Whelp… it looks like hurricane Hurricane Florence is making its way toward us here in North Carolina.
My wife and I are inland a bit, and current weather predictions say 40 mph wind gusts here in the Raleigh-Durham area.
We’re also supposed to get some rain, obviously. Maybe some flash flooding.
We live in a wetlands area which lots of people think are prone to flooding. But, wetlands are like massive sponges, soaking up water and releasing it slowly back into the waterways.
The worst storms we’ve had in the past have resulted in the yard turning into a thick pudding consistency. Very soft and squishy, but no standing water except a few places in front of the retaining wall which drains quickly.
Impossible to mow the lawn, of course, but otherwise not dangerous unless you’re dumb enough to go running around out there.
Maybe this time will be different though because this is a cat 4 right now and it’s expected to slow WAY down once it hits land.
If that happens, it might dump 20 inches or more on us.
Of course, the shnewz media makes it sound like everyone’s going to die. I’m inclined to think some people might die but the majority of us will live.
But, who will make it?
I have no idea and neither do you.
But I’ll keep you updated as best I can. I may “go dark” on Friday or maybe just shoot some emails out beforehand if things get REALLY bad Friday night.
OK, switching gears. September is life insurance awareness month.
Time to look over your life insurance coverage because… just like with hurricanes, you never know when you’re going to die. Granted, your probability of dying is likely pretty low right now.
But, it’s not zero, and death is, I would argue, a catastrophic event.
Getting insurance coverage doesn’t have to be hard but it’s also not always as easy as buying some term insurance.
Not easy?
Recently, I was reading over a relatively new university study done on investing and universal life insurance.
The researchers found:
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“The “buy term
and invest the difference strategy” only worked well operationally if the agent selling this product combination had both insurance and securities licenses. In instances
where the agent was not licensed to sell securities, such as an S&P 500 Index Mutual Fund, this strategy could not be completed and fell apart. But even if the agent had
both insurance and securities licenses, still this strategy often would not work if the
investment company that offered the S&P 500 Index Fund required a higher minimum initial investment (say, $1,000.00) to open a new account than small savers
could afford, e.g., about $36 a month difference in premium between a thirty-year term and EIUL illustrated earlier. Another reason why the above “buy term and invest the difference” strategy
is currently waning in popularity, just like VUL policies, is the volatility of the stock market.”
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More:
There are other factors affecting your ability to save enough, including the exact distribution of returns which, for most people, are completely random because everyone starts investing in different years, different months of the year, and different times of the month.
Insurance is your protection against not saving enough money and, specifically, not saving enough money before you die… both of which you won’t know until it’s too late… like whether your local hurricane is about to kill you.
Want more details about how to mitigate the financial risk? Hop on the email list… now.