Search found 53 matches

by Raiddinn
Thu Feb 18, 2016 7:31 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Last question before Surrendering Permanent Life insurance
Replies: 25
Views: 3244

Re: Last question before Surrendering Permanent Life insurance

I think a lot of people really underestimate the concept of your cash value accumulating at an always moderate rate. Never sideways and never down.

Either that or people just like to hate on stuff because it's the bandwagon-y thing to do.

If whole life gets +5% two years in a row (or 100 years in a row) and stocks go down 25% in the first year, that's a lot of ground to make up to get even again.
by Raiddinn
Wed Feb 17, 2016 9:51 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Last question before Surrendering Permanent Life insurance
Replies: 25
Views: 3244

Re: Last question before Surrendering Permanent Life insurance

If it was whole life we were talking about, it would potentially be an even better deal, but unfortunately it sounds a lot like Universal Life. Well designed whole life policies are between 66% and 99.9% term anyway. The one the OP sounds like they have is 100% one year renewable term outside the investment portion. The recipients of the estate (who surely wouldn't want an insurance payout anyway, since term is suggested) would probably rather have 1 insurance payout than 0 insurance payouts, all things considered. Tell me, what do you think of this graph of whole life returns vs VFINX returns? http://theinsuranceproblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Chart-2009-to-2014-Forcast-e1432591666568.png Mind you this is a whole life graph, not a u...
by Raiddinn
Wed Feb 17, 2016 12:40 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Am I being too conservative?
Replies: 19
Views: 3295

Re: Am I being too conservative?

I would not consider earmarked cash as part of your investment portfolio, only the retirement accounts.

I would not advise skewing too far towards stocks in the portfolio. A lot of people who do that end up making some sort of portfolio value killing bad decision that wrecks everything they built in one shot.

Rather than 10% of income at 80/20, I am more in favor of 12% of income at 60/40. I think most people would be better off aiming for the latter half of that rather than the former.
by Raiddinn
Wed Feb 17, 2016 12:03 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Last question before Surrendering Permanent Life insurance
Replies: 25
Views: 3244

Re: Last question before Surrendering Permanent Life insurance

The insurance he has is most likely term already. Yearly renewable calculated many years forwards. It's not 20 years term that is 99.9% unlikely to pay out, it's priced all the way until death term that WILL payout as long as he holds up his end of the deal. Term gets expensive when you have to pay it in old age. This is why all permanent insurance policies have you pay more for the same coverage of permanent as compared to temporary insurance. The whole 100% likely to pay vs 1% likely to pay thing. OP, you didn't lose any money on this. All that is in your cash account is most definitely still there. What you are seeing is a penalty for early cancellation. If you don't cancel early then you won't pay the penalty. Permanent insurance is mea...
by Raiddinn
Mon Feb 15, 2016 3:17 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Roth IRA or pay down student loan
Replies: 23
Views: 2941

Re: Roth IRA or pay down student loan

Assuming you are contributing the minimum to retirement plans to get any employer matches, for sure pay off the student loans.

If you really want to bet on stocks, don't do it with more than half of the free cash flow that you would otherwise pay to the student loans.
by Raiddinn
Mon Feb 15, 2016 8:03 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Any legitimate insurance/investment hybrids?
Replies: 23
Views: 2808

Re: Any legitimate insurance/investment hybrids?

Unfortunately, this is a tough one. You are right that you can get a lot of tax benefits from insurance products, but what you are interested in doing might be a little hard. The thing you are going to run into is that your cash value in the account can't be more than what it takes to pay off the insurance portion immediately. In other words, if you put in a million bucks and you tie in an insurance portion of like 5 bucks, the government will take away the tax advantages and call it a retirement plan with the same sort of rules. It might still be a good idea for you to do that, but it will take away some important advantages. You have to make sure the insurance portion of it is sizable in relation to the investment portion. That might lead...
by Raiddinn
Thu Feb 11, 2016 1:15 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Why not 100% Stocks?
Replies: 293
Views: 40330

Re: Why not 100% Stocks?

Some reasons 1) Staying the course is much eaiser. The ups and downs in a portfolio are a lot easier to handle with a portfolio that is 40% or more in conservative assets. A lot of people do stupid things when portfolio volatility happens. Adding conservative assets works to prevent you from doing stupid things that would destroy your portfolio (selling stocks low, buying bonds high, for instance). 2) Buying stocks with 1% of your income doesn't have to be compared to buying bonds with 1% of your income. I think a better comparison is buying stocks with 1% or buying bonds with 2%. Between those, the results of bonds look pretty attractive. Yes, this does mean you need to save more for retirement. The tradeoff is that you are much more likel...
by Raiddinn
Thu Feb 11, 2016 6:52 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Bought a bunch of stocks today
Replies: 46
Views: 8049

Re: Bought a bunch of stocks today

If stocks go way down from their previous highs and you buy in, that makes you a value investor.

- Edit - I would say you were a market timer if you made some statements like "This is as low as they are going" or "They will start going up next week again". As long as you fully understand they can go down from here and your plans aren't built around them going up from here, then you are leaning more towards value investing.
by Raiddinn
Thu Feb 11, 2016 6:49 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Intergenerational Wealth Transfer
Replies: 6
Views: 1412

Re: Intergenerational Wealth Transfer

He can think about buying a completely paid up whole life policy on himself and naming either you or the grandson as the beneficiary.

The fees are very low for this since, from the insurer's point of view, there isn't any insuring going on. The payment is the DCV of the future payout.

The WL policy will not count against anyone for any aid or anything else, even though aid is unlikely anyway.

Have a plan for the 529 if the kid decides to do something else other than going to college if you are going that route instead.
by Raiddinn
Wed Feb 10, 2016 2:55 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Should I Cash in my Whole Life Policy?
Replies: 10
Views: 1531

Re: Should I Cash in my Whole Life Policy?

What research did you initially do that made you think this was a good idea in the first place?

Was it the 2-3 year performance metrics?

Whole life is meant to be a whole life kind of thing, not a 2-3 year and done kind of thing.

It's still just as good for everything you originally got it for.

You just have to not look at it as a 2-3 year thing.

- Edit - changed 1s to 2-3s

- Edit 2 - If you die tomorrow, you still get 320k which is still quite a bit better than the 10k you paid. The number you paid will always be less than what you get. The difference will get larger over time starting soon and continuing on until you die. You will actually get paid statistically unlike the other term policies you have, etc.
by Raiddinn
Wed Feb 10, 2016 1:51 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: seeking advice on investing 700k windfall
Replies: 7
Views: 1718

Re: seeking advice on investing 700k windfall

You might consider putting it in VYM.

Dividends might end up around 25k/y taxable.
by Raiddinn
Wed Feb 10, 2016 1:42 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Move 401k to stable value and lose no more principal
Replies: 14
Views: 2443

Re: Move 401k to stable value and lose no more principal

Don't move to stable value.

Consider increasing your rainy day fund and/or conservative investments so you don't have to withdraw from stocks at the wrong time.
by Raiddinn
Wed Feb 10, 2016 12:27 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: VYM ETF
Replies: 8
Views: 1822

Re: VYM ETF

VYM is perfectly good.

You may not want to put all your money in it, but it's perfectly good.

Slightly more risky than bonds, but long term it should slightly out-perform them.

I own a pretty significant amount of VYM myself.
by Raiddinn
Wed Feb 10, 2016 8:07 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Should I Cash in my Whole Life Policy?
Replies: 10
Views: 1531

Re: Should I Cash in my Whole Life Policy?

First you want to figure out what you are buying insurance for.

Lets call it the ability for your wife and future kids to get along OK assuming the worst happens.

Now lets take it a step farther.

Do you want to rely on randomness tilted slightly in your favor to get there, or would you prefer to aim more towards a guarantee that they get along OK if the worst happens?

If you had to choose between these:

100k minimum - 1m maximum
400k minimum - 700k maximum

Which would you rather leave to them when the worst happens?

Let the answer to that question guide how you proceed.
by Raiddinn
Mon Feb 01, 2016 6:48 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Banks or credit unions
Replies: 37
Views: 5362

Re: Banks or credit unions

Started with a military credit union
Got out and moved to an area that bank wasn't in
Got a small local commercial bank
Moved to a different area that bank wasn't in
Got a large national bank
Opened another credit union account in case it would help on later loans
Want to get rid of the large national bank, but atm there are some reasons to keep.

Only the last one of those was actually strategic. The others kinda just happened.
by Raiddinn
Mon Feb 01, 2016 6:26 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Student loan refi - would you?
Replies: 15
Views: 2149

Re: Student loan refi - would you?

Do the student loan refinance. 50k is a lot. Bet on the success of your marriage.
by Raiddinn
Sat Jan 30, 2016 9:51 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Home budget calculations
Replies: 13
Views: 2413

Re: Home budget calculations

There are perfectly good forever homes for 150k.

Where are we talking for 900k? Silicon Valley?

I don't think there is anything that could ever make me want to pay 900k for a house.

At 1%/y maintenance that's 9000 which is more than half of my yearly rent by itself.

I would rather own a 300k house and have 600k laying around.

All I am saying is think really hard about this.

Expect all your housing related bills to double, for starters.
by Raiddinn
Sat Jan 30, 2016 9:29 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What age does LBYM (being a big saver) pay off?
Replies: 81
Views: 14468

Re: What age does LBYM (being a big saver) pay off?

The whole idea of living below your means not paying off is indicative of a thought process that you should be living better now and that it's all about wanting to have a higher standard of living, the sooner the better. I don't think it's really about that and I don't think you will be happy as long as it's about that. Living below your means as a concept is more about the freedom from the stress that other people are faced with every day. When you put a sizable chuck of your income into net worth instead of toys, every day you are better off than the day before it. When you put all your income into toys instead of net worth, every day you will have to suffer from stress that you might lose your job or that if you get hurt the whole house ...
by Raiddinn
Sat Jan 30, 2016 12:07 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Should I switch to a HSA?
Replies: 15
Views: 1910

Re: Should I switch to a HSA?

Do you mean if I had a choice between 3.4 variable or 4.5 fixed pay the loan like it is 4.5 fixed? Yes, take the variable and pretend like you took the fixed. It requires you to be able to guess at what the fixed would be if you never got that info, or just to assume a substantially higher fixed rate. It's more dangerous the larger the loans go and the lower you can expect to pay off before the reset. Mortgages are the most risky places to have variable loan rates. I am not such a big fan of HSAs. Maybe my info is old, but it seems like a lot of times you might fund it too much and have the money just be wasted. You have to be able to guess with a good degree of accuracy about your future health care needs in order to get the most benefit ...
by Raiddinn
Fri Jan 29, 2016 11:41 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Should I switch to a HSA?
Replies: 15
Views: 1910

Re: Should I switch to a HSA?

The thing about variable interest is that you need to figure out what you would be paying on fixed and then pay the same. If your fixed payment would be 400/m and your variable payment is 300/m, just pay the 400/m anyway even though you don't have to. By the time you get the reset, you should have a lot of the debt paid off and the increase in rate won't hurt as much. It probably will go up to the same 400/m you would have originally had anyway, except that you will be at a lower loan balance than you would if you had gone straight to 400/m. If you are paying more than the minimums anyway, the variable rates are an even better deal. The time when variable rates hurt are when you are making minimum payments on the loan. If you are the type t...
by Raiddinn
Fri Jan 29, 2016 6:56 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help with whole life policy choices
Replies: 13
Views: 1682

Re: Help with whole life policy choices

I wish my parents would have gotten me such a policy.

Keep it and they will really have something to be thankful for.
by Raiddinn
Fri Jan 29, 2016 2:50 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: 7 strategies rich people use to pay less in taxes
Replies: 9
Views: 2961

Re: 7 strategies rich people use to pay less in taxes

When it comes to guaranteeing a minimum estate value, there isn't much better than WL.

Term certainly doesn't guarantee a minimum estate value, neither does any "investment" that can potentially have its' value go down.

If you try to beat WL, you are gambling. Term + Stocks is gambling. Maybe it's a bet you have a decent chance of winning, but you are playing catch up for sure.

There is no better way to guarantee a minimum estate value of +500k than to buy 500k WL and pay for it.
by Raiddinn
Fri Jan 29, 2016 2:35 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help with whole life policy choices
Replies: 13
Views: 1682

Re: Help with whole life policy choices

Bogle_Feet wrote:FACTS: It takes 5-15 years for the typical whole life policy just to break even.

33% of policy holders have dumped their policy after 5 years

50% of policy holders have dumped their policy after 10 years

70% of policy holders have dumped their policy after 20 years

77% of policy holders have dumped their policy after 30 years

Source: Society of Actuaries
FACTS

Greater than 99% of Term result in every dime being wasted.

You are talking about a couple % for a couple years with WL.

If everyone wasn't saying "You should cash out WL ASAP" those numbers would be much lower. By that I mean, "If everyone weren't given bad advice, they wouldn't be dumping their policies".
by Raiddinn
Fri Jan 29, 2016 1:57 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Do you listen to or watch Financial entertainment?
Replies: 16
Views: 1214

Re: Do you listen to or watch Financial entertainment?

I don't go looking for financial entertainment media, but sometimes it finds me and I tolerate it.
by Raiddinn
Fri Jan 29, 2016 1:54 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: 7 strategies rich people use to pay less in taxes
Replies: 9
Views: 2961

Re: 7 strategies rich people use to pay less in taxes

I think rich people are more likely than regular people to survive past the term length. If Term is 99% likely to pay out, then for a rich person it's probably 99.9% likely they will survive it. If they care about term, it's a miniscule cost for them anyway. They can just have both. OTOH, they are 100% likely to get a WL payout. The only reason they wouldn't is if they hit a liquidity crisis and it's unlikely for people who have many millions to have a liquidity crisis. Similarly, a lot of rich people are looking to lock in gains rather than subject themselves to continuing variance. Rich people often have small percentages of, say, VFINX in their portfolio. Instead they are probably having huge percentages of state/local/whatever bonds tha...
by Raiddinn
Fri Jan 29, 2016 1:38 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What is Your Plan B if Quicken dies? [Intuit selling Quicken unit]
Replies: 105
Views: 20496

Re: What is Your Plan B if Quicken dies? [Intuit selling Quicken unit]

Even if they spin off Quicken, that just means that another company is going to be running it other than Intuit.

99% likely the new entity running it isn't going to shut down operations the next day.

Indeed, for such a company it will be their only product and they will have a strong incentive to keep supporting it if they hope to survive the spin off.
by Raiddinn
Fri Jan 29, 2016 1:31 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Student Loan: To refi or not to refi...
Replies: 9
Views: 1518

Re: Student Loan: To refi or not to refi...

There are 2 important concepts here as I see it. 1) Do you want to pay this off if you are only getting charged ~4.375% interest. Is that a good use of money? 2) Do you want to refinance this regardless of #1? For #1, I would say that you shouldn't worry too much about this if you think you can earn well more than 4.375ish%. If you think you can invest at 8% or whatever, then it doesn't make sense to pay off 4%. That is arbitrage the wrong way. If you think you can earn a variable amount that is around 4.375, then just pay off the student loans. Better to not deal with variable returns + loans if you don't think the variable will be a lot higher. If you aren't getting the full employer match on 401k or whatever, do that instead of paying th...
by Raiddinn
Fri Jan 29, 2016 1:20 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help with whole life policy choices
Replies: 13
Views: 1682

Re: Help with whole life policy choices

You need more information to decide.

If this is regular whole life and you stop paying, they are likely going to convert to a paid off policy. That changes the tax situation for it.

I would call the insurer and ask them what your options are.

Don't let them change anything, just ask them what the options are and then come back.

It may be possible that you can quit paying and everything will remain as it is, but I doubt it if it's regular whole life which it probably is.
by Raiddinn
Fri Jan 29, 2016 11:48 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Wouldnt you recast the mortgage at this stage?
Replies: 19
Views: 2672

Re: Wouldnt you recast the mortgage at this stage?

Trees is right

You get

Sale Price minus Mortgage Owed

There are no percentages anywhere.

Based on the above, it makes no difference if you pay down the mortgage before sale.
by Raiddinn
Thu Jan 28, 2016 4:27 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Estate planning advice?
Replies: 34
Views: 6002

Re: Estate planning advice?

Wills can be contested by people with standing. Insurance proceeds can't.

This late in the game, large stock accounts have a fairly high likelihood of lowering the gross estate anyway.

SPWL is pretty likely to break even or result in a gain. Very low chance of substantial losses compared to what stocks have.

Keep in mind that converting a 2.5 mil regular IRA to a Roth and paying all that tax is on the table here as is hiring lawyers, accountants, and other manner of planners. Return of the 100% estate value doesn't seem to be on the menu anyway.

If there is an unfortunately soon passing, insurance wins easily.

- Edit - Clarity and I would skip the Roth conversion.
by Raiddinn
Thu Jan 28, 2016 4:09 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: [Looking for whole + term life insurance]
Replies: 11
Views: 1077

Re: [Looking for whole + term life insurance]

The kind of insurance I am considering getting: Mutual 50k WL 450k 30y level term level premium 5% PUAs Div 1 policy premium Div 2 PUAs For anybody wondering why I might want to do this: I think long term that + fees will beat most or all bond + lower fees stuff going forwards. I am willing to bet some of my bond allocation on it. I have matched contributions in 401k DCAd already. I add to Roth in bear markets (defined as S&P well below high) with FRIP DCAd. Already at 0% cost of borrowing. I think the most recent 20 years of stock returns are going to be more the norm going forwards as compared to, say, the last 100 years. I just don't see more than 5% CAGR here anyway. I think the chance that I will lapse is very low. Same for the cha...
by Raiddinn
Thu Jan 28, 2016 2:26 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: [Looking for whole + term life insurance]
Replies: 11
Views: 1077

Re: whole life: 1500 cash value after 28 years?

What I meant to say was

Yes people do want to buy these things.

I don't need somebody to help me do that.

I will be fine once I get an agent/insurer to do stuff like I want them to.
by Raiddinn
Thu Jan 28, 2016 1:22 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Refinancing to 15 year?
Replies: 12
Views: 1268

Re: Refinancing to 15 year?

I would do it and choose the 2.875.
by Raiddinn
Thu Jan 28, 2016 1:13 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Estate planning advice?
Replies: 34
Views: 6002

Re: Estate planning advice?

Single premium permanent life insurance is commonly used by the rich as a vehicle for transferring wealth and skipping probate.
by Raiddinn
Thu Jan 28, 2016 12:04 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: succession investment management
Replies: 8
Views: 1152

Re: succession investment management

I have setup some documents that detail our financial position.

Me and my wife update them and go over them monthly.

I have tried to start familiarizing her with basic personal finance and stuff like that.

I am mostly hoping that by the time I die she will have a good basis to continue on without me.

Maybe such a thing would work for you.

I think your spouse might appreciate having all the info in one place and being familiar with it, regardless of what else happens.
by Raiddinn
Thu Jan 28, 2016 11:02 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Taxes - Am I Covered by a Retirement Plan at Work?
Replies: 17
Views: 2594

Re: Taxes - Am I Covered by a Retirement Plan at Work?

I think in general you would have to say that you are covered by the employer's plan if they have one.

I can't say 100%, though.
by Raiddinn
Thu Jan 28, 2016 10:45 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Taxes - Am I Covered by a Retirement Plan at Work?
Replies: 17
Views: 2594

Re: Taxes - Am I Covered by a Retirement Plan at Work?

They might not be contributing if you haven't setup an account and contributed at least a little bit to get it started.

If they didn't check a box, they probably didn't not-check it in error.

You need to get with the employer either way to see the status.
by Raiddinn
Thu Jan 28, 2016 6:48 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Is Comcast Blast Helpful with WiFi?
Replies: 17
Views: 4867

Re: Is Comcast Blast Helpful with WiFi?

The contractual speed they are _representing_ that you will receive has nothing to do with wireless speeds. About the only thing that makes any difference with wireless speed is interference. If more than one device are competing for the same usage, they share the maximum speed. They should be sharing more or less equally if they have the same wireless capabilities. IOT devices are in this category. Add to that interference from anything that doesn't communicate but still sends out some kind of disruptive stuff like microwaves do. They mess up your wireless bandwidth without giving you anything in return for it. A lot of times you get disruption from stuff that is turned on and not even actively used. Basically, if you took everything out o...
by Raiddinn
Thu Jan 28, 2016 4:41 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: [Looking for whole + term life insurance]
Replies: 11
Views: 1077

Re: whole life: 1500 cash value after 28 years?

mephistophles wrote:Shouldn't this post be part of a new thread? Just asking. Thanks, meph
It was thread relevant when I wrote it and there is a rule against posting threads about permanent life insurance.
by Raiddinn
Wed Jan 27, 2016 4:22 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Who came closest to a $0 [taxes due]?
Replies: 62
Views: 6294

Re: Who came closest to a $0 [taxes due]?

I owe like 4000.

I don't think I owe penalties. I paid estimated taxes at exactly last year's amount.

Having trouble deciding whether to just pay it off now or to have a free loan for longer.
by Raiddinn
Wed Jan 27, 2016 3:26 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Paying off my bride's student loans
Replies: 72
Views: 8187

Re: Paying off my bride's student loans

flyingbison wrote: Yes, it is. I try not to impose my values on others.
Funny, considering you are trying to impose your moral high horse values with this.

Also considering this thread and pretty much the entire board is about seeking and giving advice.

Everybody here is trying to use their knowledge and experience (or whatever they think they have) to benefit others. That's the whole point.

Your "make up your own mind" values aren't necessarily better than my "do this" values. If somebody makes up their own mind to put all their assets in money market accounts, it's almost definitely worse. Indeed, people making up their own mind is a lot of the time why people end up coming here seeking advice.
by Raiddinn
Wed Jan 27, 2016 2:51 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Paying off my bride's student loans
Replies: 72
Views: 8187

Re: Paying off my bride's student loans

OP, ignore all the people giving you marriage advice. The only "right" way to handle finances with your partner is whatever way you two decide. This is like saying that it's perfectly fine if you put all your assets in a money market account, as long as that is what you decided. As far as I can understand it, being a Boglehead means you are trying to reach what is considered optimal. That includes things like opportunity cost and risk tolerance and stuff like that. You can apply the same concepts to a marriage just like you can to investing. How you approach your marriage probably has more to do with your financial future than how you approach your finance does. You are better off optimizing your approach to marriage and just doi...
by Raiddinn
Wed Jan 27, 2016 2:29 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What would a Boglehead do? (CC Debt Dilemma)
Replies: 62
Views: 6723

Re: What would a Boglehead do? (CC Debt Dilemma)

Keep doing 100% matched 401k. After that, pay minimums on all the cards with the lowest interest rates and as much money as you can on the one with the highest interest rate. This is called debt avalanche and it's much more effective than snowball. I would avoid building a rainy day fund of 1000 or 2000 or whatever. It's a complete waste of resources when you have credit card debt. If you "need" that, what you really need is discipline. Having a rainy day fund doesn't give you discipline. If you have to buy something, put it on the lowest interest card with enough space or split it up if you can. When you pay off the highest debt card, don't cut it up. Just put it off to the side somewhere. Maybe in a locked box or a mini-safe if ...
by Raiddinn
Wed Jan 27, 2016 10:52 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Paying off my bride's student loans
Replies: 72
Views: 8187

Re: Paying off my bride's student loans

It's probably a rainy day fund.
by Raiddinn
Wed Jan 27, 2016 10:43 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Paying off my bride's student loans
Replies: 72
Views: 8187

Re: Paying off my bride's student loans

Maybe "half the time it's not" because people aren't fully committed and maintain selfishness and pride?

A surprising amount of marriages are still intact because people refuse to quit, even if life sucks hard.

Maybe it could be argued that some of those should just quit.

It could also be argued that many quit too soon and without trying hard enough.

I feel for the people who were hurt by past marriages, but learning the wrong lessons from past marriages hurts future ones a lot.
by Raiddinn
Wed Jan 27, 2016 10:37 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: [Looking for whole + term life insurance]
Replies: 11
Views: 1077

Re: whole life: 1500 cash value after 28 years?

Taylor Larimore wrote:As a former life insurance agent, I know that it is seldom desirable to buy cash value life insurance (except for the agent). If family members need to own life insurance (most children don't) buy inexpensive term-life for the period needed. The savings can be enormous.

Best wishes.
Taylor
I appreciate the advice.

The insurance I am looking at would have 80 - 90% term anyway, so it shouldn't be so bad.
by Raiddinn
Wed Jan 27, 2016 10:18 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: whole life: 1500 cash value after 28 years?
Replies: 20
Views: 5770

Re: whole life: 1500 cash value after 28 years?

It's hard for us to tell if you get both numbers or not, because 1) The way numbers are reported differs between insurers sometimes 2) We can't see the whole thing, we can only see numbers without the context It's possible you get both. Context would help determine that. If I had to guess, I think you would get both. Actually, now that I think about it, I have another idea of what has been happening. There is a dividend option (what I would say is the worst of all possible options) where they take the dividends and treat them as a loan from you to them. They put the money in a separate account unrelated to the policy and just pay yearly interest on it. This rate would probably not be very high. It might be high enough, however, to earn mayb...
by Raiddinn
Wed Jan 27, 2016 9:56 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Paying off my bride's student loans
Replies: 72
Views: 8187

Re: Paying off my bride's student loans

If I'm willing to share my significant positive net worth toward our common future, and she feels obligated to dig herself out of her negative net worth so as not to feel like a leech, who's being selfish? Having a prenup at least implies that one or both parties aren't completely committed. There is implied selfishness here somewhere. A lack of trust is also implied here. Having people needing to prove they are contributing at the very least implies that there is a lot of pride somewhere in there. It's not a positive thing if somebody has to prove they are valuable to their spouse. All I am trying to say is that it sounds like there are some conversations that need to be had. It doesn't sound like this is starting off on the right foot. A...