3 Things 11-14
Thing One Why People 50 and Older Should Have Life Insurance. Many Americans have not taken critical steps toward protecting their family’s financial future if the unexpected happens. If someone relies on your income for their well-being, you need life insurance. Here are some additional reasons you may need life insurance if you are 50 years old or older: • You have financially dependent children or grandchildren • You are paying off debts, like a mortgage or credit card balance • You are worried about covering your final expenses • You want to protect your existing assets • You want to supplement your retirement income with the cash value component of a permanent life insurance policy • You want assistance with estate or legacy planning Best types of life insurance for people 50 and older. Term life insurance is a good fit for people who are looking for coverage for a set period. For example, you may feel that you need coverage until your kids are finished with school or until your mortgage is paid off. Permanent life insurance is a good option for people who want the security of lifelong coverage (as long as payments are made). It can be helpful with final expenses and legacy planning, and the cash value component can be beneficial to retirees. Due to the cash value component and the coverage duration, permanent life insurance policies are more expensive than term. Therefore, it is essential to ensure the premiums are within your current and future budget. If you're interested in a quick quote, click here or contact us.
Thing Two Looks Like Charlie Was Right A while back, we shared details from an article in which investment guru and Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, Charlie Munger, participated in a wide ranging discussion during which he made his opinion clear on cryptocurrencies. See the key passages below: “…Asked about his advice for other investors considering crypto, Munger says “total avoidance is the correct policy”. Never touch it. Never buy it. Let it pass by… Shares in real cash-generating companies are a much better investment… Stocks have a real interest in real businesses…. …Crypto is an investment in nothing, and the guy who’s trying to sell you an investment in nothing says, ‘I have a special kind of nothing that’s difficult to make more of’… I don’t want to buy a piece of nothing, even if somebody tells me they can’t make more of it… I regard it as almost insane to buy this stuff or to trade in it… I just avoid it as if it were an open sewer, full of malicious organisms. I just totally avoid and recommended everybody else follow my example…” After last week’s swift snd spectacular collapse of the crypto-exchange firm, FTX, and it’s cryptocurrency, FTT, The Guardian did a post-mortem which contained the following paragraph: “On Wednesday last week, an article appeared in CoinDesk, a crypto industry news service, that triggered a crisis. It claimed that the balance sheet of Alameda, a crypto hedge fund owned by FTX’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, held billions of dollars worth of FTX’s own cryptocurrency, FTT, and had been using it as collateral in further loans. If this were the case, then a fall in FTT’s value could damage both businesses, given their shared ownership. But FTT itself had no value beyond FTX’s longstanding promise to buy any tokens at $22, prompting fears that the whole institution was a castle built on sand. The slow-burn crisis was kicked into high gear on Sunday when Binance’s chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, tweeted that his company was selling its FTT holdings, worth about $500m, because of “recent revelations that have come to light”. In light of what people like Charlie Munger have been telling us about cryptocurrencies for a while now, it’s hard to view anything Binance “discovered” last week as either recent or a revelation. It seems the fundamentals of (sound) investing don’t change. We would all do well to remember that.
Thing Three Just A Thought “A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about." — Miguel de Unamuno