Most people need life insurance. To determine if you need life insurance, you should consider the worst-case scenario. If you died today, how would your family, loved ones and business associates fare financially? What would the economic impact be on them?

Who would pay for your final expenses? (i.e. funeral costs, medical bills, taxes, debts, lawyers fees, etc.) Would your family be able to meet ongoing living expenses? (i.e. rent or mortgage, food, clothing, transportation costs, healthcare, etc?) How would your children pay for their education? What about your loved ones financial goals? (i.e. retirement) How would your business survive without you?

Final expenses, daily living expenses, mortgage payments and college savings are often mentioned in analyzing needs, but something often overlooked is inflation and taxes. Since there is no federal income tax on life insurance benefits, if they are paid directly to the heirs, it can offer a huge living benefit as well.

Something often overlooked is the living value of life insurance. While you are alive, permanent or whole life insurance cash values can be accessed for loans, income, critical illness and other needs.

Losing someone you love is always difficult, but emotional struggles don’t have to be compounded by financial difficulties. Life insurance secures your loved ones future.

Term Life Insurance covers your needs, Permanent Life Insurance provides many uses.

Life insurance provides tax-free cash benefits, in most cases, to your heirs after your death. This cash (known as the death benefit) can help to replace your income and can secure your family’s financial needs. You can learn more about the extraordinary benefits offered by whole life insurance here: http://legacyinsuranceagency.com/lifeinsurance/wholelife.html

There are many types of life insurance, so you’ll want to make sure you are dealing with an experienced agent. And, it may be important to you to have an indpendent agent who offers more than one life insurance carrier.

Until next time,
Barry Page, RFC

Barry Page is recognized as a leading expert on life insurance and private banking. He is a Registered Financial Consultant and independent life insurance agent who helps clients with tax advantaged investment alternatives. He specializes in showing families how to protect their assets, income and lives utilizing a macro-financial approach to planning.

He has created a service that caters to families and business owners that are frustrated with the risks involved with the stock market, but still want competitive returns. His specialized knowledge and services help consumers find alternatives to traditional investing and the stock market that not only safely protect their savings, but also provide tax advantages.

His business is based in Ocean Springs, MS and he services clients throughout the Southeast. He can be reached here: http://legacyinsuranceagency.com/contact.html

Could you afford to retire tomorrow? That is what a disability means to your income, forced retirement. What would you do when faced with that reality?

Find out how to protect your income with disability insurance by clicking here: http://legacyinsuranceagency.com/disabilityinsurance.html

Most people protect their homes and cars with insurance, but neglect to protect their income.

Protect Your Paycheck

Your most important asset is not your home, your car or other possessions; it’s your ability to earn an income. You can protect your paycheck with disability insurance.

Protect yourself,
Barry Page, RFC

Barry Page is a Registered Financial Consultant and Licensed Insurance Agent. He shows people how to protect their income, family, business and legacy. He can be reached at http://legacyinsuranceagency.com/contact.html

If you keep up with the news you have no doubt heard that we are in a recession. This by itself is not our problem; The problem lies in our inability to keep our money out of the hands of our government. Our government, despite their good intentions, has led us into our current situation through out-of-control spending.

Regardless of which side of the isle you come from, or even if you consider yourself an independent, hopefully you can understand that YOU can take better care of yourself than Uncle Sam. If you can not, then you are destined to a life of financial slavery. That may sound a little harsh, but it’s tough love.

We have to get our arms around the fact that our current tax system and the IRS confiscate our money regularly and by doing so, deny us the right to think and act on our own. Don’t hear me wrong here, because I believe in paying taxes to support our government, so it can function and protect us from foreign interests. But, they are doing just the opposite.

It’s easy to follow the crowd and do what our government recommends. However, by doing so you are increasing your risks and giving up your rights.

If you take a look at history, our country was actually founded because of a dispute of having to pay taxes and the Boston Tea Party. After which we actually had a 100+ year period of prosperity. Then came 1913 and the Federal Income Tax.

Our beloved Abe Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt were the culprits that contributed the most to this ever increasing problem of the IRS. As taxes have increased over time we have lost control. Read for yourself on the IRS website: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/students/article/0,,id=177655,00.html

And here’s a chart on the history of income taxes:
http://legacyinsuranceagency.com/taxhistory.html

Okay, so you say what does all of that have to do with me and MY Money? Let’s take a look at the average American family, Mom and Dad with 3 kids. Dad earns $72,000 a year after 4 years of college and considerable work experience. He has the typical 401k and saves towards his employer sponsored retirement plan. If this isn’t you, just stay with me, you’ll get the picture.

Mom drives a 5 year old minivan that’s paid for, and carries the kids all around to numerous games, parties and events. Dad drives a newer pickup and has a $500/mo truck payment. They live in a normal neighborhood and have 12 years left on a 15 year mortgage with a 6% rate.

Do you think they sound rich? Well according to IRS tax rate schedules that puts them in a 28% income tax bracket. See for yourself, here’s the link:
http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=164272,00.html

Now you may be saying, “Yeah but I made that and I didn’t pay taxes.” Some people actually believe that because they get a refund check, or because they don’t have to pay money in at the first of the year, that they didn’t have to pay taxes. What about that withholding that came out of each and every check all year. Uncle Sam loves payroll deduction. And, let’s not forget Social Security, Medicare and your 401k. “What? I thought that my 401k actually saved taxes?”

Let’s look at each one of these “deductions” one at a time.

1. Fed Income Tax - This comes right out of your check before you have a chance to spend it. You do have an option here, but most don’t exercise their rights to hold on to their money until the end of the year. Uncle Sam feels safer knowing you pay him first, and in many cases most individuals do as well. In this example it would be about $250 every 2 weeks.
2. State Income Tax – Don’t forget your friendly state government, in this example we’ll assume there share would be about $130.
3. Social Security Tax (OASDI) – Again, before you have a chance to count your money, it’s gone. We’ll talk about the failure of Social Security later, but in this example about $180
4. Medicare Tax – You can count on not seeing this either, but hey maybe it will be around when you really need it at retirement. In this example, it’s about $40.
5. 401k - Conveniently, we’ll let our All American Dad contribute 5% or $150 to this “plan” so he can fund his pre-tax investment. You can pay him now or you can pay him later.

Maybe this family has some health benefits and they’ll contribute another $250 to these coverages.

After all is said and done this family brings home about $2,250 from the $3,000 he earned.

As if you don’t already know this, here are 2 different examples to prove the above calculations.

Your Friendly Social Security Administration: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/cbb.html

If you would like to calculate your payroll deductions, check out this cool site with lots of calculators: http://www.dinkytown.net/java/Payroll.html

To keep his mortgage company happy, they are also letting them hold in escrow the property taxes and insurance as well, so in reality they’ll never see this money either. After this family pays their mortgage, $2,000 PITI, car payment, credit card debt, and normal living expenses, they feel lucky if they have $50 left over to take the family out to eat.

Don’t worry about the capital gain taxes, sales taxes and other miscellaneous taxes, we all pay them, right?

They feel fortunate because they are “getting by” and they feel “comfortable”, but inside they strive for more. Our media feeds them advertisements of new cars, plasma televisions, wireless phones and movie star lifestyles, and, they eat it up. We can’t help but want those things because “everybody” has them and we have to keep up with the Jones’s. Sound familiar?

Okay, so back to the point about who’s in control of your money. And, how can you keep more of your money? It’s pretty simple really, take control.

Watch every penny. I’m serious, if you want control of your money, you need to document every expenditure. When you do, you will take notice. Once this is accomplished you can move forward, because you have to recognize that there is a problem. If you don’t recognize the problem, you will not have the discipline to make a change.

Here’s 3 steps to Take Control of Your Money:

1. Let’s take a look at the paycheck first. Most of your payroll deductions don’t have to be deductions at all. By changing your exemptions you can control who holds onto your pay. By doing so, you will have the use of this money. DO NOT change this unless you have the discipline to set this money aside in an interest bearing account with the sole intent of using it at the end of the year to pay your taxes.

The next deduction on your paycheck is your beloved 401k. Now I know Uncle Sam and all of the so called financial gurus tell you to max out this contribution, but you need to understand what is really happening. Your 401k only defers taxes, it does not save you taxes. While the argument is that you will be in a lower tax bracket at retirement, this is a myth. The reality is that you could be in a higher tax bracket at retirement. That’s a whole other topic which we will examine another time.

2. In this example the family is paying about $500 per month for medical coverage because the employer is pitching in some of the premium. While that may sound good, it could actually be better. But, because we are so convinced that our employer needs to fund this, and that we need co-payments and low-deductibles, we let even more money slip out the door. Every situation is different and in many circumstances this example may very well be the best option.

If you want control, you should keep 6 months of income liquid in an emergency fund. Now this may seem impossible to some, but you have to start somewhere. If you do, you can raise all of your insurance deductibles and therefore control your money until you actually need it. Doing so will save you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars every year.

By the way, if you think socialized medicine will work, take a look at Social Security and Medicare. Here’s the scenario. Social Security was created in 1935 by FDR. It was never intended to support people into their 70′s, 80′s and 90′s. The debt for SS is $10 TRILLION. Medicare was created in 1965 by Lyndon B. Johnson. The debt for Medicare is over $60 TRILLION. Some quick math will tell you that’s $70 TRILLION. And, don’t worry about what the retiring baby-boomers will do to that…

3. The next way that many lose control of their money is with a 15 year mortgage. We’ve all been told that we save interest by paying off our mortgage sooner. While it is true that you can save interest, in reality this may cost the average family hundreds of thousands of dollars over their lifetimes. Again, don’t hear me wrong. Each situation is different and if your goal is to pay your home off early, you can still do that in 15 years and have MORE CONTROL of your money along the way.

To grasp how a 15 year mortgage gives away control of your money, you’ll have to understand some basics:

• Your home will appreciate or depreciate regardless of the mortgage.
• Because of the interest tax deduction, your net payment may actually be reduced.
• Any payment going towards principle may actually increase your risk and decrease the mortgage lenders risk.

For more follow this link for a mortgage comparison using the LEAP financial calculator:
http://legacyinsuranceagency.com/mortgage-comparison.html

To summarize, with FINANCIAL EDUCATION and DISCIPLINE, you can take CONTROL of YOUR MONEY. When you are in control of your money, you can make informed decisions versus having someone else make decisions for you.

Until next time,
TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR MONEY!
Barry Page, RFC
www.shieldfinancial.com
www.legacyinsuranceagency.com

How To Buy Life Insurance
Types of Life Insurance, A Comparison of Term and Whole Life

Are you wondering what to do when it comes to purchasing life insurance? Losing someone you love is always difficult, but emotional struggles don’t have to be compounded by financial difficulties.

Life insurance secures your loved ones future. Life insurance provides tax-free cash benefits, in most cases, to your heirs after your death. This cash (known as the death benefit) can help to replace your income and can secure your family’s financial needs.

Is whole life insurance right for you? Typically, Whole Life Insurance has premiums that remain fixed for the life of the policy. A part of the premium is used to accumulate a guaranteed cash value thus adding a savings element. Dividends, which are not guaranteed, may also increase policy cash value. The policy remains in force during the insured’s entire lifetime, provided premiums are paid as specified in the policy.

Term insurance is, as it suggests, for a given term. Usually 10, 15, 20 and 30 year terms are available. As you get older the companies will only write policies with shorter terms. The death benefit will disappear when your term expires, or if you renew will increase dramatically. While term insurance provides excellent savings benefits for a short period of time, it is not a long-term solution. The lost opportunity costs and potential loss of the death benefit are the main vulnerabilities.

When deciding between whole-life and term you have to ask yourself if you want to rent or own? With term you are renting and with whole-life you own. While many insurance agents only talk about the death benefit, they seldom ever discuss how many death claims are actually paid on term insurance. This is the biggest reason why term insurance is cheap.

Permanent or whole life insurance can also provide a living benefit. Part of your premium goes into a cash reserve and accumulates tax-deferred. You can generally access this cash reserve at any time for many purposes including critical illness or loans. It can also be used for many other needs like education expenses and retirement income.

Bottom line, whole-life insurance will be there for you and your family for your entire life, as long as premiums are paid. When considering Life Insurance, speak to a professional and make sure you consider things like retirement, taxes, inflation and your estate.

Written by: Barry Page, RFC

Barry Page is an independent, licensed life insurance agent and registered financial consultant. He consults with families and businesses to help them protect their assets and create wealth.

To learn more about life insurance please visit www.legacyinsuranceagency.com

What is DIAM? Disability Insurance Awareness Month (DIAM) is an industry-wide campaign designed to get American workers to think about the need to protect their greatest asset – their ability to earn an income. Becoming disabled and not being able to work is one of the greatest financial risks people face, and yet disability insurance continues to be one of the most overlooked and misunderstood types of insurance today.

Learn how to protect your income with disability insurance by clicking this link: http://legacyinsuranceagency.com/disabilityinsurance.html