Insurance and life questions... not pertaining to blackjack

So I pay for life insurance through SGLI (military plan) for $400k, but considering I don't have anyone currently to leave it to (my family is decently well off, no wife/kids/dependents) is it worth it for me to keep paying? It's about $27 a month and I am in my late 20's with no medical conditions. I feel I am wasting money paying for it because while it's not a huge amount per month, the gambler in me feels this is an -EV proposition. It possibly can't take that much money to throw my remains in an ocean somewhere lol.

Also regarding homeless vets who ask for money, is there a quick and easy way to determine whether or not they are lying or not? I see these guys throughout the city and while I feel bad for them I refuse to give them a buck if I have a shadow of doubt they are lying about their military service.

One more question and I'm done... I promise! I recently took up boxing back before I moved to Las Vegas, and wanted to know if anyone recommends a good gym to go to. I don't plan on going pro or doing the amateur circuit, just a good workout and learning fundamentals.

I appreciate all responses.

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dj,

I am you, 25 years down the road. I took that insurance as long as I was eligible, and took a form of it into retirement. No husband/kids at 20, got married at 36, we didn't have kids. My beneficiaries are my nieces and nephews. Wasted money? Maybe. I didn't cash in. (Thank God). Unfortunately, quite a few of my co-workers did. (Stressful job.) But I really liked having it, knowing someone I loved would have it if I went. I do know that you have to be in the program at the level you want to carry it for a minimum of 5 years before retirement, and in retirement it's surprisingly cheap. You're very young to think you'll never have someone else to provide for, but I don't know you well enough to say you'll wish you had it. I'm swagging to say this, but I think if you opt out, you can get back in during open season once a year. Things change, and that could be wrong. I do know that when I first signed up for it, I had 6 months employment to decide, and then could not get into the program without a significant life event (marriage or childbirth) if I opted out. You'll want to talk to your benefits department before you cut it off, I think.

Ask the vets where the local veterans hospital is. If they're
really vets they should know this. Don't ask them about
their service, they all have made up bullshit stories if
they aren't really vets.

It is a tremendous bargain first of all and you should never relinguish it. Never.

Just because your present life situation and present intentions render you without beneficiaries does not mean that future circumstances will actually be that way. Also a life insurance policy can sometimes be used to fund medical treatment that is considered experimental under other policies.

Wisconsin Life used to be one of the best bargains from the old populist legislation... took a hit from Aids victims all treking to Wisconsin to buy a policy though. I don't know its present status.

Anyway what is that saying "All life is six to five against"? Keep the policy!!!! Heck, you might meet a real cute sparing partner at the gym someday and really like her.

I owned an insurance agency for 13 years and held my license for 19 years. There are many different types of policies. If yours is one that goes up every 1/5/10 years and eventually ends in your 60's, you probably have too much for your situation and it will eventually become unaffordable. You could drop the coverage amount to $100,000 and have coverage to fly family in at your expense, cover lodging, expenses, etc. Should something unexpected happen.

If the premium stays the same forever, which I doubt because it's so low, keep it. You can't go wrong at that price.

97% of term life policies never pay out, because as I said, they become unaffordable and people stop paying on them.

I'd be happy to explain some other options ( no sales pitch since I gave up my license. :) ) if you are interested.

ZCore13

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As has been said most insurance is -EV, and except for legal ones like motor insurance, my advice is if you can afford the worst case scenario then take the risk yourself. Sadly some worst cases are so bad that taking things like travel insurance has become a must.

As to pensions annuities etc. - best of luck and try to live as long as possible!

So the insurance company is betting that you will live, and you want to bet they are wrong ? ? ?

IIRC, FEGLI premiums change (go up) in birthday years ending in 0 or 5. However, there is NO comparable benefit out there for the money. (I'm guessing you're in for parts A,B, and C to get to 400K) I would keep it if I were your age, since it's not just life, but dismemberment/loss of eyes/etc. You can't predict the drunk driver coming around the next corner, or a hundred other disasters beyond your control. It's 1 Starbucks/week.

27 a month.
Perhaps will stay at that level, perhaps not.

Whatever, open a saving account and make extra deposits to cover later years when it might prove difficult for you to maintain coverage.

It is indeed true that most life insurance policies never pay off.

Keep it and extend it as long as possible if your premium is not going up.

My 15 year term policy that I pay $31 a month is expiring in December. I looked into renewing it and it is $1300 a month to continue for the next 15 years. It is expensive and I am not sure if I am going to do it, but I do think it is +EV because I am 47 and I don't believe I will live that long.

Term insurance is the way to go, assuming to "need" life insurance. If you are single with no dependents, you do not need life insurance.

You should be saving and investing. Not writing checks to an insurance company.

Well, you have to think on the long run , lets say you cancel your current policy now and 10 years later you find yourself with kids and a wife and now you don't qualify because you have some kind of desease. Lets say the insurance company end up accepting your application but now your premium is not enough and the monthly payment is ridiculous!!! You think you are not going to regret it ?? I'm a insurance agent and I always recommend my clients to keep it if is not digging a hole on their pockets. $27 a month is not bad at all. Must be a non smoker

is up to you but I hope I help you some how

Have a nice day

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

As far as I'm concerned, ALL types of insurance is -EV and a con.

Boy, I too, used to think that way. But I am damn glad I have health insurance.

3 years ago, I broke my collerbone. 27 at the time. No health insurance. No big deal. Total medical expenses were only a couple thousand dollars. But, I was out of commission for a while. If you have had a broken, really broken, not cracked collerbone, you know the first month is pretty painful. Almost any movement hurts, including sleeping. So I was out of commission for about 8 weeks. Being self employed as I am, no work means no money coming in. Now I don't have weekly money coming in like a paycheck, but significant time missed at the tables means less money for the year.

So anyway, this particular incident wasn't huge, but it got me thinking. What If something really bad happened to me. A major accident, injury or illness. Something that really laid me up for 6 months or a year, in which I did have major medical bills. It would be like a double 'HIT', a major hit to my income PLUS huge medical expense. Since I wasn't on the shoestring budget, trying to build my bankroll that I had been, I decided to invest in some health insurance, which would eliminate the double hit part of a major injury or illness. Being healthy and not too concerned with routine health expenses, I found a policy with a fairly high deductible, that would give me the protection I wanted against the significant expenses of a major incident, without the cost of a everything covered policy.

So wouldn't you know the very next year, I contract a rare but very serious infection, infective endocarditis, which gets into the blood, makes it's way to the heart and eats away heart valves, very quickly, in matter of days, literally before you even know what has hit you. So I had major heart surgery, replacing several valves, an extended stay in the hospital, a stint in a rehab facility and extensive follow up. For a second straight year, significant down time meaning less yearly money earned, but this 'illness' would have cost me tens of thousands of dollars in medical expenses on top, if I hadn't somehow decided to acquire health insurance less than a year earlier. It felt like more than good luck. :-)

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Quote: Ibeatyouraces

Trust me in this. You will spend more money in your lifetime on insurance then they will pay for any procedure, benefit, etc. Its a losing, long run proposition.

I can appreciate that this is the long term logic. And as AP's we generally think long term. But for a full-time AP, our bankroll is everything. And if it is non-replenishible as mine is, it has to be protected at all cost. It took me 10 years to build my bankroll from $4300 to the six figues that it is totay. This amount of bankroll allows me to make, what I consider a comfortable living. A major hit to my bankroll would disrupt my lifestyle a great deal. I can only think of 2 situations that could be such a major hit. A robbery, and we protect against that by spreading your assets out in different places, and major unexpected health expenses.

In this town, I see it on the news every night. Someone carjacks a car and drunk and high crashes into an innocent person severely injuring them requiring multiple surgeries, hospital stays, medical expenses. Someone runs over people crossing the street or waiting for a bus nearly every day. Home invasions, multiple gunshots. And that's before you even get into the possibility of a sudden illness like I had two years ago.

You may be right. It may be -ev. And I am a guy who lives my life by plus EV. But, I will take the insurance on this one. Yep, give me even money dealer. :-)

You don't need life insurance if you have money in savings to provide the same benefit when you die. You should, no, better have life insurance if you're the provider in your family. The great probability of course is that you don't die, but if you do, you don't want to screw up your family's life as a result of your death. You want to provide your family with at least a benefit so that your family can deal with the funeral and live two-three years without income AND replace your income if your wife is incapable of working.

For example, I have a life insurance policy that pays a beneifit to my child that replaces child support which ends when my kid hits 25. I reduce the premium as my kid gets closer to the age.

You are supposed to save as you get older and replace your life insurance with your life savings.

If you're single and got nothing to live for and am healthy, you don't need life insurance.

Duplicate

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

As far as I'm concerned, ALL types of insurance is -EV and a con.

It is intrinsic to the nature of insurance that it must be negative "EV" for the subscriber, as if it were not, then the provider would be out of business. However, I don't think its a con. The subscriber doesn't seek to acquire positive EV for his insurance policy (unless he is a scammer/con artist...), instead he seeks to smooth out his financial fluctuations do to unforeseeable events, and that is precisely what insurance is suppose to provide (That is why the "health insurance" in the US is not truly insurance when it provides coverage for events that are not just foreseeable, but down right predictable [e.g. yearly physical!!]; it should be renamed as health and wellness plan, or whatever innovative name marketing can come up with).

In regards to blackjack, insurance is aptly named for civilians because as far as they are concerned, a dealer blackjack is an unforeseeable event they can't predict, and they would like to hedge against to reduce downside risk when they have a strong hand (Dealer: take that even money sir, I haven't had one in a while...). For the counter/AP (hole carder, shuffle tracker, ect.), it is often a predictable event in which case one can profit under (just like in life, if a scammer knew a vulnerability in the claiming process of an insurer, he could orchestrate a scam to take advantage of this to seek profit). In reality, its a side bet for us...

jet

I'm considering life insurance. I can get 250k for 31 bucks a month. Like the OP I don't have any kids, but I have a 1 year old great nephew.

As for not paying out, we found 16,000.00 online that was an insurance policy my grandpa took out on my sister. It's weird for sure. The policy was left to my dad who had passed away in 2003. My mom filled in the paperwork and a few days later me, my mom, and my young sister each got a check for over 5K. His policy was, he put 10k into a whole life policy and the 10K just sat there earning interest.

If you got it, you can put 10k into an annuity and list your sister as beneficiary.
When you die, she'll have enough to cover the funeral and party.
You can also add to the annuity as you wish.

My mom died on the 9th this month and I have half a house and half annuities, 401k and life insurance coming my way. I got a quote that says 100k annuity will pay me 468 per month for the rest of my life. And if I make it another 50 years the amount of money received monthly will total 256K. If I make it 30 years, then it's 180k. A 10 year annuity will pay me 1100 per month. Annuities are safe investments. If you continue working while collecting them, you can be pretty safe.

Then there are the savings bonds. I have been buying them and many are about to be due.

If the policy is building equity that you can cash out keep it. Keep it anyway to pay for the party once you're gone.

I should really look into what life insurance covers.... if it does cover medical treatments it might be worth keeping. I have a reserve Tricare health/dental but probably won't cover too much. I did get my wisdom teeth taken out while I was on active duty orders which cost me nothing.

Insurance is the one thing I never bothered to research. I figure I get work done or something fixed and insurance will take care of it. Probably not the best way to handle medical problems.

Also life insurance makes no sense if you are the youngest in the family. I'm going to outlive my mom under natural circumstances so I would have to change my beneficiary anyway. The rest of my extended family all are well off, so I feel like I'm paying this even though I don't need it. Perhaps I will lower the coverage. I don't plan on having kids. I'm not just saying that because I'm young and will change my mind but I feel they are extremely -EV in lifestyle changes and finances. Also for getting married. Everyone ends up divorced anyway. That's just more money to burn in lawyering up.

Actually I thought about it and there are factors which could cause early death before my parents:

Smoking
Getting deployed

but even then who knows?

When I was in the Reserves I paid a few pennies per month for $10 000. If I dropped it completely, it required a physical and could be denied if I wanted to pick it up again; but by maintaining some coverage, I could raise it to the max any time. For some things that go on in the military it could become +EV

Las Vegas is the fight gym capital of the world. Just go to ones near where you live and ask for a day or week pass and find out which ones seem like a good fit for you. Many of them will let you try them out complimentary or only a small fee

Hi,

Insurance is always important as it supports your family after you are not there. So I have a family and I do have 2 insurance plans.

If you are using Equity, so it is somewhat affected by market ups and downs. I suggest to have a policy with static returns (go for a big policy, with minimum yearly premium), so that your family gets a huge amount when they need it most. Have a visit to this life insurance link, I just visited today.

Regards

Quote: CammieGalle

Hi,

Insurance is always important as it supports your family after you are not there. So I have a family and I do have 2 insurance plans.

If you are using Equity, so it is somewhat affected by market ups and downs. I suggest to have a policy with static returns (go for a big policy, with minimum yearly premium), so that your family gets a huge amount when they need it most. Have a visit to this life insurance link, I just visited today.

Regards

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