How much should I contribute to my retirement plan? Conventional wisdom tells us that from the day we start working, to the day we retire, we should maximize contributions to our qualified retirement plans. Traditional retirement plans leave your money inaccessible and out of your control. Your goal should be to save in a tool that you can control. This video provides a closer look at retirement plans, and whether or not they are suitable for you and your needs.
“Another thing to keep in mind with retirement plans is that they’re often invested in the stock market and there’s no guaranteed that when you go to retire, your savings is going to be intact. “
Have you ever wondered how much you should be contributing to your retirement plan or 401k? Traditional qualified retirement plans leave your money inaccessible and out of your control. If your goal is to regain control of your money, then perhaps you should consider saving money in a place that’s safe and allows you access to your cash for things like cars, vacation, tuition, home renovation, and any other purchases, whether planned or unexpected.
When all your money is tied up in retirement plans, you’re at the mercy of the government, wall street and the banks. Let me give you an example. We were introduced to a client who had $1.4 million in a 401k plan. He wanted to take his family on vacation to Disney, but he couldn’t put his hands on $13,000 in order to do so. On paper, this man was a millionaire, but the reality of it was he couldn’t put his hands on $13,000 to take his family on vacation because he didn’t have access to his cash.
The point of the story is it’s not a bad idea to save for retirement. In fact, it’s a very good idea. However, it’s also important to save in a tool that you control, somewhere that’s flexible and allows you access to cash. Another thing to keep in mind with retirement plans is that they’re often invested in the stock market and there’s no guaranteed that when you go to retire, your savings is going to be intact.
People view their retirement plans as savings, but there’s a big difference between savings and investing. Savings should be money that’s accessible and safe. Conventional wisdom tells us that we’ll be in a lower tax bracket when we retire, but taxes is another area in regards to retirement plans that we don’t control. We may be in a lower tax bracket; we may be in a higher tax bracket. The fact of the matter is nobody knows but think about this. You’re deferring taxes into the future of the unknown. It’s like driving a car off the lot, not knowing what the final purchase price is. Would you do that? Most people wouldn’t, but yet every day we fund our retirement plans not knowing what the future cost is going to be to get our own money.In conclusion by maximizing our retirement plan contributions, our money is inaccessible and because our money in accessible, we have to go to banks and credit companies to finance the things of life. Additionally, we’re deferring taxes into an unknown future.
How often do we think about what will happen if we get sick, hurt, disabled, or lose our job?
These are just some of the factors that we need to consider when investing in real estate. Buying a house is an exciting but stressful time. With so many options out there, how do you know which one is right for you? In this week’s video, we dive in to explore the pros and cons of a 15-year mortgage vs. a 30-year mortgage. We also explain the difference between a bank’s equity and your own, and other factors to consider. Remember, if you need approval to access your equity, is it really yours?
“It’s important to choose the option that gives you the most liquidity, use, and control of your money.”
Which is better a 15- or 30-year mortgage? When shopping for a mortgage, it can be so confusing because there are so many options. Buying a home is one of the largest purchases you’re going to make, and many people get hung up on interest rates. Well, interest rates are important. It’s not the only factor you should consider when choosing the right mortgage for you.
One thing to consider that’s often overlooked is inflation. When you buy a house today, you get a mortgage, the dollars have more purchasing power today than the dollars that you’re going to use to repay the bank. So the longer you can take to pay back the bank, the less purchasing power the dollars are going to have at the time of repayment.
Let me give you an example. When I was younger, my parents would send me down to the bank to pay the mortgage. The mortgage was $52.80 and at the same time, they would send me over to the local hardware store to pay the utility bills. Our electric bill at the time was about $45 or $50 and I remember asking my parents, “how much was the electric bill was when we bought the house? ” And they said it was about $4 or $5 per month.
Think about what happened over 15 years. The electric bill increased by about five times, but the mortgage stayed the same. So my parents were negatively affected by inflation on the electric bill, but they were positively affected on the mortgage because the mortgage stayed the same and they were paying that mortgage back with dollars that had less and less value over time.
Conventional wisdom tells us debt is bad, so Americans want to get their house paid off as soon as possible. You think you’re making your position safer, but the fact of the matter is you’re actually making the bank’s position stronger. Let me give you an example. If you have a $250,000 house with a $200,000 mortgage balance, if the bank had to foreclose, it might be difficult for them to break even if they had to sell that house. But if you have a $250,000 house with a $125,000 mortgage balance, it’d be very easy for the bank to break even if they had to foreclose.
Don’t get us wrong, both you and the bank are building equity, but the nature of those equities are quite different. The bank has full liquidity use and control of their equity. Whereas you would need to qualify to access the equity in your real estate. The bank’s equity is cash and your equity is real estate equity, which requires bank approval in order for you to access your equity. So, basically if you need approval to access your equity, is it really yours? The next thing to consider when choosing a mortgage is control. Think about it. If your goal is to regain control of your money, then you should not be giving up your discretionary income to the bank. That’s money that you could be using for your lifestyle or savings.
You’re taking money that you have complete liquidity, use and control over and giving it to the bank and now they own and control that money. Which brings us to our third point. What happens if you become sick, hurt, disabled, or lose your job? You may have a lot of money in real estate equity, but now you have to apply to the bank in order to access that money and make no mistake. Banks are not loaning you money because you have equity in your real estate. They’re loaning you money on the premise that you’re going to be able to repay them. Anytime you want to tap into your real estate equity, you need to go to the bank, apply and prove that you could repay the bank.
It doesn’t matter if you had a great payment history on your previous mortgages. They don’t care if you actually paid extra on your previous mortgages. They have to consider whether or not you can pay back this new wealth. Let me give you an example. We have clients who had a $175,000 house with a $50,000 mortgage balance. The husband got sick and couldn’t work. They figured they could tap into their equity when they applied to do a refinance, even though the monthly payment was going to be lower, the bank declined them because they couldn’t prove that they could pay back the new loan.
So, all along the way, while this family was building their home equity, making their mortgage payments, they believed that they were making their financial position stronger and safer. But at the end of the day, it ended up hindering them. If you need to get approval from somebody else to get your money, is it really your money?
The fourth thing to consider when choosing a mortgage is what happens if the economic climate changes. For example, interest rates can go up or down. If interest rates go down and you’re locked in for 30 years, you could always refinance if it makes sense for you. But what happens if interest rates rise? Well, this happened actually in the early 1980s people who had money outside of real estate equity were able to take advantage of interest rates on CDs and money market accounts that were 15% or 16%. If you have money tied up in real estate equity and the CD rates go to 15% or 16% you can’t tap into your equity because the bank is going to charge you more than the 15% or 16% if you’re borrowing.
It’s really going to put you in a situation where you can’t take advantage of opportunities if those opportunities arise. This brings us to our fifth point when choosing a mortgage tax deduction. Not everyone will qualify for the mortgage interest deduction, but if you do, do you want all of it, none of it or some of it.
Most people want as much as they can get. With the 15-year mortgage, there’s less opportunity for tax deductions.
In conclusion, we’ve been trained to shop for mortgages using one criterion only, interest rates. While interest rates are an important factor, they’re not the only factor you should consider when choosing a mortgage. Let’s face it, if the banks made the same amount on all the mortgages, there would only be one option. It’s important to choose the option that gives you the most liquidity, use, and control of your money. Again, if the point is to regain control of your money, does it make sense to give that money to the bank and then still have to get approval to access your money?
Want to start saving for your child’s future but don’t know where to start? Conventional wisdom tells us to save for college in one account and save for retirement in another. With so many options out there, it can be confusing which one might be right for you and your family. Today’s video covers your basic options for paying for college. The most common ways of paying for college are cash, cash flow, and borrowing/financing. We will give you three great reasons to why you should fund a whole life insurance policy to pay for college!
“Additionally, the money that you save in either savings account or 529 accounts are disclosed on the FAFSA form, so you’re actually going to increase the cost of college for your family.”
Are you thinking about paying for your children’s college education? The problem with funding your children’s education oftentimes isn’t a problem of funding the actual education. It becomes a question of, how do you fund this huge expenditure that sometimes costs more than your home and still stay on track for your retirement goals. No parent should have to choose between sending their children to college and funding their own retirement.
Conventional wisdom to tells us to save for college in one account and retirement in another account. The problem with that is, it leaves a good chunk of our money inaccessible at the time we need it most. Our process for funding college tuition includes a whole life insurance policy and you may be wondering why on earth would I fund a whole life insurance policy for college tuition and there really are three reasons. Access and control. It’s fast and has continuous compounding of interest. Basically, there’s only three ways you could pay for anything. Cash, cashflow, or borrow. Let’s look at these three ways. The first method of paying for college we’re going to look at is paying cash, whether that’s from a savings account or a 529 plan earmarked for college tuition. In order to pay cash, you have to have saved first, so you will have access to that money and control of that money, but when you pay for college, you’re actually wiping out compounding forever on that money.
Additionally, the money that you save in either savings account or 529 accounts are disclosed on the FAFSA form, so you’re actually going to increase the cost of college for your family. You’re actually being penalized for doing the responsible thing, which is to save for your children’s education. The second method of funding college that we’re going to look at is funding it out of your monthly cashflow, and let’s face it, if you’re fortunate enough to be able to pay out of monthly cashflow, it assumes you have access to that money. However, you’re giving up control of that and with that, you’re forfeiting the ability to ever earn compound interest on that money. The third method of paying for college is to borrow or finance and basically there are only four types of loans you can get for college. First are Stafford loans, they’re in your child’s name, second are parent plus loans. Third, are home equity loans and forth, are life insurance policy loans.
We’re going to discuss why life insurance policy loans as the preferred method of financing your children’s education. Let’s look at parent plus loans. With the parent plus loan, you gain access to someone else’s capital with the collateral of your future income. So, you get money when you need it, when your children are going to college, but you’re giving up control of your current and future cashflow in order to send your child to college. Now it is FAFSA neutral, but because you gave up control, you forfeit the ability to earn interest now and in the future on that cash flow. What you really need to look out for with a parent plus loan is that it kills your ability to save for retirement, not only while your kids are in college, but for about 10 years after that. It really hinders your ability to save for retirement on your own terms. So basically, all you have to show for it is a diploma in your child’s name.
Next, let’s look at a home equity line of credit for paying for college. With that, you have access to the money because you have equity in your house and the ability to repay the loan. But you obviously don’t have control because the bank controls the situation. They can call that loan whenever they want and you’re also forfeiting the ability to earn interest on that cash flow forever. It’s not going to increase the cost of college and you are rebuilding your home equity, so hypothetically you could have access to that money again in the future. Next we’ll look at using life insurance policy loans to pay for college tuition.
Now using insurance policy loans is kind of a hybrid between savings and financing and that the money that you have access to in your policy is the money that you’ve actually saved. However, in contrast to traditional savings account and 529 plans, this money is FAFSA invisible, so it’s not going to go down on your FASFA sheet and it’s not going to increase the cost of your college tuition. Additionally, you’re in control of the borrowing process as opposed to parent plus loans or home equity lines of credit because life insurance policy loans have an unstructured repayment process, meaning that you control the terms and conditions as to when or even if you pay back those loans. Additionally, with life insurance policy loans, you’re not borrowing money from the account. You’re borrowing money against the account so you’re never going to be interrupted in the compounding of interest on that money.
You have access, you have control, you have FAFSA invisible and you’ll have continuous compounding. That’s why we recommend life insurance policy loans to pay for college. That’s why we believe life insurance policy loans are the best way to fund your children’s college education. It allows you to send your children to their dream school without having to reduce your current lifestyle or derail your retirement in order to do so.
Want to know how to save money without reducing your lifestyle? In today’s video, we offer tips on how you can tell if you’ve lost control over your money. An example is, needing permission or approval in order to access your money. How you use your money is more important than were your money resides. Watch the full video for 5 areas on where you should check to see if your money is leaving your control.
Our process shows them how to start saving now and pay off their debt in an efficient manner. “
You want to save more money but can’t afford to reduce your current lifestyle? Before we get started, let’s identify how you’ll know you’re not in control of your money. A lot of people have money on paper, but when it comes to accessing their cash, they have no liquidity use or control of that money. Here’s some examples. You’ll know you’re not in control of your money when you have to get permission or approval in order to access your money. For things like home equity, you’ll know you’re not in control of your money when you have to pay a penalty in order to access your money.
For accessing your retirement plans before age 59 and a half, you’ll know you’re not in control of your money when you have to pay a tax on the annual growth or gains of your savings or investments. For things like stocks and mutual funds, I think of capital gains and 1099 is a carrying charge for the privilege of owning those investments. Finally, you’ll know you’re not in control of your money when you move money from one account to the other and it doesn’t increase your net worth.
This occurs when you pay extra on debts for cars, installment loans, or credit cards. When searching for money that’s leaving your control, you should look at five areas. If you optimize these five areas, you’ll increase your access to cash, reduce your debt, and increase your net worth all without having to reduce your current lifestyle.
There are only three places where you can put your money. Number one is tax deferred, but when you take the money out, it’s taxable in the future. Number two is currently taxable where you get a 1099 or a capital gains tax at the end of the year, and number three is tax-free, where you never pay tax on your money. Because you have a choice as to where you save your money. Paying taxes on your savings and investments is optional. Most Americans are saving any of their tax deferred or currently taxable accounts.
Let’s face it, the safest and sure way to maximize the efficiency of your money is to eliminate taxes. It’s not how much money you make, it’s how much money you keep that really matters. We’re trained by wall street to focus on rate of return instead of control and efficiency. The problem with the wall street model is that it leaves your money at risk to market volatility and ever-changing tax rates and laws.
The second area we look at is how you choose to fund your retirement plan. Conventional wisdom tells us that from the day we start working until the day we retire, we should maximize contributions to our qualified retirement plans. The problem with this is it leaves our money inaccessible and in order to access it, we need to pay taxes, penalties, and sometimes fees. Also, we don’t know what the final cost is going to be to get our money in retirement so we don’t have access to our money now and we don’t know what it’s going to cost to get our money in the future.
The third area is mortgages. When buying a house, it may seem appealing to get a 15 year mortgage because the interest rates are lower, but by doing so, you’re giving up control of more of your monthly income to the bank and true, you’re building more home equity, but remember, you need to qualify in order to access that equity. By extending the term of your mortgage, you’re giving up less control to the bank, less control of your monthly income and less control of your net worth. We suggest you save in a place that you own and control, such as a specially designed whole life insurance policy built for cash accumulation rather than death benefit. For more information on how to choose the best mortgage for you, check out our video in the description box below.
The fourth area is paying for college funding. Tuition could cost more than a house, in some cases. It’s important to build a plan that not only pays for your children’s college, but keeps you on track for your retirement lifestyle. Nobody should have to choose between paying for their children’s college and funding their own retirement.
The fifth and final area where you give up control of your cash flow is how you choose to fund major capital purchases. A major capital purchase is anything you can’t fund using monthly cash flow. Things like cars, vacation or even a home. We finance everything we buy. By that I mean we either pay interest to a bank for the privilege of using their money or we pay cash and give up interest on our own money so we either pay up or give up. We teach our clients how to use whole life insurance to continually earn interest even after they make major capital purchases.
By using the policy loan provision, our clients are able to access their money, no questions asked in order to make the major capital purchase. By doing it this way, their money enjoys the benefits of uninterrupted compounding. Many people come to us and ask, should I pay off my debt before I start saving? Our process shows them how to start saving now and pay off their debt in an efficient manner.
By looking at the five areas, we’re able to help our clients find money within their current cashflow to begin saving now without having to reduce their current lifestyle. In order to do so, how you use your money is more important than where your money resides. Think of it in terms of golf. Where your money resides is the equivalent of the golf club. How you use your money is the equivalent of the golf swing. If you wanted to improve in golf, doesn’t it make sense to focus on the golf swing rather than the golf club? Regaining control of the money you’re losing to these five areas will leave you in a safer financial position where you’ll have more control, more access to capital, and less dependence on banks.
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
Do you find yourself wondering if you’re too old to start using the infinite banking concept? Well, unless you’re done buying things, you’re not too old to start. What you’re really wondering is whether or not the cost of insurance is going to be too high for you. While this is inevitable once you reach a certain age, this video will analyze just what that means and why it isn’t a bad thing.
You can’t regain control of your cash flow unless you control the banking function.”
Are you too old to start a policy to use for the infinite banking concept? We get asked this question every day and it’s really relative. People in their forties say, I should have started this 20 years ago. People in their sixties say, I should have started this 30-40 years ago. Well, the fact of the matter is, unless you’re done buying things, you’re not too old to start using the infinite banking concept. Why? Because the infinite banking concept puts you in control of your money. It eliminates the banks and puts you in control, meaning that you make the profits that the banks would have made. It’s like the old ancient Chinese proverb. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second-best time is today, so therefore you’re never too old to start the infinite banking concept.
When someone comes to us and asks if they’re too old to start an IBC policy, what they’re really asking is, is the cost of insurance too high for me? They associate being older with a higher cost of insurance, which is absolutely correct. Understand this, yes, the older person is going to pay more per thousand of life insurance coverage than the younger person. There’s no way around that. However, because that person is older, the insurance company has to reserve more money sooner in order to make sure that they’re able to pay the claim. So those two issues cancel each other out. The higher premium is canceled out with a higher reserve, which by the way, infinite banking is all about the reserve or the cash value.
There’s a third piece going on that makes infinite banking actually more attractive for older people and that is the fact that they’re more likely to die. Because they’re more likely to die, there’s a probability that the cashflow management tool that you use to buy things is now going to pay off in a tax-free death benefit. Think of it this way, the life insurance company reserves more for an older person. They’re willing to pay more to the older person to surrender their policy. Let’s look at a practical example that’s comparing insurance policy’s on Olivia and me. So, Olivia’s 29 and I’m 57, let’s say we wanted to buy $50,000 of insurance paid up at age 100. The premium for Olivia is going to be much lower than the premium for me, but the amount that the insurance company has to reserve for every annual that’s paid is going to be greater for me than it will be for her. Why? Because they have 71 years to reserve for Olivia and only 43 years to reserve for me.
Let’s take a look at how Nelson Nash, the author of Becoming Your Own Banker, addressed the very question. Am I too old to start this? Nelson Nash was 52 years old when he discovered this concept and his situation was such that he was buried in debt and he was looking for a solution to the problem that he had created for himself with the banks at that time. He also knew that he was paying state farm insurance company about $400 per year on a whole life insurance policy. His cash value was growing by over $800 per year. It was then that he realized the solution to his problem. He needed to get his premiums as large as his mortgage. If he did, he’d be in a great position financially. It was at that point that he started to get as much insurance as he can on himself, his family members and anybody else whom he had an insurable interest. At one point he had over 44 life insurance policies.
You see, Nelson knew that owning cash value in those policies was as close as he could get to owning his own bank. Life insurance is not an investment, but it is a vehicle that you can use to become your own bank. It is a vehicle that you can use to manage your cash flows and pay the profits that you would a bank back to yourself. It took 14 years to get rid of the need for a bank in his life. After those 14 years, he borrowed against the cash value in his life insurance policies and never needed to borrow from a bank again.
Remember, life insurance is not an investment, but it is a great tool to be used to become your own bank. It is a great cash management tool where you can manage your cash flows to rid yourself of the need and the control that banks put on us. Basically the question is, do you want to be controlled by the banks or do you want to be in control of the banking function? You can’t regain control of your cash flow unless you control the banking function. Either you control the banking or the banks control you.Whole life insurance is the ideal cashflow management tool.
Let me give you a practical example. We have clients that started a business 20 years ago. At that time, they borrowed $2 million to capitalize their business. They use that capital to generate profits. They used the profits to pay back the loan. 10 years after they started the business, the loan was paid off and they decided to expand their business. They went back to the bank to borrow another $2 million, but the question becomes, whose money did the bank give them for the second loan? The bank gave them back their $2 million and charged them interest and a fee to do so.
They were not in control of the process, but understand with infinite banking, you are in control of the process and therefore in control of the profits. They broke the debt cycle which was borrow from a bank, capitalize their business, generate profits, and then use those profits to pay back loans. Now they’re borrowing against their cash value, capitalizing their business, generating profits and using those profits to pay back to their policy, their bank to generate profits for themselves.
In conclusion, you’re never too old to start using the infinite banking concept. You may not be able to get a policy on yourself, but there are certainly people in your life who you could insure, and you could own that policy and control the cash flow in that policy.
How to repay your debt using the IBC policy! Many of us put off saving because we want to repay our debts first. We end up in a debt cycle, Income -> Repay debt ->Borrow money ->Income. When you delay compounding to pay debt, your completely out of control and have no safety net. In this video we go over why taking the IBC policy approach, will help you to repay debt faster and start saving now!
By implementing the infinite banking concept as a financial strategy, you’re able to repay your debt faster and start saving.”
Do you have a debt you’re thinking about repaying before you start saving? Most people hate debt, so they put all of their disposable income towards repaying that debt, whether it’s their cars, student loans, mortgages, or credit card bills. The point is that they focus so heavily on repaying the debt that they forget to focus on the saving aspect of their financial situation.
So, let’s focus on how that affects compound interest. The key variables for compounding interest are time and money. The more time you have, the less money you need to set aside in order to put that money to work for you. The less time you have, the more money you’re going to need to put aside in order to make that money work for you. But really when you delay compounding in order to pay off debt, you’re completely out of control and you have no safety net. So you go from a situation where you have cashflow that’s going towards debt and therefore no savings to a situation where you have more cashflow once your debt is paid off, but you don’t have any savings at that point, you have to start saving. Our focus is in helping our clients to be more in control of their money.
The problem with repaying your debt before you start to save is that it takes you from one weak financial position to another weak financial position. You go from having no cash flow and no savings to having cash flow, but still no savings. All because you don’t have access to capital and because you don’t have access to capital, you’re forced into what we refer to as the debt cycle. Income, repay debt, borrow, because you don’t have access to capital income, repay debt, borrow. It’s the proverbial hamster wheel and it doesn’t have to be this way. We have to show you how to save while you’re paying off your debt and that will put you in control of your cashflow.
By implementing the infinite banking concept as a financial strategy, you’re able to repay your debt faster and start saving. Now it’s really quite simple. Instead of taking your extra cashflow which you were using to pay off your debt, take your extra cashflow and begin an IBC policy. Then when the cash builds up, borrow against the policy and use a policy loan to pay off your credit loan. Now you can redirect the credit payment back to the policy to replenish your access to capital.
The benefit of using this process to repay your debt is that it puts you in control of your money and you’ll have less dependence on banks and credit companies going forward. You end up with more savings sooner, paying off your debt faster and setting yourself up for the future where you’ll have less dependency on banks. All three of those issues translate into control for you. And remember, any other way or method of getting out of debt takes you out of control of your money.
In conclusion, in order to put the system to work for you, the only thing that needs to change is how you use your money. In its most basic form, we’re taking liability, cashflow payments and converting them into creating assets. And by doing so you’re in control of your money and you’re securing your future and making your future that much brighter.
Have you ever found yourself wondering how banks make money? Do you want to learn how to regain control of your money? In this video we break down the process behind running a bank, and then we break down how you can keep your money flowing! While this process isn’t easy, we are here to guide you through the process. The four rules we have learned to live by are as following. 1. Always think long-term. 2. Don’t be afraid to capitalize. 3. Don’t steal the peas. 4. Don’t deal with bank if you don’t have to.
Make no mistake, although we park our money at banks, they don’t let it sit there.”
Are you thinking about implementing the infinite banking concept to regain control of your money? Well, it’s important to know how commercial banks operate and make money so you could duplicate their process using the infinite banking concept. The first thing banks need to do is, file for a charter. Once the charter is approved, then they have to capitalize the bank. But, understand banks don’t lend you their money. The next step is for them to go and solicit deposits. They usually charge higher interest rates than the neighboring banks in the community, but that’s only step one. Then, step two is to identify borrowers. You see, in order for a bank to make money, they need to have depositors and borrowers.
The third step is for the bank to solicit depositors and how do they do that? They generally do that by enticing you, by offering a higher interest rate on savings accounts and CDs to get you to deposit money with them. Most people are depositors and borrowers from the bank and understand banks can’t make money if they only have depositors and they can’t lend money if they only have borrowers, so they need both depositors and borrowers.
The bottom line is, banks make sure that money is always flowing. The same laws apply in nature. Water has to flow or else it stagnates, and you can’t drink it. Water has to flow through the body or else you die. Blood has to flow through the body, or you die. The same laws apply to money. It needs to continuously flow. Just think of all the ways that we make our money stagnate. We put money in retirement accounts, and we don’t touch it for 30 or 40 years. We pay off our house early and we have this huge amount of our wealth tied up in real estate that we really can’t access without getting permission.
Make no mistake, although we park our money at banks, they don’t let it sit there. They follow the same laws as nature, and they keep that money flowing. They keep that money flowing by using a basic business concept called, inventory turnover. Every business owner knows that, the faster they turn over their inventory, the more profits they make. It’s the same thing for a banking model. The only difference is their inventory is depositors’ money. So, let’s take a look at a real-life practical example of how banks make money. In 2016, Bank of America had $860 billion worth of deposits. Based upon that, they paid $1.9 billion to the depositors. Wow, that’s a lot of money to pay the depositor, but it’s nothing compared to what they earned in interest from borrowers. They earned $44.8 billion from things like mortgages, home equity, loans, fees, business and personal loans. That’s over $42 billion more than they paid out in interest to depositors. Bank of America had no skin in the game. They loaned borrowers, depositors’ money. The only risk they had was to pay the depositors $1.9 billion. By keeping money flowing, they were able to generate $44.8 billion in revenue.That’s why it’s important to keep money flowing, and that’s why it’s important to own the banking process.
Now that we know the benefits of owning the banking function in your life, let’s get started and look at the rules. My mentor Nelson Nash had four basic rules. Number one, think long-term. Number two, don’t be afraid to capitalize. Number three, don’t steal the piece. What did he mean by that? Basically, what he meant was if the insurance company is charging you interest, pay yourself more than that amount of interest. Your money is worth more than Bank of America’s or anybody else’s. The fourth rule was, don’t deal with banks if you don’t have to.
Now that we understand how banks operate and the basic rules for the infinite banking concept, let’s take a look at how we help our clients regain control of their money using the infinite banking concept. The first step is to identify where they’re actually giving up control of their money. We look at places like their mortgages, taxes, how they’re funding retirement plans, how they plan on funding college tuition for their children, and how they’re funding major capital purchases. Step two is really easy. They just agree to stop doing those things where they’re giving up control of their money so that they can go to step three. Which is to capitalize their policy, capitalize their bank. This leads them to step four, where they’re actually borrowing against their own cash value and paying interest back to an entity that they own and control so that they can control the process and make the profits.
In this video we break down the important things to consider when choosing an insurance company for the infinite banking concept.
1.) Choose the right agent
2.) The process is much more important than the product
3.) Make sure the company you choose is a mutual insurance company
4.) The company should have a proven track record of paying dividends and sharing profits with policy holders
There are hundreds of thousands of insurance agents out there, but only about 200 are licensed IBC practitioners with the Nelson Nash Institute. “
Are you thinking about getting an IBC policy but aren’t sure where to begin? The number one criterion when choosing the right insurance company for the infinite banking concept is to choose the right agent. There are hundreds of thousands of insurance agents out there, but only about 200 are licensed IBC practitioners with the Nelson Nash Institute.
As a licensed practitioner, we’re not only trained to set up and structure a policy, but most importantly, to guide you on how to use your policy throughout your life. It’s important to find someone who’s not only knowledgeable but who’s also implementing this in their own financial life. The last thing you want is someone who’s pitching you a policy but doesn’t believe in the concept enough to put their own skin in the game. Ultimately, your success or failure in any given methodology is going to come down to your execution.
The process is much more important than the product. The next criterion is to make sure you’re dealing with a mutual insurance company. Mutual insurance companies were formed for the benefit of the policy holders. All profits that the insurance company makes are funneled back to the policy holder in the form of tax-free dividends. In contrast, a stock owned insurance company funnels their profits back to their shareholders because they’re the owners of the company.
So, a stock owned insurance company is there for the benefit of the owners of the company, the shareholders. It’s similar to a bank. A bank is there for the benefit of the owners of the bank, the shareholders of the bank. You see, if you want to become your own banker, it’s important not only to control the process of the banking, but also to benefit from the profits of the banking, which can only happen with a mutual insurance company.
The next criterion you want to look for when choosing an insurance company? Does it have a proven track record of paying dividends and sharing profits with policy owners? The companies we choose for our clients have been paying dividends for more than 120 consecutive years. That’s World Wars, depressions, recessions, gas crisis’s, you name it. They’ve been through it all.
In conclusion, these are the criteria we use when choosing an insurance company for the infinite banking concept, but again, the most important thing is choosing the right agent for you. You want somebody who’s going to take the time to understand your situation and then set up a plan that will help you to maximize your benefits from the plan according to your situation.
If someone can get your money, is it really yours? In today’s video we compiled a list of six reasons why you should use whole life insurance for the infinite banking concept.
1. Control
2. Safety
3. Guaranteed growth
4. Collateral opportunities
5. Tax deferred growth
6. Asset protection
Life insurance is actually designed to have more cash tomorrow than it does today. “
Have you ever wondered why people use whole life insurance for the infinite banking concept? The first reason is, control. Let’s face it, you can’t regain control unless you’re actually in control. Life insurance is a unilateral contract. What does that mean? Well one party, the insurance company, has a binding obligation. They have to guarantee the cash value, the death benefit, and any other benefits. The other party, the policy owner, has very few promises, which is basically to pay the premium. Once the policy is approved and put into effect, the insurance company is working for you. That is control.
Number two is safety, life insurance companies reserve 95 cents of every dollar that’s deposited and in contrast, banks only reserved 2 cents for every dollar that’s deposited. Based on that, where do you think your money is safer? During the great depression, over 9,000 banks in this country failed. In contrast, less than one half of 1% of all life insurance company assets were impaired. That’s a big deal because people who owned life insurance contracts during that time were not only able to access their cash value to weather the storm, but they were also able to access it to take advantage of opportunities that arose during that time.
One of the best examples of this is JC penny, the American retailer. He had over 1400 stores before the great depression and he actually borrowed against his life insurance to keep his business open and weather that storm. This takes us to our third reason. Guaranteed growth. Life insurance is actually designed to have more cash tomorrow than it does today. There’s no chance for market loss because your growth is guaranteed. Your money is allowed to continuously compound. This takes us to our fourth reason. Collateral opportunities. What does that mean? Collateralization is important because it allows you to access your money without interrupting compounding. It’s like your money could be in two places at one time.
Collateralization means that your money is always in your policy and if you want to access it, the insurance company gives you a separate loan and puts a lien against your money, your cash value. When the loan is paid off, the lien is released, and your money is exactly where it would have been had you not borrowed. In essence, your money has been able to achieve continuously uninterrupted compounding.
Number five is, tax deferred growth. Money grows in your policy on a tax deferred basis. Keep in mind that doesn’t mean that it grows tax free, but you can access it on a tax favored basis. The point is you can’t accumulate wealth in a taxable environment. Let me give you an example. If you start off with a dollar and that dollar doubles every year for 20 consecutive years, meaning that you earn 100% interest each and every year for 20 consecutive years, at the end of 20 years, your dollar would’ve grown to $1,048,576 however, you didn’t pay tax on that money. If you had to pay tax in a 25% tax bracket, how much do you think you would be left with after tax?
Well, 25% of 1 million is 250,000 so I think we’d be left with about $750,000.
The reality is you would end up with $72,571, but what happened to the rest of the money? Well, it was never there. Your money was never allowed to double. You were never allowed to earn 100% interest because you had to pay taxes each and every year along the way. That’s why you end up with less money in a taxable environment.
Number six is, asset protection. Life insurance is protected from creditors, predators, and legislators. Life insurance is regulated by the 50 States. Each state has different levels of asset protection. Check with your state to see how much protection you have on your policies, but let’s face it, if somebody can get your money, is it really yours?
Let’s recap the six reasons why we use whole life for infinite banking. Number one, control; two, safety; three, guaranteed growth; four, collateral opportunities; Five, tax deferred growth and six, is asset protection. My mentor, Nelson Nash, author of the bestselling book Becoming Your Own Banker, said it best. Wealth has to reside somewhere. What better place than a whole life insurance policy? A free contract between free people!
What are the benefits of whole life insurance? In this video, we explain whole life insurance benefits and why they are essential in any diversified portfolio. A benefit of whole life insurance is that your money is continuously being compounded. There are three known factors that could interrupt compound interest, using your money, taxes, and market losses. We break these down for you and explain why whole life insurance takes them out of the equation. Another added benefit is that whole life insurance also protects you against inflation. When you own a whole life insurance policy, you’re allowing yourself to take risks in other investments!
“To call whole life insurance an investment is actually demeaning to whole life insurance.”
Have you ever wondered what the benefits of whole life insurance are? The number one reason why whole life insurance should be a part of your portfolio is because of efficiency. When we’re talking about efficiency, in this case, we’re talking about the fact that your money is continuously compounding in a whole life insurance policy. There are three things that could really interrupt the compounding of interest on your money.
The first, is using your money, then taxes and then market losses. So how does using your money interrupt compounding? Well basically you save and then you use the money to buy a car, or to make a down payment on a house, or to pay for a vacation or to pay for college, and then once you access that money, it’s no longer available for compounding. In contrast, when you take a loan against your life insurance policy, you’re able to continuously compound because you’re taking a loan against the cash value. You’re not taking the money from your life insurance policy.
The second factor that could interrupt compounding on your money are taxes. When you think about it, with traditional savings and investment accounts, you get a 1099 or a dividend statement and with mutual funds you could actually get a 1099 or a capital gain statement in a year when you lost money. Overall, it’s sort of like adding insult to injury and a lot of people don’t even realize how inefficient this really is because they’re paying their taxes from their lifestyle. They’re not taking money from their investments or savings, so they never have an opportunity to see the eroding effect that taxes are having on their investments and savings. The bottom line is, you cannot accumulate wealth in a taxable environment.
The third factor that can interrupt compound interest are, market losses. When you lose money in the market, you take a step backwards and need to restart the compound interest process. Again, with whole life insurance, you have contractual growth, which means that the growth is guaranteed by contract in the policy. On top of that, you have the ability to earn dividends and once dividends are paid, that could never be taken away. In conclusion, whole life insurance is efficient because it takes the three factors that could interrupt compound interest out of the equation.
The next benefit of owning whole life insurance is protection against inflation. Inflation is known as the stealth tax. You experience it but you never actually see it and what better way to protect yourself against the stealth tax than to purchase dollars in the future with pennies today. Use those pennies, the cash value in the life insurance, to purchase additional income producing assets. Life insurance is known as an asset because you’re able to maintain the death benefit, but also access the cash value along the way to purchase other investments and assets. When you get to retirement, you can use those additional assets to supplement your income and finally, you can leverage the death benefit in retirement to generate some additional passive tax-free income. Whole life insurance is a way to truly diversify your portfolio. True diversification is putting money you don’t want to lose in a place that you could never lose.
In conclusion, whole life insurance compliments your other assets. By owning a whole life insurance policy, you’re allowed to take risk in other investments, but understand life insurance is not an investment. To call whole life insurance an investment is actually demeaning to whole life insurance. This is because whole life insurance can do so much more than an investment.
