Do You Really Need to Take Out Life Insurance in Your 20s?

When you’re in your 20’s you have your whole life ahead of you. Most people in this age bracket are care free and don’t worry about more serious issues in life. Taking out life insurance is the last thing on most people’s minds when they’re at this age. However, many older people will tell you that not taking out life insurance at a younger age is a big mistake. The earlier you take out this type of insurance, the better. These are some of the most important reasons you should seriously consider taking out life insurance in your 20’s.

Saves You Money

Most insurance companies offer better life insurance policy terms to younger people. As you get older the premium rates increase. The earlier you take out a life insurance policy, the cheaper it will be and you will be locked in at a cheaper rate. These policies can be taken out for many decades to come. You could receive cheaper insurance for the rest of your life, compared to those who take out insurance when they’re older. Over time this will save you a substantial amount of money.

Pay Off Outstanding Debts

Many people take out various loans at different stages in their lives. Student debts, car loans and other debts are a major concern for the person taking out the loan. However, they can also be a huge problem for other people close to you too. These debts build up and some may have been co-signed by other members of your family such as your parents. If something happens to you and you don’t have the appropriate insurance, these family members may have to pay off these debts for you. This is definitely not something you want to burden those closest to you with. Taking out your own life insurance policy as soon as possible prevents this unnecessary stress from happening to your loved ones.

Some loans such as mortgages are much larger and leave behind even bigger problems if you die and you’re not insured. Mortgage insurance products are designed to pay off the balance of your mortgage if this happens. Anyone in their 20’s who is a homeowner or intends to buy a house is always advised to take out this type of insurance to avoid serious complications later.

Protects You from Unforeseen Events

Different life insurance products are available to individuals under 30. When life insurance is mentioned, most people think of death benefit and leaving money for those close to them after they’ve died. However, there are certain policies that also help you while you’re alive.

As you get older, the risk of health problems also increases and this can be extremely costly. Various policies are designed to aid anyone who suffers from certain medical problems or injuries later in life. Taking out a life insurance policy in your 20’s provides you with a safety net in case you become ill and cannot work to provide for yourself and family members.

Provides a Safety Net for Others

Some people in their 20’s are married and have a family. Others plan to marry in the future. This means you have more responsibilities and more people to take care of. An accident or illness can have devastating effects on those around you. It’s often left to those closest to a person who gets sick or injured to pick up the pieces. However, the burden on those around you is eased if you have taken out the appropriate life insurance. It protects your loved ones and can help you recover without having to worry about any financial problems that may arise if the worst happens.

Peace of Mind

Life today can be hectic. You may have financial pressures, family pressures and other concerns. For many, the unknown can be frightening. However, sitting down with a trusted financial advisor and finding out all the facts about life insurance will put your mind at ease. It’s not as expensive as many people think it is and it’s definitely something everyone in their 20’s should consider.

When you’re young you feel invincible and life insurance is something that doesn’t even cross the minds of most twenty-somethings. However, it’s never too early to plan for your future, especially when it comes to this type of financial product. Taking out life insurance in your 20’s can have a huge effect on your life and the life of those around you in later years, making it one of the most important financial decisions you’ll ever make.



source: 20smoney.com

How China web firms make money on World Cup betting

China web firms odds-on winners with World Cup

BEIJING - China's Internet giants and insurance companies are finding ever more innovative ways to get around the country's strict betting laws and reap a payout as fans wager billions on the World Cup.

Gambling is banned in China, except where it is run by the government or the proceeds donated to charity, but technology behemoths Alibaba and Tencent have this year linked up with state-owned provincial lotteries to enable punters to bet on the World Cup online.

Both have smartphone gambling apps which have proved hugely popular during the Brazil tournament, and on which more than 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) is expected to be bet legally -- dwarfing the 2.3 billion yuan figure reached at the 2010 finals in South Africa. Many times more will be spent illegally.

"I find it so much easier to bet on an app, rather than having to go to a lottery center," said Li Qiang, from Shanghai, who said he won 200 yuan when Uruguay beat Italy in the group stage.

"I love the World Cup, but being Chinese, we have little way to get involved other than to bet," he said, lamenting the poor performances of the national team, who are ranked 103rd by FIFA.

Neither Tencent nor Alibaba have gambling licences, but earn revenue by acting as online platforms for provincial lotteries which offer odds betting on most aspects of the game.

Alibaba -- which heavily promotes World Cup betting on its main e-commerce shopping platform, Taobao -- takes a seven percent cut of money gambled through its websites, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

On Thursday, an advertisement on Taobao priced Brazil as favorites to win the tournament at 2.3/1, less generous than the 2.75/1 generally available from British bookmakers.

Alibaba, which is preparing a multi-billion-dollar share offer in the US, declined to comment to AFP. Tencent did not respond to a request for comment.

'Heartbreak' insurance

More than 500 million people in China access the Internet via their smartphones, according to the state-run China Internet Network Information Center.

"The law is quite strict in China, but gaming opportunities are very accessible to anyone who has a smartphone," Huang Guihai, associate professor at the Gaming Teaching and Research Center at the Macao Polytechnic Institute, told AFP.

Insurance firms, though, have found their attempts to do World Cup business meeting official disapproval.

An Cheng Insurance offered a "heartbreak" policy offering fans Taobao credit if their team was eliminated, to "alleviate the mental shock" -- effectively enabling customers to try to profit from teams going out of the contest.

Regulators stepped in last week to issue an urgent notice that "insurance products with gaming character should be suspended", the official news agency Xinhua said.

"Some insurance companies have pulled related World Cup regret insurances from the shelves," it added.

Fatal cost

Most Chinese sports betting, though, takes place via outlawed websites, where odds are more attractive and credit offered.

Research by sports newspaper Titan Weekly estimated an astonishing 500 billion yuan was spent on legal and illegal online gambling during the 2006 tournament in Germany - roughly two percent of China's GDP.

"The issue of illegal gambling is particularly serious during the World Cup," said Wang Xuehong, head of the Lottery Research Institute at Peking University.

Given the scale of the demand, official restrictions on betting created opportunities for illegal operators, she said. "It is difficult to carry out measures to deal with it, and it is difficult to supervise Internet activities."

The sums and networks involved are vast.

The Doha-based watchdog International Center for Sport Security (ICSS) warned in a May report that Asian-dominated criminal groups are laundering more than $140 billion in illegal sports betting annually, with many gamblers coming from China.

Laurent Vidal, chair of the joint Sorbonne-ICSS research program that produced the report, said previously: "The Chinese are not interested in local sport any more, that is why they bet on European sport."

In May, police in Shanghai detained 63 people for being involved in an illegal online gambling operation that was alleged to have handled more than 113 billion yuan.

Police in the southern province of Guangdong busted 1,651 criminal gambling cases in the months leading up to the World Cup, detaining 58,154 suspects in raids across the province, police said.

For the losers, though, the consequences can be fatal.

A college student in Guangdong leaped to his death after losing more than $3,000 gambling on the World Cup, state media reported last week, adding that moments earlier, the student was heard telling a telephone caller he would "return the money".

A 32-year-old woman on the southern island of Hainan also reportedly committed suicide after losing more than $16,000.

"There should be awareness training to let the public know of the potential risk of gambling becoming addictive," said Huang, of the Macao Polytechnic Institute.

"With gambling, the rules favor the casinos, favor the lottery agencies. They provide this entertainment service for profit."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Protecting your income: How much life insurance do you need?

MANILA, Philippines - At one point or another, you've probably been approached by an insurance specialist offering products designed to protect you and your family.

Before making a choice, a good question to ask would be if you actually need one. Life insurance is something that is usually paid out upon your demise to answer for the needs of your dependents, as well as cover debts you have left behind and even funeral expenses.

Following this logic, those without any dependents and those without any debts may not have a need for it. Remember, though, that your needs change over time. You may not have dependents or you may have no debt now, but how sure are you about how things will be ten years down the road?

If you have dependents, then there is no question about it: you definitely need life insurance.

Note that there are two kinds of products offered by insurance companies: whole and term insurance. Whole life insurance is in force for the lifetime of the insured and needs to be paid yearly. In the Philippines, arrangements are often made for the policy to be paid up in a number of years.

Term insurance, on the other hand, covers you for a specific period — from a year to up to 5 or 10 years. Think of it as something like car insurance. Once it lapses, you will need to get a new one or your coverage expires. Since its coverage is much shorter and is defined, it is much cheaper than whole life insurance.

One thing to remember about insurance is that it is much cheaper to get when you are much younger. If you’re 25 years old, you will be paying far less insurance premium for the same coverage than a 45-year old. For this reason, you may consider purchasing insurance even if you are still without any dependents.

If you have decided that it is time to get insurance, your initial question would most likely be how much insurance you should get and which of the variants out in the market will be best for you.

The amount of insurance that each person needs is an individual matter — what person A needs is different from that of person B. You will have to do an honest assessment of your current needs and project your future requirements to come up with an estimate of how much insurance cover you should get.

A simple way to do this is to look at your monthly expenses. List down everything that you have to pay for — food, utility expenses, household expenses, children’s tuition expenses, transportation, entertainment expenses, dues, rent, and amortizations. Assume that your monthly expenses come out to, let’s say, P30,000. That is the amount that your insurance will have to cover on a monthly basis. In other words, your family will need at least P360,000 a year in the event of your demise.

Most experts say that you will need insurance coverage of at least 10-12 times your annual earnings. This should provide for all your liabilities and represents your future earning potential.

If, in the above example, your expenses equals your earnings, then you will need insurance coverage of at least P3.6 million. Theoretically, this amount should, if invested, fetch a regular income for the surviving members of your family so that they are able to maintain their current lifestyle. More specifically, if the P3.6 million is invested, then it should fetch an amount that can tide your family, until the time comes when they are financially self-sufficient. Assume that this amount will earn 10% per annum, or P360,000 a year. This should be sufficient protection for your family.

Note, however, that your lifestyle will change as years pass. In all likelihood, your cost of living will go up as your family grows and as your income increases. This means that you should revisit your insurance coverage regularly to know if it is still realistically enough to cover your needs. Do this every time there is a life change — when you marry, when a new kid is born, when you have acquired property. In fact, do this every year as a matter of habit.

Remember to consult with financial experts in determining your insurance needs as well as in assessing your financial status. By constantly evaluating your financial status, you will be more enlightened on your needs as they change throughout your life.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Want to Pay Twice as Much for Your Car Insurance? Have a Kid

It's no great secret that across the nation, insurance premiums are on the rise. Over the past five years, the cost of insuring a home against fire and other casualty has crept up about 10 percent a year -- every year. Health insurance increases, while they've been muted of late, still rose 4 percent this year.




But if you think those hikes are steep, get a load of this next one.

Congratulations! You're a Father! (Now Open Your Wallet)

Kids are expensive. If you're a parent, you know this already. If you're a parent of a kid who hasn't turned 16 just yet, you're on track to get another lesson in how expensive they can be. Because once your offspring passes the driver's test and receive a license to drive from the state, he's going to need to be insured -- and that will cost you an extra $2,000 a year, on average.

(By the way, if your kid is getting her driver's license, your wallet won't take quite as big a hit, girls being 25 percent less expensive to insure than boys on average. But it'll still be some serious coin.)



According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driving is a risky activity for teens. The are more prone to get into accidents -- about four times as likely as older, more experienced drivers, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And traffic accidents are the leading causes of death for Americans ages 16 to 19.

Between lives lost and property destroyed, this all makes insurance companies very wary of insuring teen drivers. And when they do agree to insure a teen, they make you pay through the nose.

According to a recent report posted on Bankrate.com's (RATE) InsuranceQuotes.com, across both genders, all age categories, and all 50 states, parents pay an average 84 percent more for their car insurance after adding a teen to their policy.

Stay Between the (State) Lines

Think that's bad? It might get worse.

Unless you're fortunate enough to live in a state like North Carolina or Hawaii, where legislators have passed laws that ban setting insurance rates based on factors such as age or gender, your rates may rise by more than the average 84 percent.

How much more? Take a look at the top 10 states hiking rates on teenage drivers by 100 percent and higher:

New Hampshire: 100.56 percent
Louisiana: 100.58 percent
Arizona: 103.65 percent
Washington: 104.66 percent
Maine: 105.23 percent
Idaho: 106.74 percent
Alabama: 110.61 percent
Wyoming: 112.11 percent
Utah: 114.62 percent
Arkansas: 116.34 percent

That's right. Put a teenage driver on your policy in any one of these states, and you can expect to see your insurance cost for the whole family more than double.

The news is even worse for parents in Louisiana. Although its teen drivers bring "only" the ninth highest rate hikes with them when they join a policy, Louisiana car insurance in general is already the most expensive in the land -- averaging $2,699 annually for a single male driver, according to Insure.com. Add a kid to that policy, and you'll be shelling out upwards of $5,400 a year.

What's to Be Done?

Is there any way to beat the system, and avoid these hikes? Not entirely, no.

Sure, you could move to Hawaii, where insurance rates rise least. Then again, Hawaii also has the honor of hosting the nation's most expensive housing market -- so you'll end up seriously out of pocket, one way or the other. On the other hand, North Carolinian insurance rates don't rise so much when you put a teen on your policy. That market might be worth a look, if you're willing to move to save money.

Patience Is a Virtue... That Pays

One solution suggests itself from InsuranceQuotes.com's offhand observation that certain teens cost more to insure than others.

In particular, if you put a kid on your policy as soon as he hits 16, well, new 16-year-old drivers tend to double an insurance bill no matter where they live, averaging 99 percent rate hikes.

But premiums tend to rise less when teens wait a bit before trying to drive. 17-year-olds joining their parents' policies average a 90 percent increase. 18-year-olds cost 82 percent more. By the time Junior is age 19 and ready for college, the rate hike is "only" 65 percent.

Meanwhile, the standard caveats still apply: No one's forcing you to accept "average" rate hikes, so now that you know the "average" scenario, shop around to see if someone will offer you a better deal. Ask if taking (and passing) a safe driver course might reduce your teen's rate. And of course, since we're talking student-age kids here, make sure to inquire about discounts for good students. Whether or not it makes sense, insurance companies -- like grandparents -- often favor kids who bring home A's.

source: dailyfinance.com

How to Get Cheap Auto Insurance for Young Drivers

Students, teenagers, and first-time drivers typically pay a premium price for auto insurance because car insurance companies put these drivers under the “high risk” category. Shopping around for the best price usually isn’t enough to get the lowest rates. Young, inexperienced drivers need to prove that they are responsible and won’t be prone to serious accidents and injuries when they’re on the road. While it may take some time to negotiate the best rates with the car insurance provider, it is possible for young drivers to reduce their insurance premiums.



Here are some tips for getting cheap auto insurance for young drivers.

Choose the Right Car

Economy cars and even newer cars are deemed “safer” in the eyes of the insurance company than luxury cars and flashy sports cars. If the student is in the market for a car, do some research to find out what average insurance rates are for that particular make and model. You’ll be surprised how much this amount varies by car manufacturer. A younger driver insuring a Honda Civic will be paying much less than one insuring a BMW Z3. (See also: Drive the Old Car or Buy a New Car?)

Share the Report Card

Some insurance companies extend a “good student” discount to high school and even college students. These drivers need to provide a copy of their report card and make sure the insurance company stays updated on their latest GPA. Above-average and honors students can get some of the best rates available, because the insurance company feels that these drivers are being responsible with their academic life and therefore may be more responsible on the road as well. A “good student” usually needs to maintain at least a B average to qualify for this discount.

Buy Only Necessary Coverage

As long as the student isn’t driving a brand new car, a financed vehicle, or a car purchased with a loan, they don’t have to get comprehensive and collision insurance coverage. Find out what the basic state insurance coverage requirements are and choose a plan that meets the student’s basic needs. For example, electing for only liability insurance when the student only uses the car to drive to and from school may be a wise financial decision.

Inform the Insurance Carrier About All Safety Features

If the car has advanced locking systems, anti-theft devices, or aftermarket safety features that make the vehicle less likely to be stolen or vandalized, make sure the insurance company knows about them. Most insurance providers do offer a safety discount because they feel that the car will be less likely to be broken into or stolen — which, in turn, means a lower likelihood of a claim.

Take a Driver Safety Course

Driver safety courses, or remedial courses, are often court-ordered when a driver is close to losing his or her license or has several traffic tickets. Younger drivers who are trying to build up a good driving history can also take these courses. Just make sure the insurance company has a copy of the certificate or a signed letter stating the driver has successfully completed the course. Plus, training programs improve a driver’s skills overall, so parents can have more confidence that their teens or college students are safer on the road.

Ask About Family Discounts

If the teenager or even college student is still living with his or her parents, you may be able to get their insurance through a family policy. Most insurance companies offer family packages that insure multiple drivers under a single policy. The younger driver’s rate may end up being much lower through this type of insurance plan.

source: wisebread.com