Talking about life insurance sounds as much fun as eating rotten fish

To some people, Talking about life insurance sounds as much fun as eating rotten fish. And while ignoring them can add to family tragedy by becoming a nightmare, more and more people are doing it.

A recent survey by the nonprofit Life Foundation showed that a quarter of Americans would consider canceling their life insurance policies to give money away in these tough financial times.

Before making such drastic decisions, consider these seven common mistakes - and you may decide to buy more coverage, not less.

The seven big life insurance mistakes


1. Think you have had enough. In a recent survey of middle-income Americans, all states found that while respondents generally agreed that everyone should have some level of life insurance, most believed it should primarily cover funeral bills and expenses. Only 20% said life insurance life should replace the income of the deceased, to continue to support the child and other dependent family members The idea of ​​having a policy that pays seven to 10 times a person's salary - an amount that can easily make sense for someone who having young children - sounds like an attempt to sell a large, unnecessary policy to a respondent.

In fact, a third of adults have no life insurance at all, says Steven Weisbart, chief economist at the Insurance Information Institute. Of the rest of the people, many of them only have insurance that comes from their workplace policies, which is usually not enough for people who want to support dependents after their death.

2. Don't talk about it at all. "This is a topic that nobody wants to think about," said Matt Easley, vice president of Allstate Financial, partly because thinking about death was so uncomfortable.

Although life insurance is not compulsory like auto insurance, Weisbart says it is "morally obligatory," because "if you have dependents, you owe them to protect them from losing your ability to earn an income."

3. Rely on old rules. Traditionally, people have relied on the standard "sevenfold income" rule to calculate how much insurance they need. But that's not a useful measure, says Easley, because people's situations are so different. A single, independent person will probably need significantly less insurance than a person with five young children, for example. Instead, Easley recommends sitting down and thinking about "the things you want to protect." How much does it cost to support your children the way you want? To pay for their college or pay off the mortgage?

Michael Bonevento, senior financial adviser at Ameriprise Financial, also recommends making a "value of human life" calculation, which looks at the future economic costs of a breadwinner who dies. For example, if he earns $ 100,000 annually and has 20 years left until retirement, then the value is $ 2 million. (The tax is then deducted along with the amount the breadwinner consumes himself, and other benefits such as health insurance are added up. Finally, the present value of the figure is calculated.)

The value of human life is usually higher than what people think after considering what they would pay if they died. Bonevento recommends buying insurance for somewhere in between these two amounts. You can get started with a quick estimate using the MSN Money life insurance calculator. Or, if you know what you need, compare quotes directly.

4. Ignore your nonmonetary income. Many people, when adding up their income that needs to be replaced, forget about the benefits that come with their work, such as health insurance and retirement account payments. "I have a job, and my employer pays for my health insurance, but if I die, and the subsidy goes away, my wife will have to get health insurance without it, so it will be more expensive," Weisbart said. Life insurers, then, must pay enough money to cover a new health insurance bill.

5. Forgetting the long term. People often forget how long life insurance payments will take to support their children and other dependents after they die, says Easley. "If you have a child who is 10 years old, in 15 years, they will go out on their own," he explained, so in that case, the protection period that would provide support for 15 years is likely the most sensible.

6. Thinking that it is too expensive. Many people mistakenly think life insurance is prohibitively expensive, Bonevento says, but it's possible to find a policy that fits both your needs and your budget. Term insurance, which provides temporary insurance over a specific time period, is more affordable than permanent insurance, which lasts a lifetime. In addition to managing financial risk, people sometimes also use permanent insurance as an investment tool.

But those on a tight budget tend to choose term insurance. One of Bonevento's clients, a married man with one child and another on the way, decided he needed to take out $ 1.5 million worth of term life insurance. His monthly payment, pending an assessment of his health, will cost between $ 102 and $ 219 per month.

7. Forgot to update the policy. Even though a major life event, such as a child birth, marriage or divorce, usually means it's time to renew your insurance policy, many people forget to do it. Even the 9/11 attacks, which affected many Bonevento's clients, were not the motivator he thought they would be. Then, he said, "when tragedy strikes, they face financial problems above all else."

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Term or permanent life insurance?

Term or permanent life insurance? - How do you know if you have the right coverage? Here's a quick look at all of the options: term, whole, variable and universal.

Few people who have bought insurance -- or even window-shopped for quotes -- have escaped the debate over term versus permanent insurance.

And the wrong kind of life insurance can do more damage to your financial plans than just about any other financial product today. So, the first and most important decision you must make when buying life insurance is: term, permanent or a combination of both? Let's look at each.

Term life policies offer death benefits only, so if you die, you win (so to speak). If you live past the length of the policy, you (or, more specifically, your family members) get no money back.
Permanent life policies offer death benefits and a "savings account" (also called "cash value") so that if you live, you get back at least some of, and often much more than, the amount you spent on your premium. You get this money back either by cashing in the policy or by borrowing against it.

Permanent life insurance is more expensive

As you might expect, permanent life insurance premiums are more expensive than term premiums because some of the money is put into a savings program. The longer the policy has been in force, the higher the cash value, because more money has been paid in and the cash value has earned interest, dividends or both.

The debate is all about that cash value. If you buy a policy today, your first annual premium is likely to be much higher for a permanent life policy than for term.

However, the premiums for permanent life stay the same over the years, while the premiums for term life increase. That extra premium paid in the early years of the permanent policy gets invested and grows, minus the amount your agent takes as a sales commission. The gain is tax-deferred if the policy is cashed in during your life. (If you die, the proceeds are usually tax-free to your beneficiary.)

The saying you always hear is, "Buy term and invest the difference." The fact is, it depends on how long you keep your policy. If you keep the permanent life policy long enough (and the market ever fully rebounds), that's the best deal. But "long enough" varies, depending on your age, health, insurance company, the types of policies chosen, interest and dividend rates, and more. The reality is that there is not a simple answer, because life insurance is not a simple product.

Guidelines to live by when buying

Even with all of these variables, there are some guidelines you can follow. The key is how long you plan to keep the policy. If the answer is less than 10 years, term is clearly the solution.

If it is more than 20 years, permanent life is probably the way to go. The big gray area is in between. Here is where you need an expert to run the term vs. permanent analysis for you. Of course, this assumes you keep the policy in force. Most people drop their policies within the first 10 years, but if you do your homework now, that shouldn't be the case for you.
How to choose

Categorize your insurance needs by their use. If you need $60,000 for college and your youngest child will graduate in three years, you need $60,000 of term insurance as a short-term hedge against your death, thus insuring that your child can finish his or her education. Meanwhile, if your estate will owe $200,000 in taxes at your death, you probably need permanent insurance, because you're not likely to die in the next 20 years (you hope). You also may want to re-evaluate your estate plan, but that's a different issue.

Once you figure out your needs, it's time to choose the type of policy that makes most sense for you.

Term insurance

Term insurance is relatively easy. You can buy term insurance that stops after 10 or 20 years, or that can be continued beyond age 70. You can choose for your premium to increase each year (annual renewal term) or to remain at the same amount for a fixed number of years.

Most term policies offer both a current payment schedule and a maximum rate for each year. With some policies, the company reserves the right to increase premiums if company costs increase. With others, your health may be a factor in determining rates. At certain "re-entry" ages, you may have to prove your good health in order to keep the lower premium.

Most term policies are convertible to permanent ones without evidence of good health.

Types of permanent life

The real wild card in terms of price is permanent insurance, because most policies have guaranteed and nonguaranteed portions. There are three main types of permanent insurance.

Traditional whole life: This type offers the most guarantees. The annual premium is guaranteed, and there are minimum guaranteed cash values and death benefits. Most whole life policies these days are "participating," meaning that the dividends they earn can be used to increase the cash value and/or death benefits, decrease the premiums or be refunded in cash.

If you are a conservative investor and also have trouble saving, traditional whole life makes sense.

Universal life: If you need premium flexibility, especially in the early years of the policy, universal life is for you. Universal life insurance was developed in the 1970s, when insurance-industry regulations changed to allow insurers to be more competitive with other financial-services providers.

Universal life insurance is more flexible than traditional whole life, because premiums can vary from year to year and sometimes can even be skipped. Universal life has maximum guaranteed premiums and minimum guaranteed cash values and death benefits. Instead of dividends, universal life policies earn interest at the credited interest rate determined each year.

Variable life: If you consider yourself a knowledgeable and risk-accepting investor, check out variable life. Variable life insurance has the fewest guarantees and therefore offers the greatest potential for cash-value increases.

There are required guaranteed annual premiums and a guaranteed minimum death benefit. However, there is no guaranteed cash value, and you have to select the investments for your policy.

Buyers typically are offered a variety of mutual fund accounts, ranging from money market funds to aggressive growth funds.

Not an investment tool

Life insurance should never be purchased solely as an investment. After all, some of your premiums are being used to buy death-benefit coverage and to cover other expenses (including sales commissions). Life insurance should not be purchased on children as a way to save for college, and make sure you (and your spouse) have all the coverage you need on yourselves before you buy any coverage on a child.

When you make your purchase, avoid all of the fancy riders, but do consider the waiver of premium, which suspends your premium payments but keeps the policy in place if you become disabled.

If you find that you cannot afford all of the permanent insurance you have decided you need, consider a combination term-plus-permanent policy. ( msn.com )

READ MORE - Term or permanent life insurance?

Ten things your insurance won't cover

Ten things your insurance won't cover - You're a good grownup. You have health insurance, life insurance, car insurance, and homeowner's insurance. Life can throw anything your way, and you'll be covered! Well, not anything. Each of the insurance plans that you pay premiums for every month have caveats and asterisks and fine print. Here are ten surprising things that you insurance probably doesn't cover.

Stuff in your car

If your car is broken into, your comprehensive coverage will replace the broken window. What it won't replace is anything that got jacked. The property in your car is covered instead by your homeowner's or renter's insurance, if you have it.

Nuclear disaster

If you live near a nuclear power plant and it has a meltdown and you are forced to abandon your house, your homeowner's insurance will not cover it.

Your shrink

Some health insurance policies have mental health coverage, but many do not. Before you get too comfortable on the therapist's couch, double check to see who will be paying for it.

Earthquake

Earthquake coverage must be purchased in addition to homeowner's insurance. Damage from tsunamis spurred by earthquakes is not covered (awesome).

Home healthcare

Some heath insurance plans will pay for home nursing care, but many won't. Check your policy.

Terrorism

Pre 9/11, many homeowner's insurance policies didn't mention terrorism. Post 9/11, most policies exclude acts of terrorism as a legit reason for filing a claim

Mold

If your house is infested with mold, it can mean health problems for your whole family; it might even mean abandoning your house. But it won't be a problem for your insurance company: your policy won't cover mold.

Floods

Earthquake insurance doesn't cover tsunamis, but flood insurance does. Again, flood coverage is an extra add-on that normal homeowner's insurance doesn't cover.

Sewer or sump pump backup

As a homeowner, few things might be worse than to find your house filled with sewage, except maybe that your homeowner's insurance won't cover it.

Reproductive medicine

Whether you want hormone therapy and in vitro to have a baby or a vasectomy so you can't have one, your health insurance likely won't cover it. ( bundle.com )

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Life Insurance Without the Medical Exam — Honestly

Life Insurance Without the Medical Exam — Honestly — Life insurance protects families financially after the death of a loved one. However, many consumers fail to obtain coverage because they fear the process – and the medical exam. In addition, the hassles involved with visiting multiple insurance brokers, filling out tons of paperwork, and going through a physical make it easy to procrastinate.

Life insurance carriers now offer an alternative: the “no-medical-exam” life insurance policy. This type of life insurance makes it possible to secure a $500,000 policy for as little as $6 a month without the obstacles.

No-medical-exam life insurance is attractive for many reasons including:

• No medical exam
• Less paperwork and a streamlined application process
• Competitive life insurance rates

Compared to a decade ago, most life insurance companies now have a strong online presence and offer competitive rates in order to attract potential policyholders. Hundreds of online insurance carriers and life insurance options create a new problem, despite the price advantages: it’s hard to decide which policy is best for you. Fortunately, websites such as USACoverage.com solve this problem by matching consumers with the most relevant insurance carriers for their needs.

USACoverage.com has streamlined the process even further with its simple approach. Simply fill out a short form; the site crawls a nationwide network of top-rated insurance providers and returns a list of matches based on your specific criteria. With no medical exam needed, life insurance approval is instantaneous. You can even purchase the life insurance policy immediately after reviewing the benefits, rates and feedback.

Life insurance can pay for medical and funeral costs, pay off a mortgage, pay for your children’s educations, and provide your family with a lasting gift after you are gone. If you’ve been putting off purchasing a policy, the hassles you think are involved have been eliminated. There’s no reason to wait any longer to protect your loved ones. Visit USACoverage.com to receive free, instant life insurance quotes – with no medical exam required – and be on your way to peace of mind. ( smartlifejournal.com )

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What happens to cross-sex friendships in adulthood?

What happens to cross-sex friendships in adulthood? - The Westminster Review, a quarterly British publication, ran an article in 1899 by a female writer starting with the question: "Why is it that women cannot be allowed by the world at large to have male friends?" Blame the gossips "whispering evil reports," she says: Men and women can't be friends because everyone assumes they're sleeping together.

A year later, another writer, this time a man, took up the same question but answered it differently: Only after women prove that they can have "worthy thoughts and aspirations" without "losing any of their modesty and self-respect" will men "pay homage to them as platonic friends."

Growing up in New York City roughly a century after the Westminster exchange, I never had to prove to my best friend, Jeff, that I could pull off the worthy-yet-modest trick. And while there was certainly some whispering about the nature of our attachment, that didn't have much of an impact on our friendship. Like many contemporary men and women, we found that it's entirely possible to get along without having sex.

Which is not to say that our friendship, was, or is, without strain. There are certain complexities inherent to cross-sex friendship—there's bound to be discomfort, for instance, when someone starts dating. The new partner might feel threatened, not quite understanding the nature of the friendship (or even questioning its authenticity). The friend might feel replaced.

Our freshman year of college (we went to different places, and in fact have never attended the same school), Jeff started dating someone semi-seriously. He'd had a girlfriend or two before, but those were such gawky, short-lived affairs that I hardly processed them. I remember with a good deal of embarrassment how cold I was to that girl when we first met. It's not that she made me wish away the Platonism, but she made it manifest that, as adults, non-romantic intimacy necessarily wanes. You can't even consider sleeping in the trundle bed if the actual bed is already spoken for. I was relieved when, several months later, he broke things off.

Jeff, who's generally a kinder-hearted and more generous person than I am, was kinder-hearted and more generous when my turn came. My college boyfriend, who'd slept with all the women he might once have called friends, was at first suspicious of my relationship with Jeff, but to his credit he never made an issue of it. We were together for six years, and, in that time, my friendship with Jeff changed less than I thought it might. If anything, the long-term romance strengthened my attachment to Jeff; he was my way of accessing the wider social world.

Meanwhile, Jeff didn't have a comparably significant relationship. I've wondered whether I'm partly to blame for that—if having a close female friend raised the bar for an acceptable partner. Or maybe I'm just flattering myself. Whatever the case, about two years ago he met someone. Serendipitously, I began seeing my current boyfriend within the same two-week period, which I would guess is why I've handled this development rather maturely, thank you. But what I dreaded our freshman year of college has come to pass: I've been, at least to a certain degree, replaced. He's been replaced as well.

A few months ago, I moved out of the apartment I'd been sharing with Jeff and started living with my boyfriend. Jeff and I have seen much less of each other, but it's too soon to tell if that's indicative of what's to come, or just an anomaly—maybe even a product of the fact that I've been working on this series.

To get a sense of how romance (and adulthood generally) affects other platonic friends, I looked back through my survey of nearly 600 Slate readers. Lots of respondents explained that the tenor of their friendships had changed. Now that Heather and Nathan are both married, they abide by an unspoken rule that they can hang out only as a foursome. Heather likes Nathan's wife, and vice-versa, but it bothers Heather that she can't see her old friend alone. Needless to say, there are no such restrictions on her same-sex friends.

I also heard stories of meddling romantic partners and stressed or broken relationships. Fraser's one-time girlfriend, now his wife, was so upset by his close friendships with women that she gave him a them-or-me ultimatum—he talked her down. Oscar got the same ultimatum but refused to acknowledge it and was summarily dumped. After S. got married, his wife threw fits whenever he wanted to see Kathleen, and would get furious when he'd help her in boyfriend-type ways—like catching mice in her apartment.

Yet for every person who wrote to me about petty jealousy, there was someone else who said there's no conflict at all—the friend and the partner get along swimmingly. "Judy" relies on "David" (these are made-up names) for long, sympathetic chats, and her husband doesn't mind. Her husband's not the emotional type; he's glad the heart-to-hearts aren't his responsibility. "Everyone wins," David wrote.

Although Judy's husband sounds terrific, for now, at least, he's in the minority. The first, most common response to a platonic relationship is still cynicism. And I have a confession to make: I loathe a raised-eyebrow reaction as much as anyone, but when I see a man and a woman together—eating dinner, at the movies, on the street—I assume that they're involved. If I'm told that they're "just friends," I don't automatically accept the claim.

Perhaps the cover illustration for this series can double as a Rorschach test—to help determine how willing you are to accept the possibility of platonic friendship. I, for one, found myself scrutinizing the man's facial expression. Ostensibly, he and the woman on the couch are just friends, but doesn't he look a little suspicious? What's he hiding under that blank stare? I wonder whether he's after something more. ( slate.com )

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Insurance May Affect Testing of Kids in ER

Insurance May Affect Testing of Kids in ER. Race, Insurance May Affect Testing of Kids in ER. Study finds more done for youths with chest pain who are white and have private coverage

Black children and kids without private insurance are less likely than white children and those who do have private insurance to be given tests when seen for chest pain at hospital emergency departments, a U.S. study has found.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center researchers analyzed data on 818 chest pain-related emergency department visits made by children and teens included in the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey between 2002 and 2006.

They found that 71 percent of white children were given either an EKG, chest X-ray or a complete blood count, compared with 59 percent of black children. The study also found that 75 percent of children with private insurance got at least one of the tests, compared with 59 percent of those covered by Medicaid or other public health plans.

This means that white children were 1.6 times more likely than black children to receive testing for chest pain and that white children with private insurance were 2.2 times more likely to have tests than those with public insurance.

The findings were scheduled to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, held Oct. 17 to 20 in Washington, D.C.

"These new findings are significant because they present a nationwide practice of allowing non-clinical data to guide emergency care of our vulnerable pediatric population, proving a different standard of care depending on one's race or insurance type," Dr. Tom Kimball, a pediatric cardiologist at the Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children's and the study's senior author, said in a news release from the medical center.

"This does not necessarily mean that an increased level of testing implies better or more appropriate care," he said. "That conclusion would be beyond the scope of this study." [ healthday.com ]

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Why Sex is Good

Why Sex is Good. Sex is an expensive and risky business. It steals time and drains precious nutrient resources. And each act of reproduction runs the risk of messing up carefully crafted genetic blueprints. So why do we do it?

The answer might seem obvious to you. But it's not so clear to biologists who consider that despite a logical alternative -- asexual reproduction by simple cloning without the help of a partner -- sex is preferred in the wild.

Asexuality, which came first, is seen in plants that send out underground runners and flatworms which, when cut in half, grow a new head on one half and a new tail on the other. Some microbes and fungi lean this way, too, and have since life began.

Scientists don't know how sex even got started. But they have long suspected that organisms prefer sex specifically because of the risk. The slight shuffling of genes produced through sexual reproduction may help organisms adapt more easily to a stressful or changing environment, the thinking goes.
Sexual Leftovers

Belief is not the basis of conclusions, however.

A new study using genetically modified yeast helps to settle the question: Sex is indeed beneficial.

The experiment pitted a strain of yeast that reproduces sexually against a modified, asexual version of the same strain. Each grew and reproduced at the same rate, said Matthew Goddard of the University of Auckland.

Then Goddard and his colleagues raised the stakes, providing less food to the little critters. Under these conditions, those engaging in the ultimate act still managed a growth rate of 94 percent whereas the asexual strain only reached 80 percent.

Sexual organisms seem fit to survive.

The research is detailed in the March 31 issue of Nature.

There are shortcomings in the study. For one, it does not reveal why sexual organisms are hardier in stressful conditions. And it fails to explain why the burden of sexual reproduction differs so much between males and females. Not only do females spend more time and energy developing and raising offspring, in most cases, but their sex cells are significantly more expensive to make compared to a male's.

"We are sill far from a definitive answer to the question of why sexual reproduction is so common," Rolf Hoekstra of Wageningen University wrote in a review of the study also published in the journal. [ livescience.com ]

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Taking Your Toddler To Theme Park

Taking Your Toddler To Theme Park. Taking your toddler to her first theme park can be a wild ride: blissful moments of cotton candy and carousels followed by scream-inducing lines and cranky-kid meltdowns. But if you plan well, says Rhonda Clements, Ed.D., a professor at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY, you can make your child's theme-park debut fun and memorable — for everyone in the family. A good time to start is age 2, when kids get interested in the world around them. Clements offers these tips:

Start small:

If your toddler is surrounded by YOU MUST BE THIS TALL signs, she's going to be very disappointed. Clements suggests choosing a park that's designed for kids as young as age 2, with attractions like wading pools and climbing structures, in addition to gentle rides and kiddie shows (try Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA, or Legoland in Carlsbad, CA). And before you go, scout out the park together online, so your child can get excited about a few must-visit rides.

Strategize wait times:

Hit the popular rides as soon as the park opens, when the wait will be shortest; once lines start to grow, head for the playground or pool, where you can usually walk right in. Since you won't be able to avoid lines entirely, pack some books and toys to pass the time more pleasantly, Clements advises.

Satisfy all ages:

If you have an older child who insists his day won't be complete without a spin on the scariest big-kid ride, strategize so your little one doesn't get jealous. "One parent can bring the toddler for a special treat, like ice cream, while the other parent brings the older sibling to the ride," Clements suggests. If you're on your own with your kids, she adds, "Give the little one the important job of waving or taking a picture while his sibling screams on the roller coaster."

Avoid the buy-me's:

There will be toys for sale everywhere your child looks. To avoid tantrums, tell him he may choose one souvenir — at day's end. "Explain that it'll be too hard to go on rides if you have to hold a package," Clements says. [ redbookmag.com ]

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Stand Out From The Crowd

Stand Out From The Crowd. Style Rules You should break Stand out from the crowd this season with new ways to shake up your style

Rule 1: Emphasize Eyes Or Lips, But Not Both

How to break it: Pair dark eyes with dark lips -- just stay in the same color family. Try deep plums and eggplants on eyes (plus black liner) and a sheer dark red or plum on lips. Yes, it's all about the '80s. "Channel Xanadu and have fun," says makeup artist Natalie Miller.

Lancôme eye shadow in Backstage Pass, $17; lancome-usa.com. Nars lipstick in Fast Ride, $24; narscosmetics.com

Rule 2: Glittery Jewelry Is Meant for the Evening

How to break it: Don't treat your fancy stuff like a vampire: Let it shine in the daylight! To make it work, keep the rest of your outfit subdued and sophisticated -- understated, clean lines will let your attention-grabbing jewelry rightly hog the focus. "I love a big statement necklace over a plain, basic T-shirt," says stylist Elizabeth Stewart. "Worn with jeans and a cardigan or a boyfriend jacket, it looks fabulous."

Rule 3: Mixing Patterns or Clashing Colors Is a No-No

How to break it: Somewhere between good-girl boring and worrisome wacky is the fun zone. Why not combine two or three unusual choices like a lilac-and-taupe checked sweater with a chartreuse skirt, says designer Rachel Comey. In general, keep colors within the same tonal family and don't mix patterns that have more than two colors.

Rule 4: Chipped Polish Must Be Removed Immediately

How to break it: You can tough it out a few days after your manicure starts to fray, says nail expert Ji Baek. Just use a matching color to stroke a light line sideways across the worn area, then paint the entire nail with a top coat to blend.

Rule 5: No Bangs on Round Faces

How to break it: We're not pushing the Little Dutch Boy look. But the right cut will soften the bluntness. Have your bangs trimmed in a subtle arc so the sides are longer and more fringey, recommends hairstylist Léa Journo. "It'll help bring out your bone structure," she says.

Rule 6: Light Scents for Day, Headier Scents at Night

How to break it: Robert Gerstner of Aedes de Venustas says to forget complex vs. simple, night vs. day, even men's vs. women's: "Spray on a scent with traditionally masculine elements like the leather and incense found in Aedes de Venustas; wear something heady and dramatic like Fracas in the daytime; pair an unexpectedly simple floral with an over-the-top outfit."

Rule 7: Always Enhance Your Natural Lip Color

How to break it: Bring on the beige, says makeup artist Pat McGrath. This season, models hit the runways with superpale nude lips. Layer concealer and lip balm to achieve a hue that's the same color or slightly lighter than your skin tone. And pair with glowy skin or dark eye makeup to avoid looking washed out.

Rule 8: You Can't Wear Denim On Denim

How to break it: Sidestep a Texas tuxedo look with a chic tweak: Pair contrasting denims, like dark indigo jeans with a pale chambray shirt. Keep it sophisticated, not country or kitschy. Finish the look with a strappy shoe and studded bag.

Rule 9: Take Off One Accessory Before Leaving the House

How to break it: These days, more is more. "Put on all your favorite things at once," insists jewelry designer Philip Crangi. "Accessories are the way people tell their stories. I love the mix of new and old, high and low, glam and personal. Pile it all together: a Cartier Love bracelet, a piece of string, a Swatch, beads, cuffs and bangles -- you should always feel more like you in your outfits."

Rule 10: Red Is Only for Lips and Nails

How to break it: At the Prada and Gucci shows, vibrant red shadow gave eyes a bold look. Build up the color gradually, says Pat McGrath. Make it most saturated at the base of the lashes. Wear with smoky black pencil and black mascara on the top and bottom lashes. On lips, opt for a deep, cool red or a nude shade to give the edgy eyes the focus.

Rule 11: Short Haircuts Aren't Suited to Curly Hair

How to break it: Just don't go crazy with layering. Too many short layers make hair spring up, creating an unflattering pouf, says Frédéric Fekkai hairstylist Adir Abergel. "The key is to cut longer layers, which keeps the weight at the bottom of hair," he says.

Rule 12: If Wearing Color, Nails Should Be Short

How to break it: "An almond-oval shape is more current and lengthens the hand," says manicurist Roxanne Valinoti. Angle your file at 45 degrees just under the tip so you keep the length on top and sides.

Rule 13: Wear Open-Toe Shoes Only in the Summer

How to break it: Tights are going to be huge for fall, and they look great with sandals. "Stick with thicker-strapped pairs that don't expose too much of the foot -- they'll also keep feet from sliding around," says our accessories director Meggan Crum. "And wear with opaque tights in autumn colors like burgundy or dark mustard, or classic black." [ msn ]

READ MORE - Stand Out From The Crowd

About Life Insurance

About Life Insurance. Understand Whole Life Insurance. Whole life insurance was the first kind of permanent life insurance that was made available. But just because it’s been around a long time, that hasn’t made it any easier to understand.

To help you get a better understanding, here’s a list of 10 things you should know about whole life insurance:

1. It’s permanent.

Whole life is a type of permanent life insurance which means that it doesn't expire unless you cancel the policy, or you don't pay your premiums. This is one reason that whole life insurance is very expensive compared to term life insurance. Because this policy never expires, the insurance company knows that it’s not a matter of ‘if’ they will have to pay out money, but ‘when’ they will have to pay out money.

2. It has a built in savings account called the ‘cash value’.

This is another reason that whole life insurance is usually relatively expensive. A portion of your premiums are being put into a ‘savings account’ that is part of the policy. This ‘savings account’ is called the policy reserve or the cash value of the policy.

3. Poor returns on your savings.

Usually the interest on the savings is quite low and any growth is often lost due to inflation. A 3% interest rate on your savings during a year that has 3% inflation means you didn’t really get ahead with your savings.

(Inflation basically means an overall increase in the cost of goods and services. If the inflation rate in one year is 3%, then each dollar you have will be able to purchase 3% less than it did 1 year ago.)

4. If you want to access the cash value savings in your policy, you usually have to take it as a loan.

Even though it’s your money that is accumulating in the policy, if you want to access any of it you usually have to borrow it in the form of a loan. This is called a policy loan and you will be charged interest on that loan until it is paid back in full. Many whole life policies that I've seen said in writing that the insurance company would decide what the interest on the loan would be and they could change it 'from time to time' without any agreement from you required.

Imagine having a bank account that you regularly deposit money in. Then when you want to make a withdrawal, the bank tells you that the only way you can have any of your own money is to borrow it with interest. While you're repaying your own money, they could adjust the interest rate they're charing you whenever they feel like it to whatever rate they want. How would you feel if you had a bank that treated you and your money like this? Many whole life policies work just like this.

Often, the only way to get your money without having to pay interest is to cancel the policy.

5. If you take a loan from the cash value of your policy, it usually reduces the death benefit payable to the beneficiary of the policy.

This is best illustrated by example. Say your spouse has a whole life policy with a $100,000 death benefit payable to you when they pass away. Recently they took out a $25,000 loan from the policy to do some renovations on the house. If your spouse passes away while a $25,000 loan is still outstanding on the policy, you will likely only receive a $75,000 payout ($100,000 - $25,000 = $75,000).

(The death benefit is the money which must be paid to the beneficiary of your life insurance policy when you pass away. The beneficiary is the person that is supposed to receive the proceeds of a life insurance policy)

6. Any cash value in the policy is usually kept by the insurance company when you pass away.

An example of this would be if you had a whole life insurance policy for $100,000. You’ve had the policy for a long time and have accumulated $40,000 in cash value savings in the policy. If you were to pass away today, the beneficiary of your policy usually would only receive $100,000. The cash value in the policy is almost always kept by the insurance company, never to be seen again.

Going back to the bank account example we used earlier. Imagine if you passed away and your family went to the bank to make a withdrawal from your account only to be told that the account was closed and the bank was keeping all of the money. Whole life insurance policies often do this very thing.

7. If you can’t pay your insurance premiums, you can use the cash value in the policy to do 1 of 3 things:

• The insurance company will take the money from your cash savings as a loan to pay the premiums (subject to items 3 – 5 noted above). This is called an automatic premium loan.
• You can take your entire cash value and buy something called paid up insurance. This is a whole life policy that is paid in full and will require no more premiums to keep it in effect. Usually the value of this new paid up policy will be a lot lower than your current policy.
• You can use the entire cash value of your policy to buy a single payment term life insurance policy that has the same death benefit as your current policy. The length of the term will be determined by your current age and other health factors.

8. Whole life insurance policies usually have high fees and administration charges.

These costs are usually not detailed for you, but insurance agents are usually paid very well to sell whole life policies. That big commission check is coming from the high premiums that you're paying.

9. Whole life insurance could be used for estate planning.

This is because the insurance could be used by the beneficiary to pay any required estate taxes after you pass away. However I would argue that you should buy term life insurance instead. It's much cheaper and you can invest the money you saved by not buying an expensive whole life policy. You can accumulate your own investments that can be used by your beneficiary to pay any estate taxes.

10. You can get a type of whole life insurance called a participating policy.

A participating insurance policy means that the insurance company may pay you back some money each year. If they overestimated how much they should be charging all their clients for insurance they may pay money back to their clients that own participating policies. This payment is called a dividend. Dividends are rarely guaranteed to be paid out.

If you receive dividends, they can be used in several ways:

• You can receive them by cheque each year the insurance company issues them.
• You can have the insurance company invest the dividends for you and collect interest on them.
• You can use them to buy more insurance.

Usually participating policies are more expensive than non-participating policies.

Whole life insurance can be a complicated subject. Hopefully this has helped make some sense of it.

READ MORE - About Life Insurance

Universal Life Insurance

Universal Life Insurance.You Should Know About. Universal life insurance is another type of permanent life insurance. The main difference between universal life and whole life insurance is that universal life gives you more control over certain aspects of the policy. This is mostly related to the investment portion of the policy which I’ll explain more later.

To help you better understand universal life insurance, here are 10 things you should know:

1. It’s permanent.

Universal life is one of several types of permanent life insurance. It never expires unless you cancel the policy or do not pay the premiums. This makes it more expensive than term life insurance since the insurance company knows that they will eventually have to pay out money.

2. It has an investment (savings) account built in.

Your insurance premiums go to three separate parts of you policy: the life insurance, fees, and investments. The investment part of the policy is like a savings account that grows over time and it usually grows tax free like an IRA (or RRSP in Canada). This savings is called the cash value of the policy.

3. You have some control over the investments in your policy.

This is what I was referring to at the beginning of the article. With whole life insurance your savings is put into a relatively low interest bearing investment. With universal life insurance, you can decide what your savings is invested in among several choices provided by the insurance company. These options usually include savings accounts, guaranteed term deposits, and investment funds (which are similar to mutual funds).

4. There are 3 ways to access the savings in your policy.

• You can make a partial withdrawal of the savings.
• You can take a loan from the policy - You can borrow some of your own money in the form of a loan and you will be charged interest until the loan is repaid. I always find this strange, that you need to borrow and pay interest on your own money. It’s like having a savings account at the bank that you need to make a withdrawal from. Only to have the bank tell you that you can’t have your own money. You can only borrow it and you will be charged interest on it until you pay it back.
• You can cancel your policy - When you cancel your policy, you should receive the cash value of the policy less any fees charged by the insurance company.

Since the savings grows tax free in the insurance policy, you may have to pay taxes when you take money out.

5. Taking money out of your policy may reduce the death benefit.

The death benefit is the amount of money owed to the beneficiary of your life insurance policy when you pass away. Universal life insurance policies vary on this point. You would need to read your policy or ask your insurance company or agent to be sure.

6. The investment savings may be lost when you pass away.

This is also something to discuss with your agent or insurance company. With whole life insurance, the savings is almost always kept by the insurance company when you pass away. But with Universal life insurance, you often have an option to have both the life insurance and the savings paid out. Be sure to discuss this with the insurance company. You want to be sure that the savings aren’t lost when you pass away.

7. If you can’t pay your premiums, the insurance company will use the money from the savings to keep the insurance policy in effect.

This will keep going until all of the savings are used up or until you start paying your premiums again. If the savings are used up, your policy will usually be cancelled.

8. Your insurance premium goes to three different things.

Universal life policies usually break down how much each portion is costing you. So if you’re paying $100 a month for your policy, that $100 is paying for three things.

• The mortality charge – this is how much it costs you just for the life insurance. So if you have a policy with coverage for $100,000 (ignoring any savings in the policy), this is what the mortality charge is paying for.
• Fees and administration – for managing and maintaining the policy and investments.
• Investments - this is the savings (cash value) portion that I was talking about earlier.

9. Universal Life Insurance usually has higher fees and administration costs than term life insurance.

Insurance companies and agents make good money from selling universal life insurance and this money comes from the fees you pay. One thing that’s nice about universal life insurance compared to whole life insurance is that the fees and administration costs are disclosed to you so you can see exactly how much it’s costing you.

10. Pay attention to how the mortality charge is set up.

This is usually done in one of two ways.

• Level cost of insurance (LOI) – this means that the mortality charge never changes. If the mortality charge was $30 a month when you were 30 years old, it will still be $30 a month when you’re 65 years old if you still have the same insurance policy.
• Yearly renewable term (YRT) – this means that the mortality charge will be adjusted annually. As you grow older, your chances of passing away usually increase, so the mortality charge goes up as your chances of passing away increase. What this means is that when you are young, you will be charged very little for a mortality charge, but as you age, that cost will increase over time. This has pros and cons.

Pros – when you’re younger and the mortality charge is smaller, more of your premium will be going into investments and you can take advantage of time to grow your money.

Cons – as you grow older, the mortality charge could potentially become more than your total premium. If this happens, the insurance company will start taking money from your savings to make up the difference. For example – Say you pay $100 a month for your policy. When you’re 30 years old, the mortality charge might only cost $30 per month. That means that $70 a month is going into the investments and paying for fees. But by the time you’re 65, the mortality charge might be $125 a month. If you still only pay $100 a month for the policy, it means that the insurance company is taking $25 a month (plus some extra for fees) out of your savings.

READ MORE - Universal Life Insurance

Term Life Insurance

Term Life Insurance. You Should Know About Term Life Insurance. Know Term Life Insurance Term life insurance is a type of life insurance for a specific period of time and is the cheapest type of life insurance you can buy.

Here is a list of 6 things you should know about term life insurance:

1. It is not permanent.

Unlike permanent life insurance, term insurance has an expiry date. It is purchased for a specific period of time. The most commonly available terms are 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 year terms.

2. There are 3 main types of term insurance:


* Level term – with level term insurance, the face amount of the policy does not change over the entire term of the policy. So if you buy a $250,000, 20 year, level term life insurance policy you will have $250,000 of protection for the next 20 years.

* Increasing term – increasing term insurance has an increasing face amount. Your monthly premiums will usually go up as the coverage increases over time. This type of term insurance is useful for making sure your coverage keeps up with inflation or if you expect your business or employment income to continue to increase over time and you want to make sure your life insurance coverage keeps up with your income.

* Decreasing term – decreasing term insurance has a decreasing amount of coverage over the life of the policy. It usually has level premiums over the term, but they are usually lower than they would be for a similar level term insurance policy. Decreasing term insurance is useful for loans or mortgages which decrease as they’re paid off.

Money Saving Tip: decreasing term insurance is great for mortgages. If you have a 25 year mortgage for $250,000, you can usually get a $250,000, 25 year decreasing term insurance policy for much cheaper than the mortgage insurance that banks often try to sell you when they give you a mortgage.

3. The premiums usually don’t change.

The cost for a term insurance policy usually doesn’t change over the entire term of the policy. So if you buy a 30 year term insurance policy when you’re 30 years old, you will usually pay the same monthly premium until you’re 60 years old. The main exception to this rule is for increasing term insurance where your premiums increase along with increasing coverage.

4. A renewable and convertible option (R&C option) is often available.

This is often an option you can buy with term life insurance.

* The renewable option allows you to be able to renew your life insurance policy for another term without having to go through any health questions or testing. Although you won’t have to go through any medical testing, your premiums will change depending on your current age and the length of the new life insurance policy.

* The convertible option allows you to convert your term policy into a whole life insurance policy without having to go through any health questions or testing. Whole life insurance is much more expensive than term insurance and your new premiums will be based on the amount of whole life insurance you want and your age when you purchase it.

5. Term life insurance is perfect for short term life insurance needs.

Many life insurance needs are not permanent. You might need to have life insurance in place to make sure that loans, credit cards or your mortgage can be paid off in the event you pass away before they’re all paid off. Many people often only require life insurance until their children are finished school and leave home. Or you may only need life insurance until you’ve built up enough savings and investments that you’ve become self insured.

6. It is the cheapest form of life insurance.

Since term life insurance doesn’t have a savings or investment account like most types of permanent life insurance, its’ price is much lower. You can purchase a large amount of insurance relatively cheaply. With the money you save by buying term insurance instead of permanent insurance, you can start your own savings plan. This approach is commonly called buy term and invest the difference.

BUY TERM AND INVEST THE DIFFERENCE IS THE WAY TO GO

The money you save by buying term insurance instead of permanent insurance can be invested. This allows you to build up savings just like you would if had a permanent life insurance policy. But with this approach you will have more control of your investments, and often much better returns so your savings will grow faster. This approach is called buy term and invest the difference.

Eventually you can build up enough savings and investments that you become self-insured. Being self insured means that you have enough money saved so that your family and obligations will be taken care of if you pass away. The benefit of doing it this way is that you won’t have to pay insurance premiums for your entire life. Once you have enough money saved, go ahead and cancel that life insurance policy and save yourself the monthly premiums.

READ MORE - Term Life Insurance

Different Types of Life Insurance

Different Types of Life Insurance. There are two basic types of life insurance, term insurance and permanent life insurance. Let’s examine both types, and then determine which the best life insurance is.

We’ll start by examining permanent life insurance.

PERMANENT LIFE INSURANCE

Permanent life insurance is pretty much like it sounds. It provides you with life insurance that never expires unless you stop paying your premiums, cancel the policy or you pass away. Most types of permanent life insurance also have a savings component that builds up savings for you.

The Three Most Common Types of Permanent Insurance Are:
(click on each type to learn more)

1. Whole life insurance – Whole life offers insurance that is in effect until you pass away, or you reach age 100 (whichever comes first). There is also a cash value (savings) that accumulates in the policy. Typically insurance salesman will pitch this type of insurance by saying something along the lines of it being a way to ‘force you to save’ for things like retirement or for your kid’s educations.
2. Universal life insurance – Is very similar to whole life except that all of your premiums go into the savings portion of your policy and the insurance company withdraws the funds need to pay for the actual life insurance from the savings in the policy. This makes your payments more flexible. Universal life also gives you more options for investing your money.
3. Variable Life insurance – Is a type of whole life policy where you have many more options on how the savings in your policy is invested. This gives you an opportunity to get better returns on your savings. Variable life also gives you more options for investing your money.

Permanent Life Insurance Is NOT The Best Life Insurance

Permanent life insurance is not the best life insurance you can buy. It generally costs you a lot of money for very little insurance, it’s difficult and costly to get at your own money that is saved in the policy and you may even lose the savings when you pass away.

The high fees make the insurance agent and insurance company rich at your expense. This is why many insurance agents tell you that permanent life insurance is the best life insurance you can get – because it makes them a lot of money.

So if permanent life insurance isn’t the best life insurance, what is?

TERM LIFE INSURANCE IS THE BEST LIFE INSURANCE

Term life insurance is the best life insurance you can buy. Term insurance is purchased for a specific period of time and is the cheapest type of life insurance. The most commonly available terms are 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 years. And unlike permanent insurance, term insurance has no savings associated with the policy.

This is exactly why term insurance is the best life insurance you can buy.

Let me explain…

1. Term Insurance is the Best Life Insurance Because Of Its Low Cost

Since you are paying purely for life insurance (not life insurance and savings), you can generally buy a lot of insurance for relatively little money compared to permanent life insurance. This is a good thing because most people in North America are either under insured, or they don’t have any life insurance at all.

If you don’t have enough life insurance, and you unexpectedly pass away, your family may suffer a lot of financial hardship. With term insurance it’s easier to afford enough coverage to make sure that your family will be ok should something unexpected happen to you.

Give our life insurance calculator a try to get an estimate of how much life insurance you need.

2. Term Life Insurance is the Best Life Insurance Because You Keep Your Investments Separate

With the money you save buying term insurance instead of permanent insurance, you can start your own separate savings or investment plan. By keeping your investments separate from your insurance, you can access your own money without having to borrow it or cancelling your life insurance. You’ll also have full control over how your money is invested instead of being limited to what the insurance company does or offers.

This is called buying term and investing the difference. If you keep investing long enough, you can become self-insured. Being self insured means having enough savings to take care of your family if you pass away. Plus, once you’re self insured, you don’t need life insurance anymore and you can save yourself from having to pay those life insurance premiums for the rest of your life.

READ MORE - Different Types of Life Insurance

The Basic Purpose of Insurance

The Basic Purpose of Insurance. The basic purpose of insurance is risk management. But is it really necessary to insure ourselves against everything, or can we manage some of the risk on our own?

It wasn't that long ago when the only types of insurance available were auto, life, and house insurance. Now we can buy insurance for things like identity theft, health, disability, critical illness, dental, travel, and even trip cancellation insurance. On top of all that, banks are quick to offer you mortgage insurance or insurance on your credit card or loan debts.
Why do People Buy Insurance?

As I mentioned earlier, the basic purpose of insurance is risk management. For example, when you buy life insurance, you are protecting your dependents from financial hardship if you were to pass away prematurely. Another example would be your auto insurance, you are managing the financial risk of damage and claims from a potential auto accident.
Do You Really Need to Buy That Insurance Policy?

The short answer is that it's really up to you. Some people are just more risk averse and would feel better being protected by a lot of different insurance policies. There's really nothing wrong with that. However, there are other ways that you can manage risk, and save yourself some money on insurance premiums.

For example, let's say that you're worried about identity theft. You could take some simple steps on your own to manage your own risk. A good paper shredder and some safe web surfing habits like clearing your browser history can go a long way in preventing identity theft.

The basic idea is that you should start thinking about what risks you really need to insure yourself against and which ones you can manage on your own. The final answers are up to you based on what you're comfortable with and how much you're willing to pay.
Not all Risks Can Be Managed on Your Own

You can manage a lot of risks on your own, but accidents do happen. It's the areas that are outside of your control that you should consider insuring yourself against first. The main areas are life, auto, health and home. A good insurance policy can make a big difference for you and your familie's financial welfare if something unexpected happens.
Make Sure You Get the Best Deal

In it's simplest terms, insurance is meant to manage future financial risk. We don't know what's coming tomorrow, next month, or next year that could cost us a lot of money. By properly insuring yourself, you can protect yourself from potential financial hardship.

Life insurance manages risk just like most other types of insurance. But what risk does it manage? There is the obvious risk of passing away unexpectedly due to an accident or illness. But if you don't get to benefit from the payout, what's the point of having it?

Losing a loved one is always difficult for a family. But if that loved one was also a contributer to the household income, that income is also lost when they pass away. In some cases, the loss of that income can be financially devastating for a family.

Insurance can never replace lost loved one, but by making sure you have enough coverage, you can be sure that you're family won't have to struggle financially if you pass away unexpectedly. With proper insurance in place, you can put the risk behind you and move on with enjoying your life.

READ MORE - The Basic Purpose of Insurance