Knowing The Importance Of Buy Term And Invest The Difference
Some of us has probably heard of the saying “Buy term, invest the difference” when it comes to buying insurance and considering investments. But do we really understand what this means? And if we do understand what this means, why do financial planners recommend that you buy term and invest the difference while your insurance agent is pushing you to buy their recommended product instead.
The majority of whole life insurance products available today is tantamount to “rip offs.” In fact, these kinds of products has already been phased out in the United States. When we talk about “term insurance”, this refers to insurance with life coverage only. On the other hand whole life insurance is a term policy coupled with investments. Your insurance agent will always present whole life insurance as something that will “force” you to save for your retirement. This is actually good, but the problem with this setup is that most insurance companies do not usually give a good rate of return for the “investment” component. Sad to say, whole life insurance products are still actively sold in the Philippines. People still buy these products because of lack of financial know-how.
In order to fully understand this, let me give you an illustration. My mother asked me if she should continue paying an insurance product that she bought for my sister. The insurance product was worth about P 400,000.00 (Philippine Peso) She already paid half of it so the balance left is P 200,000.00.
I asked her what the benefits of the insurance product were. She said that after 20 years, my sister who is still 18 years old will receive P 40,000.00 per year until she reaches the age of 65. At the age of 65 she can choose to receive P400,000.00 lump sum. If she chooses not to receive the P 400,000.00 lump sum, she can choose to continue receiving P 40,000.00 for the rest of her life. Plus she is also insured for two million pesos for the rest of her life.
I told her that we in order to determine whether she will continue paying the P200,000.00 we have to evaluate the benefits of the insurance product versus the “Buy term, invest the difference” scheme as suggested by most financial planners.
If you add the total money that my sister will be receiving, she will get a total of P1,520,000.00 at age 65, that is if she opts to get the lump sum at age 65, plus she is insured for two million pesos.
On the other hand, if we follow the buy term invest the difference scheme, if her insurance company will allow her, she will convert what she has already paid into “term insurance” which usually runs for only 20 years and then invest the P 200,000.00. If she will invest the P 200,000.00 at a vehicle of investment that gives about 10 % return per annum and also re-invest the returns of the investment taking full advantage of compounded interest at age 65 she will get a whooping P 17,639,497.05.
Now do you see the difference? What is P 1,500,000.00 vs. P 17,000,000.00+. Even if you add the insurance coverage that is only a mere P 3,500,000.00, it still cannot compare to the P 17,000,000.00.
You might ask what about insurance protection? Take note that pure term insurance is very cheap. She can just buy term insurance and renew it every 20 years.
But where do you get 10 % return per annum? There are lots of them. Examples of these are mutual funds and directly investing in the stock market. The returns here are not guaranteed though. However historical data will show that the rate of return for mutual fund companies is always above 10 % per annum especially if invested in equities. Investing in the stock market always proves profitable. Even the most conservative investors here gets a return of not less than 10 % per annum.
Buy term invest the difference? It certainly does make sense!!!
Would you want to know more about investment strategies ? Visit the blog of Zigfred Diaz where he writes about several interesting topics such as investments, money management, business, making money online and Stock market investing
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