December 18, 2003

• Tracicle, Gyan, petebest, Nax, Certainsome1,et al-- Consider this a beta test for usability? What thinkest?
• Do you write poetry, Dizzy? Report going down here [via WoodsLot]
• Or should I invest it elsewhere? That depends on what other goals you have? Do you want to save for your next vacation? Buy a new car? Mutual Funds?
• Let's say that we can theoretically put aside about $600 a month. We already have a 401k in place, we don't see any major new purchases for the next 12 months, and we do invest in Mutuals (they are automatically debited from my wife's paycheck....) Wouldn't life insurance be best for providing for kids and spouse, however? And my spouse makes more than I do.
• (Maybe we should beta-test with a sexier topic?) "EZ-Pass-- boon to travelers or Big-Brotherism?", etc... please advise.
• What could be sexier than life insurance?
• Dizzy, have you considered insuring your wife, too? Could you afford the house, the car, the loss of future retirement savings, etc. without her income?
• Two comments about the "Ask MoFi" thing: First, anyone who hasn't read the post where the whole "Curious George" thing was suggested will be really confused by this post. I was, until I found where it was mentioned. Second, I was thinking that maybe to avoid interuppting the flow of the regularly scheduled posts, maybe we should put Curious George as the entire post and the actual question in the extended description so someone has to open up the post to read it.
• Life insurance. I have one question for you; how much do you trust your spouse. If my experiences in the Congo have taught me anything, they've taught me that large sums of money tend to make people's judgement go a bit wobbly. Everytime you fall asleep at night you'll have to ask yourself, "Is tonight the night she and Livingstone murder me?" Perhaps you should kill them first, in self defence. Who can say what happened when the rain pours out of the sky like the piss from an angry God and the darkness is so absolute you can't see the flash of a knife blade until it's too late, far too late. Actually, it shouldn't be that bad. Your company probably has a program.
• Dizzy, well done with jumping in with both feet. Other than that your title that appears in the box on the right should be something more descriptive than CURIOUS, GEORGE, I think you done jest fine. Unfortunately, I'm a complete idiot when it comes to money matters and so have no advice. Of course my money manager guru has me putting some dollars in insurance, and I'm only 33.
• One nice thing about life insurance proceeds is that they're not taxable to the beneficiary. On the other hand, it's kind of like making a monthly bet on your mortality. Is it no longer common for employers to provide some level of life insurance? Every place I ever worked included that in its benefits package - usually twice one's annual salary - and also offered optional additional insurance at a small cost.
• Dizzy- Do you have a mortgage? If so, you might consider just enough for each of you and your wife to pay that off, so that you don't have to worry about that. Once you have children, you'll want to re-examine your insurance needs- and do take consider getting insurance to cover your wife as well. (I know more than one family where the wife died suddenly and quite young, and as if that isn't enough tragedy for one family, were thrown into deep financial difficulties because her economic contributions to the household hadn't been properly accounted for- working or not, there is a contribution.) And keep in mind what extra help would be needed by the surviving parent to help raise your (as yet unborn) children. Only get the straight-up life insurance policy, don't get a term life policy, it's a big ripoff. I'm trying to find a link for that, but haven't found one yet. Disclosure: I used to work for a big evil insurance company. Mostly they profit from people's fear, which I dislike. But a certain amount of prudent financial planning is a good thing.
• Ambrosia's advice sounds very good - My mother adjusts her life insurance to suit her needs. Enough to support us when we were under 18, but cut down to just enough to pay a funeral after we were self suporting. Ambrosia - what is the difference between regular insurance and a term life policy?
• diz, don't you have a policy through your employer? as part of your benefits? for instance, i have a policy that's twice my yearly salary.
• Damn- I misspoke. What I meant to say, is to avoid the whole life policy, not the term. Get an insurance plan that only lasts for as long as you pay the premiums. Insurance agents will often try to push you on "whole life" policies with talk of "dividends" and "cash value" but they are crappy investment vehicles and you can always do better elsewhere. Especially in Dizzy's case, where regular savings plans are already in place, what he really needs is a policy to cover something catastrophic. (sorry for the mixup...)
• First off-- Everybody--- Thank you for the kind words regarding my insurance question. I should have added that my union (Actors' Equity) does have my (piddly, as of now) pension vested, so that would go to my family, but as I'm an actor who goes from show to show the government almost treats us like individual contractors, even though we're unionized. And I am presently Adjunct Faculty at my college, which means we get bubkus in bennies. we've thought about the early-mortgagepay-off option, but as we'll most likely not be in just one house the rest of our lives, our banker says to keep a little debt there. I've lots to think about, and I'm in your debt for your thoughts and srategies. You too, Pez. Second Off-- Kim, et al.. My apologies for your confusion-- I did start to walk before crawling here. Any formatting guidelines you guys would like to recommend I will gladly follow... So. Maybe if we all pull together this whoe new feature might work, yes?
• I certainly don't mind the peppering of personal quandaries and conundrums among the normal posts. It greatly helped that the proposal was taseful and sincere. But eventually, as the community grows, there should definitely be a separate page for these inquiries. I wish I could help you, Dizzy, but being young and unmarried, I have my company take care of my life insurance, and know nothing about the particularities of the contract. We have it through Principal Fincancial, and i know that my net worth is a bit more than double my yearly salary. Everything aside, I offer my condolences and sympathy on the one-year anniversary of your friend
• The whole idea behind life insurance is to take care of the sorts of things that your salary would otherwise take care of, except you're dead now. Typically, if you've got kids, mortgage, etc, the general rule is 5x annual salary. That's how much I carry. I plan to up it by another 2-3x salary upon the birth of my second child this February. My wife, who also works (we make about the same salary), carries 5x. Avoid the various funky-ass life insurance types, like variable policies (which grown in cash value like a mutual fund - sorta) and annuities, variable or otherwise (at 41, you don't need the hassle). Buy straight term insurance by the year from a reputable company. If you have a regular agent through whom you do handle your other insurance needs (car, home, etc), ask him for a referral.
• Thank you, Nax. That was truly kind. Fes; your advice, "when it all boils down, talk to a damn agent" is probably most wise of all. Damn. I'm turning into my Dad. But it isn't so bad.
• Nice Curious George post, Dizzy. I hadn't heard about the heading thing so my first thought was "Wow, triple post!" when I got home. :) Just one question: is your wife planning to kill you in order to claim said insurance?
• Dang! You're like that nice Kate Mulgrew in "Mrs. Columbo".
• Mmm, Captain Janeway.
• You can bet Captain Janeway made sure her Starfleet life insurance policy was in order before she accidently got thrown into the delta quadrant. What could be sexier than life insurance? The insurance industy is missung out on a whole new ad campaign!