a medical exam. These are typically performed by licensed paramedicals who are often independent contractors hired by the insurance company. They will schedule a visit to your home for the exam and bring all the necessary supplies. The life insurance company foots the bill for the exam.
Health questions
When you submit your completed application for your life insurance policy, your agent or life insurer will call a paramedical service to let them know you require an life insurance medical exam. The service will then contact you to arrange a convenient time and place. You must have the exam or your application won't be processed.
The life insurer may still request an attending physician's statement (APS) from your doctor, but you cannot have the life insurance medical exam done by your own physician.
In a basic exam, the paramedical will take your medical history (even though you've already supplied it on your application), height and weight, blood pressure, pulse, and blood and urine samples. Beyond that, tests will vary based on your age and policy amount.
For example, MetLife will order an in-home EKG for applicants age 50 and older who are applying for face amounts of at least $1 million. For applicants age 70 and older who are applying for $2 million policies and higher, MetLife forgoes the paramedical exam and requires an exam by an M.D. chosen by MetLife (not your own doctor). The doctor will ask the same medical questions as a paramedical and get your height, weight, blood pressure and pulse, plus do a brief medical exam such as listening to your heart.
Jacki Goldstein, Vice President of Life Underwriting at MetLife, emphasizes that this is not a comprehensive medical exam and does not include sensitive issues, such as a breast exam for women. Goldstein also stresses that the M.D. life insurance exam is not a substitute for good routine medical care.
When age and face amounts get higher, a treadmill test may be required. For example, MetLife requires treadmill tests for applicants who are at least 50 and applying for over $10 million in insurance or applicants 76 and older applying for $5 million or more.
If you're applying for a low face value policy, you may not even be asked to do a paramedical exam. For example, if you're age 40 and applying for $50,000 of life insurance, MetLife requires no specific tests or measurements. And for some cases, MetLife asks for a "simple paramed" exam, encompassing the basic measurements and blood and urine work but without the paramedical question list. Guidelines for tests will vary among life insurers.
What are They Looking For?
The life insurance company wants to know if you have any health condition that could shorten your life which in turn affects the insurer's risk and your policy premium. When samples of blood and urine are collected, the insurer tests for HIV, cholesterol and related lipids, liver or kidney disorder, diabetes, hepatitis, prostate specific antigen (PSA) and immune disorders. The urine sample might go through routine analysis, plus screening for certain medications, cocaine and other drugs.
Results go to the life insurer's home office for an underwriter to review. You can usually send a written request if you want a copy of the results, and some insurers will automatically send you a copy of your lab work. If there's anything of concern about the lab results, you would need to consult your own doctor. Goldstein says, "It's not uncommon to have abnormalities that don't mean anything."
A life insurance underwriter then reviews your application and the results of your medical exam. They decide your life insurance rating, which sets your premium. If there are lingering questions about your health, they may request additional information or medical tests. In the very rare event you are unknowingly quite ill chronically or terminally your application would be declined and you would have to look for a high-risk carrier or one that offers guaranteed issue life insurance.
Don't Let Your Life Insurance Premiums Go Up In Smoke
Smokers pay higher premiums for life insurance because of their higher mortality rate. If any nicotine shows up in your results, you'll be considered a smoker. The test also detects nicotine from a transdermal patch.
After the Life Insurance Exam Results
If your test results correlate with the classification used for your original life insurance quote, you'll have no problem getting that rate. If a medical problem is discovered, you might be offered a life insurance policy with a higher premium.
There are two types of risk ratings: "flat" ratings, sometimes called temporary flat extras, and "table" ratings. Underwriters assess health conditions based sophisticated table to determine how to rate certain health conditions.
For instance, an underwriter might apply a flat rating for a short period of time for a person who has just had surgery. On the other hand, a person with high-blood pressure could receive a table rating, which increases premiums by a set amount for the duration of the policy, depending on your medical condition and age. If you disagree with a rating you receive, contact your agent.
Agents can find out if the rating can be revised based on supplemental medical tests to prove you qualify for a better rating.
Even if you end up declining the life insurance policy, your test results become part of your record in MIB Group's database (formerly the Medical Information Bureau), a clearinghouse of medical information that insurers share which stores information for seven years after you apply for a life, health, disability income, long term care or critical illness insurance policy.
MIB is jointly owned by about 470 insurance companies. So, if you go shopping around for other term or whole life insurance policies, remember that your medical information is accessible to other insurers in the near future. Note that MIB's database does not contain actual medical records but rather codes that represent medical conditions and tests, hazardous hobbies and even your bad driving record.
If you want to check your MIB file, or dispute information in it, you can obtain one free report annually at www.mib.com.
No Way, You Say?
Life insurance medical exams are really quite routine. But if you want to avoid a medical exam at all costs, you could buy a simplified issue life insurance policy, which requires only that you answer a few medical questions, or a guaranteed issue life insurance policy, which requires neither an exam nor questions.
Keep in mind, though, that if you're in general good health, or even with a history of some health issues, you'll likely get a much better rate by buying a life insurance policy that requires a medical exam.
Tips for a Better Life Insurance Medical Exam
Certain health conditions simply cannot be masked, but to obtain the best possible results, here are some recommendations:
-Get a good night's rest the night before your exam. -Don't drink for at least eight hours before the exam.
-Avoid coffee, tea or other caffeinated drinks such as soda for at least one hour prior to the exam.
-Limit salt intake and high-cholesterol food 24 hours before your exam.
-Don't engage in strenuous physical activities 24 hours before the exam.
Source: Exam & Profile Services, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
Friday, December 12, 2008
How to Acquire Life Insurance
Okay here it is life insurance. Don't get me wrong I am not putting down term life insurance. Utilizing your savings, borrowing against your life insurance, and getting a home equity loan are also useful to pay off credit card loans.
An actuary is the guy who develops the life expectancy tables for life insurance companies. So, having a whole life insurance policy is also like having your own little savings account. The face value of your life insurance can be tailored to help provide the income stream through this interim period.
Unclaimed inheritance can include: Bank accounts Savings Accounts Life Insurance Payments Safety Deposit Boxes Social Security checks Old Pay Checks Stocks, Bonds and Dividends the list goes on and on. Lots of people - especially our lawyers and accountants - have opinions about what kinds of life insurance we should own. Many planners will suggest that all or part of an irrevocable trust be funded with life insurance.
It is also recommended that you check your account before any major decisions, which may require a credit check such as buying a house or applying for home or life insurance. What really worries life insurance underwriters? Fixed annuities are offered only by insurance companies licensed to underwrite life insurance and annuities by the state in which you reside.
Once you have a family of your own, acquire a reasonable amount of life insurance. Life insurance - life insurance quote, life insurance rate, term life insurance, Jankowski had all the life insurance they needed.
Sam cashes in his life insurance and borrows against this house. So who uses permanent life insurance? Some term life insurance policies are renewable for one or more additional terms even if your health has changed.
Term insurance is commonly known as a 'pure' form of life insurance because it only covers the insured for a specific period of time. Once you file for bankruptcy, you will have trouble getting a mortgage, a loan, new credit cards, life insurance and even some jobs. It is one of the most important life insurance policies a person who owns a home can buy.
The Advantages of Term life insurance typically boasts low premiums. If you were owed money from a life insurance policy from a company in New York, that company may report the money in the New York state database. And isn't this why you buy life insurance in the first place.
These benefits may include health insurance, retirement savings plans, disability insurance, life insurance, dependent care reimbursement accounts, vision care, dental insurance, employee assistance plans, job counseling and educational benefits. Both refer to the selling of your life insurance to a third party. The variations on whole life insurance cover include:
Non-profit
UK whole life insurance policies: This is the simplest form of whole life cover, and enables you to enjoy the convenience of level payments through the term of the policy until you die.
Knowing what you would like to accomplish with your life insurance policy and approximately how much you need to achieve these goals will help you determine how much life insurance you should consider purchasing. The equity is then put into no risk custom life insurance product. You will receive more by selling your life insurance than you would if you simply surrendered it to the insurance company.
They were obviously good prospects for life insurance. Confirm the policy can be cancelled without penalty: Most term life insurance policies can be cancelled at any time without penalty.
Monday, December 1, 2008
"return of Premium" Term Life Insurance Comes of Age
With a traditional term insurance policy, you buy a coverage term, such as 15, 20 or 30 years, and pay a fixed annual price. If you don't die within that term, your contract ends and you receive nothing, having paid for the "risk" that you might have died.
An ROP term life insurance policy gives you 100 percent of your premium money back (it's tax-free) at the end of your term if no death benefit has been paid. Or put another way, "You can rent your insurance or you can buy it," says Alan Lurty, Senior Vice President at ING.
How much will it cost me?
An ROP term life insurance policy will cost more than a comparable traditional term life insurance policy, and there is a significant range among insurers for that surcharge, plus significant ranges depending on your age and the length of term you want.
It will really pay to shop around for the best term life insurance quote, but on the low end you can expect to pay 50 percent more than comparable traditional term life insurance. So, for example, if your annual life insurance rate for traditional term insurance would be $3,000, adding an ROP option could bring it up to $4,500 annually. On the high end, you might be looking at paying 150 percent more over the base premium, so that $3,000 premium would become $7,500.
Shoppers should also note that with a ROP term life insurance policy, generally the longer the term the less you'll pay out overall in premiums. So a 30-year ROP term policy could actually end up costing less total money, at the end of the term, than a 15-year ROP policy. How does that happen? Because the 30-year term gives the insurer more time to make its money back by investing your premiums. So make sure you price out different term lengths when getting a life insurance quote.
Generally, you will not be returned premiums for extra riders you may add to the ROP term policy.
Who considers it?
The likely customer for ROP term life insurance is a person who has the confidence he'll outlive his life insurance policy. Or it could be the person who can't get over the feeling that term life insurance is a "waste of money" if the death benefit isn't paid out. ROP term life insurance provides a way to hedge your bets no matter what happens.
What if I surrender my ROP policy early?
It's not wise to buy any life insurance policy if you don't intend to keep up on payments. However, if you do surrender an ROP term life insurance policy early, you will get some of your premiums back based on a sliding scale if you've held it for a few years. Check your life insurance policy details about that sliding scale before you buy.
Many life insurance companies offer no premium returns if you surrender your life insurance policy within the first few years. Your life insurance policy will spell out the rules for surrendering it, such as when partial premium returns would start and the sliding scale for those returns.
For example, just because you're halfway through your life insurance policy term doesn't mean you'll get half your premiums back if you surrender it. The longer you keep it, the higher percentage of premiums you'll get back, up to 100 percent at the very end of your term. (If you die during your term, your beneficiaries receive the death benefit without any premium return.)
Can I get it for less?
Life insurance companies such as ING and Genworth offer two flavors of ROP term life policies, usually called basic and enhanced (more expensive). Under the "basic" contract, you pay a lower life insurance rate than an enhanced life insurance policy because you get back less if you surrender it early.
For example, if you bought ING's 15-year term life "basic" ROP life insurance policy and surrendered it in year 10, you would receive 30% of your premiums back. If you held ING's "enhanced" 15-year life insurance policy for 10 years you'd receive 60 percent back.
For either basic or enhanced life insurance policies you always receive 100 percent of your premiums back if you get to the end of your term.
Invest the difference?
Maybe now you're thinking that another option would be to take the premium difference between traditional term life insurance and ROP term life insurance and invest the difference. Would you come out ahead at the end? It depends mainly on your term length. Lurty of ING offers this example: Say you're looking at traditional 30-year term for $1,500 or ROP 30-year term for $2,000 annually. That's $500 a year you could otherwise put into investments. To equal the money you'd get back from your ROP life insurance policy at the end of 30 years, you would need to see an investment return on the premium difference of about 7 to 8 percent. How well has your portfolio been doing? Lurty says that with ROP term life insurance policies you don't have to worry about "investing the difference" because it's being done for you.
Note that the example is for a 30-year term. With shorter-term ROP life insurance policies, like 15 or 20 years, you might indeed yield more at the end of the term by investing the difference. And you would need the self-discipline to actually invest those extra dollars each year.
Of course, should you die within the term, only the death benefit is paid out. Thus, don't view this as an investment product.
Expect to see more return-of-premium insurance policies as it catches on.
Companies selling return of premium term life insurance:
-American General Life Insurance Co.
-Fidelity Life Association
-Genworth Life & Annuity Insurance Co.
-ING Reliastar Life Insurance Co.
-Lincoln National Life Insurance Co.
-Pruco Life Insurance Co.
-Pruco Life Insurance Co. of New Jersey
-Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Co.
-The United States Life Insurance Co. in the City of New York
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Attract More Of What Your Really Want Into Your Life With The Law Of Attraction
What do you want to attract into your life? Have you ever thought about it? I mean what do you really want? A nice car, a big house, a soul mate?
Well with the power of the Law of Attraction you can attract what you really want into your life.
What is the difference between people who seem to have it all and people who seem to have little? The difference is not fate or coincidence. The difference is the way people think about whatever it is that they are thinking and feeling. The Law of Attraction is responding to feelings and thoughts. Thoughts are energy, thoughts make us have feelings and emotions. This is an ancient knowledge and through the "Secret" DVD and other publications on the Law of Attraction it has become public knowledge now. So many people are able because of this to make big changes in their lives. It is a powerful knowledge that you can use to turn things around completely.
Here is how you can get started today to attract what you want into in your life:
1. Make a list of all the things you would like to attract into your life. Put the most important one at the top of your list.
2. Now you have to understand that you have to do some mind work. You know that
Whatever you have right now in your life if you wanted it or not you have attracted to you by the way you think and feel. You emotion play a big role in this.
If you do not like what you are attracting simply change the way you are thinking!
This may sound easy enough but it is a process, it does not happen over night and you have to become involved in making your mind over and in changing your thought patterns. To help you along with this you can start meditations daily. You may find this difficult at first if you are new to meditations. If you continue however you will soon notice a difference in the way you are feeling. Meditations will help you are great deal to become a person that is able to be in harmony with cosmic laws. Choose this special time of the day when things are quiet around you, maybe late in the evening or early in the morning what ever may work best for you and your lifestyle. Sit quiet for at least 10 - 15 minutes and try not to think about anything. If thoughts will enter into your mind just dismiss them gently. As longer you can do this as easier this kind of exercise will become for you. These sessions will be refreshing for you and soon you will be looking forward to meditate. You can make them even more pleasant with some instrumental back ground music and herbal candle lights.
3. Reprogram your subconscious mind! This is an important factor. We are only using a very small fraction of our mind consciously. Using the Law of Attraction successfully we need to make sure that we deliberately creating thought patterns that match with what we want.
Meditation is one tool that can help you to get started in attracting what you want into your life and become the person you always wanted to be inside and out.
There are no magical powers but knowing the secrets of the universe can make us deliberate creators of our own life experiences!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Why Top Producers Achieve Stellar Results With Life Coaching
When you meet those top producing brokers and realtors who seem to have it all – you know what I am talking about – those people who have a great life, great vacations, loving family relationships, sweet investments and luck on top of all that, you might look further and see that person in a life coaching program. Top producers who are committed to having a fulfilling experience in life may have gotten some of the wind beneath their wings in a life coach program.
Now, many of the top salespeople I have worked with don't care about having a fulfilling experience. They care about winning. They care about awards. They care about the juice, the next sale, the win. But then what happens to their lives?
After coaching 8,273 salespeople, with many top producing realtors among them, I began to see the "the win at all costs" mentality. And I began to notice others who win and experience fulfillment in other areas of their lives as well. What a difference.
Top sales people who focus only on the wins, the next deal, the bigger deal, often find themselves out of touch with the very aspect of their lives that they told themselves they were winning for.
Top sales people often find they win the deals at the expense of their family. They are winning but are they really losing touch with their children or their family? Or have they forgotten about health? Or maybe they are winning but their emotional life is a wreck.
Now, a top producer can take comfort in the glory of the win. Except when winning costs the experiences of family, of joy, of travel, of spiritual growth – then it can be a bittersweet victory.
I would like to bring to you another entirely amazing side of humanity. Top salespeople who want it all can indeed begin to experience life that is completely and wholly successful – because these individuals stop and recognize that being a great producing broker and a terrible dad is a hollow victory. And it wouldn't be much fun to be a great sales person in the hospital on the second triple bypass heart surgery.
What if instead a life coach could help you achieve victory across many different aspects of yourself? Nearly all great sales people who experience life to the very fullest take advantage of life coaching. Here is what I want to share with you today. When you get everything into balance, when you are working on every aspect of your life, it's as if you have a magic wand that enables you to get things done that other people cannot possibly get done. You can accomplish a lot more in much shorter periods of time.
People who live in balance achieve at an extremely intensified rate. When other people put in one and receive one, those individuals who are firing on every level of their being – mental, physical, spiritual, financial, all of the areas of value in their lives – can actually put in one ounce of "effort" to receive 10 times the results. When you are operating on all cylinders, you will feel completely at ease and in control – as you embrace more success than you have ever experienced. This is why life coaching is taking off. Work on your entire life, and experience results across all of the disciplines. It's worth the trip.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Buying life insurance: A Shopping Checklist
When shopping for term life insurance, you want to find the right amount of insurance coverage at a reasonable price with a company you can trust. But for many people, getting started is the hardest part. That's where the following Life Insurance Checklist can help.
- What you would like your policy to achieve? Ask yourself what it is you want your life insurance to do. For example, do you want to have insurance coverage that will:
• Pay funeral arrangements?
• Pay the outstanding balance owing on a mortgage and other debts?
• Offset the loss of your income? And if so, for how long?
• Contribute to the future education of your children?
• A combination of all or part of the above?
Knowing what you would like to accomplish with your life insurance policy and approximately how much you need to achieve these goals will help you determine how much life insurance you should consider purchasing. Online life insurance calculators are available to help you put a dollar value on the amount of coverage you need.
Who would you like to insure under the life insurance policy?
Most insurance companies offer a variety of life insurance products to suit your lifestyle and family needs. You can get an insurance policy on your own life, or you can get one policy for both you and your spouse (called a joint life insurance policy). The most common joint life policy provides coverage when the first partner dies, leaving the life insurance benefit to the surviving spouse.How long will you need life insurance?
Consulting a psychic isn't necessary, although it does require that you estimate the timing of your life insurance needs. For example:
• When will your mortgage be paid off? The amortization period of your mortgage will often determine how long your term life insurance policy should be.
• When will your children be finished school? One day they'll finish their education and having enough life insurance coverage to pay their educational expenses won't be necessary.
• When are you planning to retire? You will have less income to replace at that time.
Knowing how long you'll need life insurance coverage before you begin shopping will ensure you're comfortable with the life insurance product you end up purchasing. Online tools are available to help you figure out which term for your life insurance policy is most recommended for people with similar lifestyles.
So now that you've got the how much, who and how long questions answered, you're ready to shop.
Compare life insurance quotes from multiple companies:
It pays to shop around because life insurance rates can vary considerably depending on the product you choose, your age, and the amount of coverage you request. This is the easy part, because with the Internet you can compare life insurance quotes easily, online, anytime.Which life insurance rate has been quoted - standard or preferred? There are two basic life insurance rate groups you should know about when shopping for life insurance coverage: standard rates and preferred. Standard life insurance rates are the rates the majority of Canadians qualify for, while about one third of the population is eligible for preferred rates.
Preferred life insurance rates are typically offered to very healthy people and means you may pay a smaller premium than most. Usually preferred rates are offered only once the results of the medical information and tests are known. It will depend on your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, height, weight, and family health history. But preferred rates are worth it. They could save you up to 30-35% off your quoted premium.
When comparing prices, make sure you're comparing 'standard to standard' or 'preferred to preferred' life insurance rates. If you're not sure, ask the broker. It would be disappointing to find out you were quoted preferred rates at the beginning, only to find out you don't qualify for them later.
Review the life insurance broker's availability:
How easily can you get a hold of the broker? What are their hours of operation? Whether it is through their website or telephone, the life insurance broker should be easily accessible to you should you ever have questions or need to speak to them about a change in your life insurance needs. Look for toll-free numbers and extended hours of service as guides.Review the medical information required to obtain the policy: Typically the more medical information you provide, the better the price. For a policy that asks few or no medical questions, you can bet the premium is higher for the same coverage then a plan asking for more information. Depending on the company, your age, and the amount of coverage you want, you could be asked to provide blood and urine samples. To obtain the samples, a nurse will visit at not cost to you.
Consider a life insurer's financial stability and strength: A company's financial stability is something to consider if you are planning on making a long-term purchase like life insurance. There are organizations out there, like A.M. Best, that evaluate insurers and provide a rating on their stability and strength.
Ask about renewal options and requirements: Once the initial premium is set, it is usually guaranteed for the length of the policy (often 10 or 20 years). But what happens when the policy expires? Most policies are renewable until you are 70 or 75 so don't forget to ask your broker if you will have to take a medical to renew your policy. While your premiums will be higher on renewal, find out if they will also be guaranteed to remain level for the second term of the policy.
Confirm the policy can be cancelled without penalty: Most term life insurance policies can be cancelled at any time without penalty. Make sure to check with your broker to see if the life insurance company has any unusual cancellation policies.
Consider the conversion options and restrictions for the policy: As your life changes so do your life insurance needs and you may want the option to convert your coverage some day.
To convert a term life insurance policy means to transfer all, or part of, the death benefit of the policy into a permanent life policy without a medical. For example, say you originally bought a term policy to protect a mortgage and child. Once the mortgage is paid and the child grown, you might find it desirable to convert the policy into one that will give you a new level premium for the rest of your life, and a death benefit that is guaranteed not to expire as you age.
When you purchase your life insurance policy, find out if there are any limitations on your age at the time of conversion. In most cases, you have the option of converting up until you are 60 or 65. As well, ensure you are given several options of the type of policies you can move into, the more the better.
Final tip - choose a life insurance broker you trust: While it doesn't necessarily impact the type of policy you choose to purchase, a rapport with your broker is critical in feeling comfortable with the life insurance policy you buy and the information you've received.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Compare Instant Online Quotes For Term Life Insurance Today
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Issuance of Life Settlement Policy
Life settlement is a sale transaction takes place in life insurance policy, where the policy holder is responsible for the cash payment received from the sale of life settlement policy. The person who posses the life settlement policy, obtains all benefits and premium payments at the time of policy maturation. The life settlement policy is offered by the life insurance company to the third party. Life settlement is financial transaction, where the policy holder holding life insurance policy sells the policy for a price more than its purchase. At the time of maturation, life settlement policy provides all benefits and premiums to the person who posses the policy.
In life settlement policy, cash payment is obtained comparably larger than the cash surrender value of the policy. Nowadays, life settlement becomes the important and essential for the self development and easy accessibility in the market for considerably fair value. Life settlement policy works well among the people. In life settlement, more number of transactions occurs between more number of buyers and sellers. Life settlement involves more number of buyers and sellers and it serves the purpose. Life settlement ensures the functionality and responsibility of different persons involved in the sale transaction. Life settlement is a specialized function and it enforces the responsibility of person involved.
The policy holder of life settlement policy will be over the age of 65 and who no longer needs any particular life insurance policy in his life. Generally, it should be known that the life settlement i.e. the policy holder should have life expectancy in their life. Life settlement policy is framed as per the rules and regulations of the state, where the life settlement policy issued. The rules, restrictions and responsibility of life settlement policy differ as per the states and statutes. Depending upon the life expectations of the policy, the sale of life settlement policy can be determined. Life settlement policy is issued in different types based on the demands of the customer.
Life settlement policy satisfies the demand and requirement of the policy holder with regards to the statutes and ordinance of the state. Since life settlement transactions are based in financial assessment, most of the life insurance company issues it to the holder under legal advice. There are more people involved in life settlement policy and particularly the life settlement provider serves as a purchaser in the transaction by paying cash more than the surrender value. Life settlement policy is issued by the best life insurance company with compliance to the laws and satisfies the demands of the policy holders. Therefore life settlement policy serves its purpose.
Whole Life Insurance - Permanent Life Insurance
Many people think life insurance is useful only for a specific period in life: those twenty to thirty years when a person is married with children living at home. The assumption is that should a breadwinner die once the children are grown, the surviving spouse will be able to support himself or herself on a single income. In such a scenario, life insurance is necessary only a 10- or 20-year period. Those who share this outlook believe that term life insurance, which provides coverage for a limited number of years, provides all the protection they need. Because the coverage is closed-ended, term life is the least expensive kind of life insurance available.
Other consumers are not so optimistic. What happens, they wonder, if the surviving spouse becomes disabled? Even after the children grow up and move away, a disabled person will not be able to support himself or herself if the breadwinner dies. If the term life insurance has expired, the disabled spouse will have no safety net in the event of the death of his or her spouse. Similarly, a child may become disabled and unable to move out and support himself or herself like other children. With a disabled adult child living at home, the surviving spouse might not be able to meet all the expenses on his or her own.
Divorce can factor into life insurance decisions as well. A term life insurance policy might cover a "first" family, but many people divorce, remarry, and start new families. The number of people having or adopting children in their forties and fifties is increasing steadily. A term policy taken out in a breadwinner's twenties or thirties will expire just as the new family is getting started, unless he or she has "renewable" term life. Even then, costs will go up.
It is possible for an older person to buy a new term policy, of course. The problem is that insurability is not guaranteed. If a person is in poor health or has had a serious illness, such as cancer, insurance companies can and will deny coverage. Even in ideal health, a person will pay much more for term life over the age of 50 than he or she would have much earlier, erasing some or all of the savings realized during the term of the first policy. For example, a 55-year-old woman will pay 6.8 times more for a 30-year, $500,000 policy than she would have at age 30--$2,210 a year compared to just $325 a year. Prices will increase by as much as 30 percent if the insured is just 10 pounds above the insurance company's ideal weight. If the person weighs even more, rates will skyrocket.
Some term life policies are renewable without needing a physical exam. These policies cost more than standard term policies, but they allow the coverage to continue. The premiums rise with each renewable period, reflecting the greater risk of death as a person ages.
The best way to guarantee insurability and control insurance costs into middle age is to buy permanent life insurance, such as whole life insurance or universal life insurance. Permanent life insurance does not expire until the insured does. In addition, the premiums will not go up based on the health, weight, or age of the insured. If a permanent life insurance is taken out while a person is in his or her twenties or thirties, the premiums are much higher than those of a term life insurance. Because the premiums remain constant, however, they are lower than those of a term life policy taken out later in life.
Permanent life insurance also provides a way for consumers to generate savings, something that term life insurance does not. Term life is pure insurance in the sense that it insures the policyholder's life and nothing else. Permanent life insures a life, too, but it also includes a mechanism for saving money. When the permanent life insurance policy is new, the cost of insuring the life is lower than the premium amount. The insurance company deposits the excess amount (minus the company's fees and profits) into savings account. This money, known as the cash value, increases each time a premium is paid. The insurance company invests these funds in the open market. The returns on the investment are credited to the account. These gains are tax-deferred, meaning that they grow, untaxed, as long as the money is in the account. If the cash value is withdrawn or used to pay the premiums after the insured reaches retirement age, no taxes are paid on the gains.
The policyholder can access the accumulated cash value by withdrawing it, borrowing it, or using it as collateral for a loan. The insurance company also agrees to pay the cash value to the policyholder, if he or she cancels the policy.
There are basically two types of permanent life insurance: whole life and universal life. Both offer permanent coverage and cash value. They differ in the amount of flexibility they offer policyholders. Whole life offers set-it-and-forget-it simplicity. The death benefit, premium amount, and rate of cash value accumulation are fixed at the outset. Universal life allows the policyholder to modify the original contract, based on changing circumstances and needs. For example, if the policyholder loses his or her job, he or she can decrease the premium to make it more affordable. By contrast, if the policyholder receives a promotion, gets a better paying job, or enjoys growth in their own business, he or she can increase the premium amount to accumulate cash value more quickly. If the policyholder marries, has more children, buys a larger house, or for any reason needs a larger death benefit to sustain his or her family, he or she can increase the death benefit of the universal life insurance policy.
Universal life insurance accumulates cash value in a different way than whole life does. With whole life, the rate of accumulation is low, around 3 percent, but it is guaranteed and unchanging. With universal life, cash value accumulates at varying rates, depending on the performance of the insurance company's investments. Typically, universal life outperforms whole life, and accumulates cash value more quickly. It is possible, however, for the opposite to happen. Many universal life policies offer a guaranteed minimum return, but it is lower than the return for a comparable whole life policy.
Permanent life insurance is a practical solution for consumers who worry about coverage and insurability later in life. Those who are happy with a simple, unchanging, guaranteed plan may opt for whole life. Those who want the option of adjusting the premium amount or the size of the death benefit may find that universal life offers the perfect combination flexibility and security.
Life Insurance - Pros and Cons of Whole Life & Term Life Coverage
"Do I need life insurance?" "Is whole life insurance a good investment?" "Is term life insurance risky?" Questions like these are posted in online communities on a daily basis. The answers vary widely, with the term life and whole life camps polarized. The tone of the debate is surprisingly strident. After all, the topic is insurance—not a something expected to inspire strong opinions, let alone strong language. But words like "rip-off," "scam," and "waste of money" fly back and forth, sometimes accompanied by rows of exclamation marks or worse. What is behind the brouhaha? And which camp—if either—is right?
The two sides do not even agree about whether a person needs life insurance. Whole lifers say, yes. You do not want the death of a family member to disrupt your family's finances or jeopardize its future. It is hard enough to adjust to the loss of a loved one. Adding financial difficulties exacerbates the problem. With the skyrocketing costs of funerals, even children and seniors should have at least a small life insurance policy.
Not so fast, say the term lifers. The only reason to have life insurance is to replace the lost income of a family member who dies, and then only when the spouse or family is dependent on that income. If you are single with no dependents and no debts that might be transferred to your family in the event you die, then you do not need life insurance. If you are married and your spouse works, you probably do not need life insurance, either, assuming your spouse makes enough to support himself or herself.
The time for life insurance, term lifers say, is when the policyholder's income is vital to the financial security of the family. If, for example, you have purchased a home together and your spouse could not pay the mortgage and other bills by himself or herself, then life insurance is in order. If you have children, you will want to have enough life insurance to allow your family to maintain its lifestyle after you are gone. This includes not only meeting day-to-day expenses, but also being able to follow through with plans for higher education. Insurance professionals recommend buying a policy with a face value 5-10 times the breadwinner's annual salary to help family meet expenses for a period of years.
Whole lifers see problems with the term-life scenario. The view it as overly optimistic, even naïve. Many things can happen during the 20- to 30-year period covered by term life insurance that could extend the need for coverage beyond the policy's end date. For example, children may be born mentally retarded, with severe autism, or with another serious condition that could prevent them from becoming independent when they reach adulthood. Children also can develop a disease or suffer an accident that disables them. A spouse, too, can become disabled. In these situations, the family will remain dependent on the breadwinner's income long after the term life policy expires.
Term life insurance advocates point out that in such cases, the breadwinner can renew the term life policy, or take out a new one. Now it's the whole lifers' turn to say, "Not so fast." By the time the second term life policy is needed, the breadwinner will likely be in his or her fifties or even sixties. Due to the age of the insured, the cost of a second term life policy will be much higher than the cost of the first was. With the added years come added risks of certain diseases. If the breadwinner is obese, has developed high blood pressure, a heart condition, diabetes, or another disease, the cost of the term life policy will skyrocket. If the individual has developed cancer or AIDS, he or she may not be insurable at all. In such situations, the cost savings realized on the first term life policy could be wiped out by the high cost of a second term life policy.
By contrast, the premiums of a whole life policy are set for life and do not go up with age or medical condition. A whole life policy cannot be canceled due to medical conditions, either. The policy remains in force until death, as long as the premiums are paid.
"Until death" is another advantage of whole life, its advocates maintain. Whole life gets its name from the fact that it insures the policyholder life until death. As a result, whole life insurance is guaranteed to pay a death benefit—the amount the policy pays upon the death of the insured. The death benefit can be increased—at certain points at no additional cost—as the policyholder ages. A small policy designed to cover the funeral costs of a child can be increased to provide adequate coverage during an adult's peak earning years. Whatever the death benefit or "face value" of the whole life policy, the insurance company guarantees to pay it. As a result, the policyholder or his or her beneficiaries always receive some, all, or more than the premiums paid into the policy.
This is not the case with a term life policy, whole lifers point out. The term life insurance policyholder can pay premiums for 30 years, but if he or she outlives the policy—even by a day—then all of the premium money is gone. The only thing the policyholder will have received is 30 years worth of peace of mind.
Whole life insurance, by contrast, accumulates a value that the policyholder can access during his or her lifetime. This value is known as the cash value or the surrender value. The whole life policy holder can use the cash value as collateral for a loan, or even borrow some of it during his or her lifetime. The policyholder must pay this amount back. If he or she dies before it is paid back, then the unpaid amount is deducted from the death benefit. If the policyholder decides to cancel the policy, the insurance company will pay him or her the cash value, which is then known as the surrender value. Whole life, its proponents maintain, is not only insurance against death. It is an investment for life.
This is where the debate turns nasty. Term lifers often ridicule the investment features of whole life. Because whole life always pays a death benefit, it costs 5-10 times more than term life does. Term lifers argue that a person is much better off getting a term policy for the same face value that they would get a whole life policy, then saving and investing the difference in premiums. Almost any investment will return more than a whole life policy will, term lifer proponents maintain. Over 20 or 30 years, the difference can be vast. Buy insurance to insure, the term lifers say, and use the savings to invest.
Whole lifers respond that the return on a whole life policy is guaranteed at the outset, something than cannot be said for other investments. To earn greater rewards, the term life policyholder must take greater risks in the open market. Many investments will outperform whole life insurance, but not all will. Some investments lose money, as shareholders in World Com, Enron, Peregrine Systems, and many other companies can attest.
Even if the investment will pay out, it is not certain that the term life policyholder will actually make it. To do so, he or she must calculate the amount saved over whole life insurance; save that money every month, quarter, or year; research possible investments; and contribute to that investment regularly for 20 or 30 years. This makes sense for disciplined and savvy investors, but many others will find the endeavor daunting and time consuming. They may not start it, and if they do, they may not continue it. Whole life takes care of insurance, savings, and investment in one easy payment. Even if the returns on whole life are not great, saving something is better than saving nothing, and nothing is exactly how much many term life policyholders will end up saving.
Both whole life and term life have pros and cons. People who are financially savvy and disciplined will gain from the term life scenario. Those who need a convenient and simple mechanism for insurance and savings will benefit from whole life insurance. Deciding which is best for you requires an honest appraisal of your goals, your lifestyle, and your investing skills.
Friday, November 14, 2008
"return of Premium" Term Life Insurance Comes of Age
With a traditional term insurance policy, you buy a coverage term, such as 15, 20 or 30 years, and pay a fixed annual price. If you don't die within that term, your contract ends and you receive nothing, having paid for the "risk" that you might have died.
An ROP term life insurance policy gives you 100 percent of your premium money back (it's tax-free) at the end of your term if no death benefit has been paid. Or put another way, "You can rent your insurance or you can buy it," says Alan Lurty, Senior Vice President at ING.
How much will it cost me?
An ROP term life insurance policy will cost more than a comparable traditional term life insurance policy, and there is a significant range among insurers for that surcharge, plus significant ranges depending on your age and the length of term you want.
It will really pay to shop around for the best term life insurance quote, but on the low end you can expect to pay 50 percent more than comparable traditional term life insurance. So, for example, if your annual life insurance rate for traditional term insurance would be $3,000, adding an ROP option could bring it up to $4,500 annually. On the high end, you might be looking at paying 150 percent more over the base premium, so that $3,000 premium would become $7,500.
Shoppers should also note that with a ROP term life insurance policy, generally the longer the term the less you'll pay out overall in premiums. So a 30-year ROP term policy could actually end up costing less total money, at the end of the term, than a 15-year ROP policy. How does that happen? Because the 30-year term gives the insurer more time to make its money back by investing your premiums. So make sure you price out different term lengths when getting a life insurance quote.
Generally, you will not be returned premiums for extra riders you may add to the ROP term policy.
Who considers it?
The likely customer for ROP term life insurance is a person who has the confidence he'll outlive his life insurance policy. Or it could be the person who can't get over the feeling that term life insurance is a "waste of money" if the death benefit isn't paid out. ROP term life insurance provides a way to hedge your bets no matter what happens.
What if I surrender my ROP policy early?
It's not wise to buy any life insurance policy if you don't intend to keep up on payments. However, if you do surrender an ROP term life insurance policy early, you will get some of your premiums back based on a sliding scale if you've held it for a few years. Check your life insurance policy details about that sliding scale before you buy.
Many life insurance companies offer no premium returns if you surrender your life insurance policy within the first few years. Your life insurance policy will spell out the rules for surrendering it, such as when partial premium returns would start and the sliding scale for those returns.
For example, just because you're halfway through your life insurance policy term doesn't mean you'll get half your premiums back if you surrender it. The longer you keep it, the higher percentage of premiums you'll get back, up to 100 percent at the very end of your term. (If you die during your term, your beneficiaries receive the death benefit without any premium return.)
Can I get it for less?
Life insurance companies such as ING and Genworth offer two flavors of ROP term life policies, usually called basic and enhanced (more expensive). Under the "basic" contract, you pay a lower life insurance rate than an enhanced life insurance policy because you get back less if you surrender it early.
For example, if you bought ING's 15-year term life "basic" ROP life insurance policy and surrendered it in year 10, you would receive 30% of your premiums back. If you held ING's "enhanced" 15-year life insurance policy for 10 years you'd receive 60 percent back.
For either basic or enhanced life insurance policies you always receive 100 percent of your premiums back if you get to the end of your term.
Invest the difference?
Maybe now you're thinking that another option would be to take the premium difference between traditional term life insurance and ROP term life insurance and invest the difference. Would you come out ahead at the end? It depends mainly on your term length. Lurty of ING offers this example: Say you're looking at traditional 30-year term for $1,500 or ROP 30-year term for $2,000 annually. That's $500 a year you could otherwise put into investments. To equal the money you'd get back from your ROP life insurance policy at the end of 30 years, you would need to see an investment return on the premium difference of about 7 to 8 percent. How well has your portfolio been doing? Lurty says that with ROP term life insurance policies you don't have to worry about "investing the difference" because it's being done for you.
Note that the example is for a 30-year term. With shorter-term ROP life insurance policies, like 15 or 20 years, you might indeed yield more at the end of the term by investing the difference. And you would need the self-discipline to actually invest those extra dollars each year.
Of course, should you die within the term, only the death benefit is paid out. Thus, don't view this as an investment product.
Expect to see more return-of-premium insurance policies as it catches on.
Companies selling return of premium term life insurance:
-American General Life Insurance Co.
-Fidelity Life Association
-Genworth Life & Annuity Insurance Co.
-ING Reliastar Life Insurance Co.
-Lincoln National Life Insurance Co.
-Pruco Life Insurance Co.
-Pruco Life Insurance Co. of New Jersey
-Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Co.
-The United States Life Insurance Co. in the City of New York
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Philosophy of Life
...Fulfilling your destiny
You will understand what life is if you think about the act of dying. When I die, how will I be different from the way I am right now? In the first moments after death, my body will be scarcely different in physical terms than it was in the last seconds of life but I will no longer move, no longer sense, nor speak, nor feel, nor care. You will also come to understand what life is, when you struggle in life and you achieve nothing. It's these things that are life at that moment, the psyche take flight in the last breath.
What is philosophy of life?
Philosophy of life constitutes one of the most important pillars of life studies. The task of philosophy of life is to think deeply about the question "what is life, death and destiny".
Philosophy of life is the study of life. It is all about knowing the principles guiding life. One may ask "what is life all about"? What is the purpose of living here on earth? Probably everyman in this world always have such type of question. You may ask yourself, "Why am I reading today? Why am I hunting for a job? Why am struggling in life to reach the sky? What is the need for me to do all this things when I that one day I have to go. What will be my destiny here on earth? What will my future after death? What are the principles guiding life. These are all the questions running through ones mind. But if we know the way, is very easy to follow the path.
Philosophical inquiry into some basic concept concerning life, death and destiny
Let us remember that the ultimate aim of life studies is to help us live our limited life without regret and also to fulfill our destiny here on earth, hence, first, we have to make clear what the exact meaning of "limited life" is. We are all going to die sooner or later but what does this mean to us exactly. Surprisingly, this is an extreme hard question to answer. Sometimes we think that we are the way of a long journey. Until when life pushes us to the wall, we then know we have a limited life. I can really say that the purpose of this limited life is to be busy in something and not only been busy but also for us to make a positive impact in peoples lives. Don't you think it necessary for you? In our happy days, we do not think much about this but in pain all philosophical things dances around us. We all have a mission to accomplish her on earth. This is related to a question, "What is my destiny here on earth?" we all have a mission here on earth. We were all created for a purpose. As we all different names with different background, our destiny is also like that. What I have come to realize here on earth is that even if we die at younger age and still fulfill our destiny here on earth we have no problem. Once we impacted positively in some ones life when alive we will have a good reward. I believe that first we have to discover our destiny before we can achieve our mission. What I have come to realize is that our weak point is our destiny. For us to discover our destiny we have to know what our weak point in life is.
Napoleon Hill once wrote in his book that we are mind with body. Because we are mind, we possess mystical powers known and unknown. If we dare to explore the powers of our mind, I believe we can achieve our destiny here on earth. If you can direct your thoughts, control your emotions you ordain our destiny.
We are all going to die sooner or later. This closely connected to another question, "what happens when I die?" but we cannot know anything certain about this question. Hence the question of life study would be like this "what is the meaning of life?" when we do know nothing about life after death. Also we have to make clear about other important questions, such as "what is life without regret?" we are going to die in the end, so why must we live? What is different between life and existence? Probably life without regret means that when I die, I can really believe that I am happy to have been born. Through out my existence on earth, I made an impact. I transformed lives positively.
What is life?
One may say "I have done good things but nobody says to me a single world of appraisal and a lot of times when I have done nothing, doing some normal things then people say I have done a good job." What is life all about? What we are told about life are the opposite of what we see.
Life is period between some ones birth and death. This is the period of time (limited time) between birth and death. This the time we have in our whole life to do anything we want to do. This the time we all have to make a difference in our world.
We can also have a clear understanding of what life is all about, if we read about creation in the book of Genesis. We saw that God created man in His image and breathed inside man. God deposited an extension of His inside every man. Therefore life is an extension of God in us. It is the power we have to make a difference in our world.
Basic principles guiding life
For us to succeed in life, for us to live a life without regret, there are basic principles we have to follow. There are principles guiding life which when we apply them we make a difference in our world. The basic principle includes:
• Right understanding
You will understand what life is if you think about the act of dying. When I die, how will I be different from the way I am right now? In the first moments after death, my body will be scarcely different in physical terms than it was in the last seconds of life but will no longer move, no longer sense, nor speak, nor feel, nor care. It's these things that are life at that moment. The psyche takes flight in the last breath.
Right understanding is the foundation for developing a proper sense of values, so sorely lacking in our age. Without right understanding our vision is dimmed and the way is lost; all our effort in life will be misguided and misdirected, all our plans for individual and social development must flounder and fail.
When wrong views prevail we will operate with a perverted sense of values: we will fling ourselves into blind the pursuit of wealth, power and possession: we will be obsessed by the urge to conquer and dominate which life is not all about. But having a right understanding, having a right view will point us towards an enlightened sense of values, towards detachment and kindness, towards generosity of spirit and selfless service to others; towards the pursuit of wisdom and understanding.
Having right understanding will enable us to recognize that worldly values are man-made and relative. Right livelihood and right action leads to peace and harmony in our lives.
• Life and ownership
What is the conceptual relationship between "I" and "life"? People who justify suicide may insist that "ones life" belongs to him or herself. But is this the same as saying that the person owns his/her life. One may say, since I have the extension of God in me, I have the power to life. I am the right owner of life.
The major problem hindering us from succeeding in life is the problem of life and ownership. We all say, God is the owner of life. He is the giver of life, but we still live our lives as if we are the owner of life. A right understanding of ownership of life will make us live purposefully. This will help know the purpose of living. Having a clear understanding that life is not our legal property, we will make it our first priority to uphold our moral values. We do anything we want and how we want it without recognizing the objectivity of the moral law.
We have to know that our life is not our legal property but hope to our environment. Let us try to live a life that gives hope to others.
• Simplicity of life
Simplicity is the quality of being natural and plain. It's all about making things working in a simple way. If we have right understanding that our desires are endless, we will know that simplicity is the step to succeeding in life. Seeing that life involves incessant change and it subject to forms of suffering, one with right understanding learns to live simply and regulate desire. A wise and virtuous person is moderate in his desires and follows the middle way in ever matter. One with right understanding is aware real happiness is an inward state- a quality of the mind and should therefore be sought inwardly. Aristotle once said that "happiness is independent of external things though of course a certain degree of material security is necessary as a basis for inner development.
Now we don't really know the different between an asset and a liability. Author of a book "Rich dad poor dad" once wrote that anything that anything that takes money from your pocket is a liability but anything that puts money into our pocket is an asset. People don't really understand what investment is all about. We all go after things that don't really have value. In life we require only four basic kind of physical sustenance: wholesome food, clothing, shelter and medicine. Complementary to these we have four mental needs; right knowledge, virtue, guarding the doors of senses and meditation. These are the two set of basic requisites for living a lofty life.
Understanding the close connection between craving and suffering, we will realize the importance of holding desire in check by simple living. Living simply without superfluous possessions and entanglement leads to contentment and peace of mind, releasing time and energy to pursue higher virtue and values. Life is all about simplicity.
Remember, it is pride and vanity that keep us tied to false goals and the smaller mind the greater is the mind.
• A life plan
To make the best use our human potential, we need not only a practical aim in life, but a life plan for achieving that aim. While we walk along the path of liberation, as laypeople we have we have to live in the world and our immediate objective will be to make our life in the world both a means to worldly success and a stepping-stone to final liberation.
For us to accomplish this, we must recognize our life plan with the framework of the Noble eightfold path with its emphasis on self-effort, self-control and respect for the individual. We can best realize our immediate aims by drawing up an individual life plan in keeping with our powers and circumstances. This our life plan must be realistic. It must envisage a realistic development of our innate potential, steering us towards the fullest actualization of our possibilities.
At a start, we require an honest understanding of ourselves. It is pointless to device a workable life plan on the foundation stone of grandiose delusions about our character and abilities. The more we find out about ourselves, by self observation and self –examination, the better the better be our chances of-improvement.
We should ask ourselves how far and to what degree we are generous, kind, considerate, honest, and sober in morals, truthful, diligent, energetic, industrious, cautious, patient, tolerant and tactful. We need to improve ourselves wherever we are weak. We are what we repeatedly do; excellence is not an act but a habit (Aristotle). A little practice everyday is all that is necessary. We should remember that the more often an action is performed, the easier it becomes the tendency to do it again and again until it becomes a habit, an ingrained part of our character.
What brings life failure is lack of life plan. Majority of us live our life the way we see it and the way the day present it to us. We don't make plans on how we want to live our life. We don't plan for our future. Our life plan should cover all the main areas of a normal householder's life, including occupation, marriage, and the procreation and raising of children, retirement, old age and death. The happiness of lay life consists in finding out exactly what one can do and doing it well.
A clear mental picture of a practical aim in life and realistic sketch of the steps needed to achieve that aim will help guide us to the fulfillment of our idea.
We tend to become what we really want to be provided we act realistically and effectively to realize our aim.
• Life, potential and success
Aristotle stated that where your talent and the world cross, there lies your vocation. Our lives have some things deposited in it. For us to understand and a difference in our world, we have to make use of that potential deposited in us. This potential is all about using the extension of God in us to impact lives.
One secret to life is once we make impacting lives positively our first priority, that's the time we understand what life is all about. For us to make use of the potential deposited in us, we have to understand what success is all about. Making use of our potentials does not guarantee our success. What guarantee our success is making use our potentials effectively and applying the steps to success. Success and potential are the two things that make our life different from others. It is success and potential that makes our future brighter.
There are steps we have to follow for us to succeed in life. There philosophies behind success. The philosophies include:
1. PERSISTENCE
All that it takes to succeed in life is persistence. All the things that you read or know about don't worth a dime if you don't make them happen. For you to make them have you have to work and persist in your work. We make plans and we don't stick to it. Persistence is what makes our idea different from plan. Persistence is what puts our plan into reality. One may persist and not succeed. But keep in mind that the difference between those that achieved greatness and those that didn't, whether it was money, or career, or knowledge or something else, was that they did not give up. They persisted to believe and work to their dream, because what the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve- the self motivator. Let us remember that every adversity has the seed of greater benefit.
Talent and special abilities don't make great people. Persistence does. Success is achieved and maintained by those who keep trying.
2. Do what you love money will follow. The greatest value in life is love of people and importance of serving people.
3. The major problem in achieving our goals is procrastination. If you must achieve something, the best moment to start is right now, not tomorrow, not next week NOW! Today is the perfect day to start. Make a first step to get a little closer to your goal, even if it's a very small one.
One step made means one step less in your long and sometimes difficult journey.
4. GOAL SETTING
Set a goal! Make it specific. You want o make money? Set a figure 3,000, 4,000 Dollars. You want to kill a Lion set a target. Whatever it is set it. Do that for everything, every decision in your life. Make clear for yourself. What is that you want?
5. The next step in making our dream reality is to develop a plan. Use a monthly, a weekly and a daily plan. It's a well known fact that a person that doesn't have a good plan will outrun the one that doesn't have a plan at all. More importantly than making the plan is to respect it. The value of a plan can be measured only by the results. What value has a plan that doesn't get to be accomplished! None. So respect your plan to make it valuable.
6. A not so good truth us humans, is that we live in the prison of our fears. It's our fear that holds you from being brave. It's our fear that holds you taking decisions. It's fear that stops us from changing our lives. Learn to conquer your fear. Believe you can succeed and you will set in motion the greatest of all human power- the mind.
7. Don't let people stop you from believing in your dream. Some people will try to show that your dream cannot be accomplished. But most don't even know they are talking about. Many of your so called friends have conflicting interests and your goals make them feel uncomfortable. Learn to select those that want your success, listen to their suggestions and always decide for yourself.
8. MOTIVATION
We humans need a motivation to make every single move that we make. Motivation is the first step to persistence. What is that you want out of life? You have success born in you. Motivate yourself. Use the mind and the brain. Be a self motivator.
9. Take yourself serious when you have to, but don't over do it. Laugh; make fun of yourself from time to time. You will have a better image about yourself and you will live a more beautiful and longer life.
Conclusion
To be truly happy we require a simple but sound philosophy of life. Philosophy is the keen desire to understand the nature of man and our destiny in the universe. It gives life a sense of direction and meaning. Without one we either dream our way through life or muddle through life.
A clear-cut philosophy makes life meaningful and fruitful, enabling us to live in harmony with our fellows and with the natural environment, thereby fulfilling our destiny.
Written by Ifeanyichukwu Ogbuka
Enugu State, Nigeria.
Ifeanyeogbuka@yahoo.com
Monday, November 10, 2008
Love and Life
ALL ABOUT LIFE
What is life? Every person has its own views about life. Life is a risk. Everybody will have to go through it. There are two types of people: the one, who are brave and confident about life and the other, who are timid ones.
Person who has come on this earth is bound to take this risk. Brave ones take it as a challenge and cowards take it as a helpless and endless phase/birth. For them life is a tough phase and their difficulty in life is the choice. They don't want the choice rather they want to do what they want. For them life is all disappointing because they feel that, what a day may bring, a day may take away.
These two types of people take life not as what life actually is; rather the brave ones feel life to be a great challenging struggle for them. Cowards take it as a tragic birth and dies many deaths. They feel that there are two tragedies in life: one is not to get your hearts desire and the other is to get it.
This class of people is the most discontented ones. If they don't get their heart's desire they feel disappointed; try to end their lives; try to get salvation by going into the jungle and convert themselves into saints and sages or even try to snatch other people's achievements.
The challenging people feel that it would be best to wake up if you want to make your dreams come true. They take every step consciously and walk by faith not by sight. They only hope for the best and always prepare themselves for the worst. They are the true people who really feel and know what life actually is. Life means sacrificing but 'only to some extent'. Who sacrifice their whole life for others, are also included in the cowards. Rather life should actually be a "Give and Take" relationship. Not actually in material form just as love and be loved; assist and take others help, etc, etc.
It is felt that life is love and love is life. Again love is eternal and that dies – isn't love. So there would not be life without love. If love is dead, life also comes to an end (spiritually, not physically). Because good life can only be lead by heart's desire. If a life doesn't have love, it would be a compromise for a person between his body and soul.
Usually it is also said that he or she, who leads his or her life by worshipping God by heart and in true form; will be the happiest person in the world. Because happiness is also equal to God and if a person attains happiness, he attains God or vise-versa.; and that person becomes spiritual in every way. So one should try to lead a type of life or do such deeds so that God should be happy and he accepts him as his disciple who spreads his consciousness.
The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved, love for ourselves, or rather loved in spite of ourselves.
In this age of "KALYUG", most of the people believe in praying. Because, it is believed that prayers do not change God, it changes people. It deepens insight, increase intuitive perception and expands consciousness. Prayer puts us on God's side.
It aligns us with life's highest purposes, aims and ideals. Prayers opens the doors to let in God and let out self; to let in love and let out hate; to let in faith and let out fear.
Life is very complicated. When you are 'loose' you become porous. Doors and windows open in your being and God wishes into you. When you are tense you become hard and the outlets all close. You contact with reality…' you gather a crust around yourself.
Life exists only through death – that is the paradox. And one becomes conqueror only by surrendering – that is the paradox. In this life one can have only by losing; that is the paradox. And one can be full only when one is empty; that is the paradox….. Life is paradoxical; truth is paradoxical.
Life is all a stage. We people have brought down on this earth to play our roles in this drama of life. Only we, ourselves are responsible for our good as well as bad deeds. Life is all from conception to grave. We run through a variety of stages and circumstances in this picture of life. We even have to adopt a lot of habits; good and bad. Because of adopting or accepting these habits, we feel sometimes depressed, angry, happy, contented and many more emotions which we feel. To be depressed is a habit, to be sad is a habit, to be angry is also a habit - - - - - and naturally they are very bad and wrong habits. Life is a bundle of a lot of emotions: good or bad. It includes sorrow and happiness and a lot more feelings and emotions. To be happy again is another habit. It is the same energy that becomes unhappiness or happiness; you just have changed your habit, your outlook of life, your attitude towards others, and immediately energy starts flowing into a proper channel of life. So from this moment, one can become happy, loving, grateful, or feels celebrating.
Whatever limits us, usually we call it fate. Whatever deed you have in mind, one should do that thing quickly, and if you wait a bit, then time will suck the juice of it. Take life as a challenge rather than a compromise with your fate.
Life is a mixture of every type of emotions and feelings. Man is the creator of his own destiny and destiny helps the brave. We should also examine our life properly i.e.; what we have in the past, doing in the present, and planning for the future. An unexamined life is not worth living. Everything is possible in this life. Nothing is impossible rather it is a tough role it leads. One should not assume true whatever one has seen, he should only analyze it. Life is not just logical; it is also emotional.
We live our lives the way we see it. This is not good. Rather we should make life the best part of our birth. We must see, talk and walk in life in the same direction. In order to get a successful life, you have to plan to make success happen, it comes step by step.
Failure in life is never final, only a prelude to a successful phase. Be confident that HE who has begun the good work in your life will complete it too. Never believe in "NEVER", it does not exist. One should never, never, never, never, never give up. An aim in life is the only fortune worth. In this YUG i.e; KALYUG, one should never believe in luck, one should rather believe in pluck. If you wish to reach the highest stages in life, begin at the lowest.
Someone has said that life is like an onion, you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes we weep. Life if uncertain. This uncertainty of life gives happiness and sorrows simultaneously. It is one damn thing after another. It does not matter how long we live our life but how we have lead it. What matters is not to add years to your life but to add life to your years..
Regarding love in life, to say that you can love one person all your life is just like saying that one candle will continue burning as long as you live. Gender wise, it is said that man's love is man's life a thing apart, 'tis woman's whole existence.
God in life is believed to be an indefinable something which we all feel but which we don't know. But to me, God is truth and love and a sacred and pious feeling, God is ethics and mortality. HE is fearlessness, is the source of light and life and yet is above and beyond all these.
One has no greater guilt than feeling of discontentment in life. To fill life's hour, and leave no crevice in it for repentance or an approval one should attain happiness.
Laughter, along with sadness and happiness, is another source of a beautiful life. Man alone suffers so excruciatingly in the world that he was compelled to invent laughter. Life is bound to perish. It is a creation of God which is to be destroyed one day. Life, relating to joys and sorrows, birth and death, has been explained clearly by an old saying:
A little pain, a little pleasure,
a little heaping up of treasure;
than no more gazing upon the sun;
all things must end that have begun.
Life is adventure in experience, and when you are no longer greedy for the last drop of it, it means no more than that you've set your face…to the day when you shall depart…
Don't take life too seriously because you will never get out of it alive. Life has been commenced to put and end to it. Life is said to be a little gleam of time between two eternities.
In general, there is one decree for life, youth is a blunder, manhood a struggle, old age a regret and death is the ultimate attainment of life.
Life is love and love is God, so life is also God because it is HIS creation.
In a nutshell, I would like to say that don't loose heart, take life a challenge, for you. Don't quit yourself from living. To fear love is to fear life, and those fear life are already three parts dead. Love your life as well as love yourself too, because love is noble and pure. It purifies us and ennobles our life. It is the very essence of simplicity. It is also the sustaining power of this world. Without love, the world would be desolate and our life would be aimless. So, you are suggested to love the life and also human beings. Just love them anyway.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Life Insurance Information
Life insurance is great for individuals that have a family, dependents and earn the most income to support their family. Life is unpredictable and it is important to ensure your family and loved ones are taken care of financially in case anything happens to you.
When shopping for life insurance in South Carolina, searching online and using the internet's resources are a great way to educate yourself on life insurance basics, shop and compare quotes for the best life insurance policy for you. There are three different types of life insurance policies - universal life insurance, cheap whole life insurance and cheap term life insurance.
- Universal Life Insurance - combines life insurance with savings. Insurers are able to have the benefits of term life insurance and combine that with tax-deferred interest accumulating savings account. Sometimes you may not even have to pay premiums during the entire policy. If your money to pay the death benefit and other costs accumulates in the tax-deferred savings portion of your policy, then premiums may not be required to keep the policy in force.
- Cheap Whole Life Insurance - this type of policy will cover you for your entire life. Your death benefit and premium generally remain the same. Whole life insurance also builds cash value, which could enable you to earn a return on a portion of your premiums that the insurance company invests. Your cash value is tax-deferred until you withdraw it and you are also able to borrow against that money.
- Cheap Term Life Insurance - this type of life insurance is low cost and great for young healthy individuals who are healthy and may not be able to afford cash-value life insurance premiums and want to ensure their dependents are taken care of in the event of death. Your policy will cover a pre-determined "term" which is normally one, five or ten years. Your premium payment and death benefits are only during that term. After the term you will have options to continue coverage and have the opportunity to convert to a cash-value life insurance policy.
Universal Life Insurance
Universal life insurance combines cheap term life insurance with a tax-deferred interest accumulating savings account. This life insurance plan provides insurers with death benefit as well as incorporating savings abilities.
Investing
Universal life insurance is also known as "flexible premium adjustable life insurance," and gets this term because it is somewhat of a flexible version of cheap whole life insurance. Your insurance company will take a portion of your premiums and invest them in bonds, mortgages and money market funds. You earn the return on said investments which is credited to your policy tax-deferred. You usually receive a guaranteed minimum interest rate which is not dependent upon the performance of your investments so you will always get a certain minimum return on your money. When your investments do well, normally the insurance company will increase your interest rate return.
Death Benefit
You generally have two options when setting-up your universal life insurance policy. One option will pay your death benefit out of your policies accumulated cash value. This policy costs less in premiums, but it can take a while to build up sufficient benefit. The other option will pay you a face value that you agree upon in the contract plus your accumulated cash value. This option cost more in premiums, but you are guaranteed at least a specific amount of money in your death benefit. Most life insurance companies can set your policy up so you will have a no-lapse guarantee as long as you pay your minimum designated premium. The policy could stay in force to age 100 or above. Universal life provides you the flexibility to adjust your death benefit according to your needs allowing you to pay smaller or larger amounts depending on your finances.
Cheap Whole Life Insurance
Cheap whole life insurance policies cover you for life. Generally your death benefit and premium will always stay the same. Cheap whole life insurance builds cash value which is tax-deferred until you decide to withdraw it or borrow against it.
There are different types of cheap whole life insurance. These include traditional, interest-sensitive and single-premium whole life insurance policies.
- Traditional whole life insurance - this policy gives you a guaranteed minimum rate of return on your cash value segment.
- Interest-sensitive whole life insurance - provides a variable rate on your cash value portion which is comparable to an adjustable rate mortgage. This gives you the flexibility with your cheap whole life insurance policy such as increasing your death benefit without increasing your premiums depending on the economy.
- Single-premium whole life insurance - this is great for individuals who have a large sum of money who would like to purchase their policy up front. This cheap whole life insurance policy also accrues tax-deferred cash value.
One of the features that make cheap whole life insurance popular is that a portion of your premium money goes toward your cash value which could pay off your entire policy after a few years. Another advantage is unless you make a change to your cheap whole life insurance policy, you will be covered for life with no future medical exams.
Cheap Term Life Insurance
Cheap term life insurance is great for those individuals who want to protect their family in the event of their death. Cheap term life insurance is often referred to as "pure insurance protection" because there is no cash value like cheap whole life insurance or universal life insurance. Cheap term life insurance also expires at a certain time after either a set number of years or when you reach a certain age.
A medical exam will most likely be required when you are buying cheap term life insurance. Most exams cover height, weight and medical history. Sometimes test results can hinder your ability to get approved for term life insurance or it could potentially increase your rates, but if you are healthy you should be fine.