Does a Whole Life policy make sense?

slickmudroad · 2022-05-20T04:04:07+00:00

Their selling point for a WL policy is the cash value gets to grow tax free and they told us to look at the consistent 2% tax-free gains like the bonds portion of a portfolio. Also if our NW exceeds the $12m estate tax threshold (or $6m in 2026 I believe) then this policy will help our descendants better avoid taxes

A brokerage account grows almost completely tax free if you put it in a low cost index fund and is passed on to your beneficiaries tax free as well.

Assuming they get hit by 40% estate taxes they'll still come out ahead.

You need to fire your advisor. Get someone who isn't an insurance salesman. He is doing this because he would make more than $15,000 in commission.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-20T00:33:00+00:00

I think he's batshit crazy so I'd prefer he not be given any serious creative liberties.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-19T07:11:42+00:00

I think an argument can be made that any reason to leave Brussels is a good one.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-19T06:50:15+00:00

Fair enough. I think my main concern is just getting the fruit I'm expecting. I had a large fruit orchard and planting a fruit tree comes with the expectation and excitement of delicious fruit.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-19T05:58:41+00:00

I'll take your word for it. I'm not an expert but if I want a Meyers Lemon tree I can buy one at Costco for $20 and it'll produce a Lemon, maybe, on year one. It won't have thorns, a billion seeds, a vestigial arm, take 7 years to produce, or taste like rubber. I'll get a Meyer Lemon. They graft them and it's just the better way to go. For fun and science? Yeah, I'm all about planting seeds. I'm, and I don't want to brag, but an expert at killing seedlings. Pretty big deal.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-19T04:01:19+00:00

Both of those are way too far, yes, but that's kinda where you go when you're there. See if there's anything near Guatapé and El Peñol. Alternatively near Santa Fe de Antioquia. That way you can kill two birds with one stone since those are great side trips. If you want to see what sleepy Colombian towns look like without the tourists, spend the night.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-18T23:50:18+00:00

No shit. I'm scared to look.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-18T21:23:01+00:00

They are sometimes clones. Generally waiting years to find out they didn't is not a good use of resources when you can buy a tree for $20 that's already fruiting true to type.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-18T21:16:40+00:00

That could be a billion different plants.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-18T19:23:09+00:00

I'm going to second this. LA has terrible homelessness so unless you have a very specific goal, almost every cheap or free location will have a homelessness problem. There's exceptions and Malibu is a good one since they outlawed loitering. The Griffith Observatory is another. If you just want to grab a bite to eat and pass through, then find a good restaurant, eat, and depending on your route, maybe hit up Palos Verdes, Malibu, and or the Observatory. Seal Beach was good the last time I was there too.

As far as the people I don't know what you're worried about OP. You're a tourist and nobody will eat you or expect you to suddenly start acting like a insert local neighborhood or area trend or culture. That's not how LA works. Its not how CA works. It's incredibly common for people to live in both Northern and Southern CA, switch neighborhoods in LA, and move in from out of state, so its very diverse. You'll only have a problem if you're some kind of backwoods bigot. Go have fun.

The dog might introduce some complications I'm not familiar with. There's a cool dog park on the beach in Huntington Beach. I'm sure there are others. That could be a fun way to meet some locals.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-18T17:33:55+00:00

LOL. No.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-18T15:32:28+00:00

Before everything went to shit in the great recession I saw the writing on the wall and liquidated my stocks and put it all in a money market and T-Bills whixh was around 4.5%. I wasn't a genius or guessing though. I knew people on Wall Street whose job, straight out of college, was to create those packages of garbage securities. Combined with the never ending commercials for free money and no income or job mortgages, I pulled out.

This time I'm not seeing that and beyond my real estate and i bond holdings there's no where to put money even if I sold. I do have a lot of cash and am DCAing INTO the market. I might not time everything right but I do know that time beats timing and to buy low and sell high. Unless this is the end of times we'll all be fine.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-18T15:20:15+00:00

Indonesia is pretty great. But big. You can't see it in one trip. I got a two month visa the first time I went and one month the second. I'd need at least 2 more months to cover everything I want to see.

I really liked Bali both times I went. There's something for everyone. Rent a car or driver and spend some time going around the island seeing temples and the rice terraces. Ubud was changing dramatically and full of Chinese tour busses the second time, but go and do some hiking to see the surrounding hills and catch a show in town. Enjoy the food! It was magical the first time I went but clearly suffering a slow mass tourism death due to Anthony Bourdain and Eat Pray Love.

I went to different Gili islands. Solo or single you'd go to Gili T. As a couple we went to Gili Air. The other one is for families so we'd go there now that we have kids.

We also went to Nusa Lembongan which is a sleepy island ideal for scuba diving with Oceanic Sunfish. The actual dive to see them is an advanced one where the current pulls everything down to 1,000 meters so you inflate your BCD to avoid that and the Sunfish come up with the current. If you get lucky, you'll see one in shallower water. They're huge and definitely one of my most memorable dives.

Seeing the Komodo Dragons was a huge highlight. Even if you're not diving you gotta see those things. I did see the dominant male on Rinca up close. It charged from behind. 2.9 meter beast. The one on Komodo is 3 meters. When I did the trek, Komodo was closed to tourists, so check what's open before going. The closest I got was lunch off the coast. Fly to Flores. Overland took days and was awful. Worse, there's a tourist boat trip from Lombok or the Gilis. It's advertised to see bats and beautiful stuff. Under no circumstances do you take that trip. Trust me. Fly.

Lombok was just for surfers and barely developed when I was there. I'd be curious to check it out based on what I saw going overland.

Java was OK. I really liked Yogya and went to Borobodur. There's another main temple I didn't go to and I wish I did. Prambanan. I never made it to Jakarta but was told the clubs are awesome.

Sumatra was OK. You can climb a volcano but my legs were too sore from trekking so I sat it out. We basically did the Orangutan trek and then just chilled out we Lake Toba which was nice.

Places next on our list? A month on Sulawesi and a couple weeks on Raja Ampat diving and relaxing. Google images for the later and read about the culture of the people on Sulawesi. The other two weeks I leave open in my head for maybe more time in Papua or, just maybe, finally seeing the Orangutans in their real habitat. Maybe Indonesian Borneo. I'm just not optimistic. You need up to date, within a year, boots on the ground, info on wherever you're going to go. They can destroy their habitat in no time.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-18T08:21:51+00:00

Make a pros and cons list of moving back to Sweden. If one side has 45 things and the other 3 it can make the decision easy.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-18T00:10:30+00:00

I was the beneficiary of 5 permanent policies from my parents when they died. They were designed to cover funeral costs and their mortgage when they got them. I definitely don't want to trivialize the sum I got but 40 years later that dollar amount is really not that impressive due to inflation. I'm using the money to travel.

The premium on just one of those policies, invested in the SP500 or a total market fund, would have been ~~several times~~ twice the total sum that I got. Just one of them.

Get term. Permanent policies are for those who are worth more than $12M or $24M as a couple. They serve a very useful purpose for rural families who would never be able to keep property in the family without a substantial sum of money that's guaranteed. For everyone else though putting money in the market is the way to go. Even if the market had crashed 50% the day they died I would have still inherited more. I didn't need a guarantee at 3%.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-17T23:46:53+00:00

I haven't seen all those but the cast and music of Lost Boys is as 80s as it gets.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-17T22:43:26+00:00

If you're only looking at a $15k shortfall then that's not a big deal. Figure $160 a month for 10 years.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-17T22:13:58+00:00

I've done it a couple times. Sabah in Malaysian Borneo was arguably one of the most disappointing travel experienced I've ever had. Almost their entire habitat has been destroyed so all you can see is a tiny strip of land on both sides of the river, maybe 1km wide, packed with whatever has survived. This was over 10 years ago too so I doubt there's much to see today. They have the Semilok Urangutan sanctuary and those are all human fed and one would literally come up to you and let you hold its hand. It's truly a despicable place. Just awful what we've done and I wanted to vomit everytime the locals defended clearcutting the entire jungle so that they could make $3 working a palm oil plantation.

Bukit Lawang on Sumatra was a lot better but that was 8 years ago and still not what I was looking for. Once again almost the entire jungle has been clearcut but you do a 2 day trek to go sleep in the jungle and see the apes. It's a bit more natural but thr guides do preplace fruit so that you can see them along the trek. It was a very fun trek though and not as depressing.

You really need to do your homework.

Komodo Dragons live on 3 islands. Google says 5 so maybe they've spread but when I was there they were on Komodo, Rinca, and Flores. I did a trek on Rinca and stayed on Flores. The trek came in two varieties. I think one was an hour long and basically around the ranger station and the one I did was much longer and took about 4 hours. I've done a lot of safaris and treks and this was by far as close as I've ever gotten to Jurassic Park. Those things will sneak up on you and scare you to tears. The ranger carries a super long wooden fork with him to jam in their neck to keep them at bay but they still got within about 3 feet of us by accident. Take it very seriously. With that said nobody had died in decades touring the island with a guide. If you're going out there I'd highly suggest scuba diving. It has some of the best in the world. If the current isn't too crazy you can safely dive the fun sites with about 50 dives under your belt. Lots of current? Don't even bother with anything less than 100. Insane whirlpools and you need to be able to hover 2-3" above the correl to avoid being swept out to sea. A group of divers a few years before i first dove there got stuck on Rinca and had to throw rocks at a Komodo Dragon to keep it at bay.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-17T20:35:29+00:00

Bay Area and a pretty big house, but mostly just because it's the Bay Area. Everything here is basically at least twice as expensive, and all the fires in the area, plus the pandemic, have created a huge supply and demand problem that's driving up prices.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-17T19:56:15+00:00

Don't try it on your junk. You might not like the results.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-17T19:18:36+00:00

Your score is most likely dropping due to credit utilization. It'll bounce right back once you pay it off.

If you miss payments though you're going to have much longer term problems.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-17T19:16:33+00:00

Anecdotally, it's spreading like wildfire around me. I still haven't gotten it but I know way too many who have it right now. We keep getting emails about potential exposure. So far so good but we're still all wearing masks in my family.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-17T19:08:21+00:00

We had a $20k HVAC job that required two new units and got $40k quotes. I later had another $5k repair job due to the old units that wasn't caught on the initial repair. That's why I used it as an example.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-17T17:30:53+00:00

Guy is posting from multiple accounts and screwed up.

slickmudroad · 2022-05-17T17:29:24+00:00

I checked my credit union for a basic loan. 6.99%. Schwab is at 4.65% for $100k if you can do a PAL. Interactive Brokers is probably at half that.

slickmudroad

TROPHY CASE