Being poor has nothing to do with income.

[Rick Lee]

Here's another example. As I was reading the last few posts here, a customer called to ask about his cash value. Mind you, he's a few weeks shy of the two yr mark in his whole life policy. All whole life insurance starts building cash value at around the two yr mark. In fact, I replaced the one this guy had because he needed the cash from it and I found him something cheaper at the time. He got around $1500 cash back and I restarted a policy for the same coverage and a few $$ per month less. He always wants to borrow against his cash value. But he has no cash value because he's not yet two yrs in. This guy still works too. He's low income, but not a deadbeat. His adult and working son lives with him and I assume covers some of the living costs. Yet, this guy is always hurting for cash. Now he's all mad at me, says he's going to shop elsewhere. Ok, no prob. He's had two birthdays since I wrote him with the lowest priced company in the state. So it will be more expensive than what I wrote him AND he'll be starting that two yr wait over again for his cash value to start to build. This is why he's poor.

[Rick Lee]

And another case of waiting until it's too late. Two weeks ago a lady around 63 set an appt with me. I went there and she no showed me. I was in the area again yesterday with an hour to kill, so I door knocked her. Her husband answered the door and said she died his arms this past Monday.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

And another case of waiting until it's too late. Two weeks ago a lady around 63 set an appt with me. I went there and she no showed me. I was in the area again yesterday with an hour to kill, so I door knocked her. Her husband answered the door and said she died his arms this past Monday.

Yikes! Happy Friday, everyone!

We need a warning before that sort of bomb on a Friday afternoon.

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

And another case of waiting until it's too late. Two weeks ago a lady around 63 set an appt with me. I went there and she no showed me. I was in the area again yesterday with an hour to kill, so I door knocked her. Her husband answered the door and said she died his arms this past Monday.

Oh man. Well, scratch that one. Unclosable.

rjp

[Tervuren]

This is a slow life realization for me that not everyone can pick up and put in practice different aspects of life.
There are some people that no amount of coaching will ever make them a race driver.
Some people that no amount of training will ever make them a competitive power lifter.
We have different starting values of "life points", and different starting "stat distributions" of those points.

We have to make the best out of an imperfect world.
"No child left behind" leaves lots of children behind their potential.
Not everyone will grow as well as anyone else.
What is worse, I look at much of our education, and growth of intelligence is abhorred.
There is a conditioning to stay poor, and less are able to rise above it that are otherwise born capable.

Financial curiosity is a powerful force, but not often exercised.
Give someone a financial book, and they still have to read it.
Get them curious, and they might get the book themselves.

I once saw a graph showing percentage of wealth owned by generation.
Boomers had an exceptional get up and go unmatched by any generation alive today.
Boomers didn't fight over their share of the pie, they made new pies for themselves at an exceptional rate.
Where did that come from?
It is a question worth discussing.

Originally Posted by fintstone

Any healthy person with an average intelligence (or higher)

[MBAtarga]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

And another case of waiting until it's too late. Two weeks ago a lady around 63 set an appt with me. I went there and she no showed me. I was in the area again yesterday with an hour to kill, so I door knocked her. Her husband answered the door and said she died his arms this past Monday.

Rick - isn't there some sort of waiting period for the coverage to start?

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by MBAtarga

Rick - isn't there some sort of waiting period for the coverage to start?

Depends on her health at the time of application. 95% of the apps I write are for immediate coverage. But some people have knockout conditions. Met two with HIV in the last week, one with an amputation due to disease yesterday. Those folks have two year waits. And let's be honest, unless it's an accident or a murder, if you die a week or two into a new life insurance policy, you had an underlying condition at the time of application, whether you knew or disclosed it or not. And thus an insurer would take a very close look at the application and medical records before paying.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Tervuren

This is a slow life realization for me that not everyone can pick up and put in practice different aspects of life.
There are some people that no amount of coaching will ever make them a race driver.
Some people that no amount of training will ever make them a competitive power lifter.
We have different starting values of "life points", and different starting "stat distributions" of those points.
.

We're not talking about A-level performers or extraordinary talent here. You don't need to be a rock star or top athlete to have a normal, middle class life. But you need to know how to do basic math, apply it to everyday life, learn from people who are more successful than yourself and avoid the pitfalls (teen pregnancy, brushes with the law, addiction, not finishing school, etc) that generally lead to a life of poverty or, at best, very limited opportunities. It's really not that hard, but these skills are not taught in school.

[GH85Carrera]

Many people go to a job they hate, and work 40 hour weeks and have no ambition to move up the ladder, or to learn a new skill. I have been in photography all my life. I often told new employees we do for a living, what millions of people do as a hobby. Millions of people are in traffic trying to get home from a job to go play in their darkrooms at home.

Back in the mid and late 80s the first whiff of digital started to appear at photo industry trade shows. We bought a film recorder to put digital images onto film at very high resolution. I jumped into computers on my own, and learned the process, and had a lot to learn. In 1986 we had to use DOS 3.3 and a program that ran in the GEM OS on top of DOS to make 35 mm slides. It was like a Power Point presentation, only on film, for a slide projector. We made a ton of money with it.

In 1991 Photostyler was released for Windows, and I bought a copy. Photostyler was soon bought by Photoshop, and I had to convert to Photoshop. I have used it ever since and continue to do so.

Photography is just not at all like it was in the 90s now. Very few people can make a living as a professional photographer in this era of cheap amazing digital cameras anyone can afford. Few people will hire a pro and they settle for "good enough". I had to want to learn all about aerial photography to continue have a job.

It was all motivation on my part. Not just luck or family inheritance.

[Rick Lee]

Had a brutal day today, just brutal (though I've already made good money this week and can take it easy if I want). I met two real jerks, but I can deal with that (I'll enter their phone numbers on CarShield's site. Muhahaha). The stupid ones make my brain hurt and I met the dumbest one ever today. And that's really saying something.

60 y/o female non-smoker, insulin diabetic and had a heart valve replaced seven yrs ago. She's paying $100/mo for $16,000 whole life and she's had it for seven years. I am able to get her the exact same coverage for $47/mo and about $4000 cash back from the old policy. She wouldn't do it. And she wasn't mean or distrustful of me either. She didn't even act that surprised at what I told her. She just said she was going to call that other insurance agent and run it by him. I replied, "Do you think he's going to cut your premium in half since you've had seven more birthdays and just say he made a mistake?"

This is why she's poor.

[Tervuren]

For anyone here, was this taught in school for you, and if you don't mind, what decade?

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

We're not talking about A-level performers or extraordinary talent here. You don't need to be a rock star or top athlete to have a normal, middle class life. But you need to know how to do basic math, apply it to everyday life, learn from people who are more successful than yourself and avoid the pitfalls (teen pregnancy, brushes with the law, addiction, not finishing school, etc) that generally lead to a life of poverty or, at best, very limited opportunities. It's really not that hard, but these skills are not taught in school.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Tervuren

For anyone here, was this taught in school for you, and if you don't mind, what decade?

Obviously, the math part was hammered into my head until I finished high school (1989). I got AP credit for the AB calculus test, so didn't take math in college. Granted, I went to a prep school, where you simply would not graduate without complete mastery of the minimum math requirements, and much of the grading there was for showing your work and not just a final answer. Working in restaurants for summer jobs taught me plenty about what things to avoid, so I'd not end up, well, working in restaurants as a 30 yr old, supporting a wife and kids (and maybe a habit).

Honestly, I think multiplication tables might be the most useful skill I learned in school. I can ballpark stuff pretty fast and even long before cell phones and their calculator apps. This woman I couldn't close tonight has paid more than 50% of her face amount in premiums already. I told her, if she lives another seven years, she'd have been better off with a savings account at near 0% interest and anything she pays after that is a non-tax-deductible donation to the insurance company. No sale.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by Tervuren

For anyone here, was this taught in school for you, and if you don't mind, what decade?

We were certainly taught all those things in school in the late 60s/early 70s....in rural Appalachia. Not everyone "bought" it or paid attention. I certainly had my doubt's about the value of college because I came of age in a bad recession with few jobs. Worse yet, there were very few jobs for college graduates where I grew up (other than a teacher or doctor) ...and those that went off to college for 4 years of Anthropology or Psychology came back and sold shoes or worked for those of us that stayed and moved up (at the grocery store or fast-food restaurant). I remember standing in line with an MS in Chemistry...trying to get a job at Hardees. I was hired because I had fast food experience. He was not.

After I moved away to a bigger city with jobs/industry where there was plenty of opportunity, I saw just what I needed to do to advance my career and went back to college. It was a good thing that I had been taught those things (and had taken hard college prep courses and got good grades) because they served me well once I figured things out.

[asphaltgambler]

^^^ that is a great life story Flintstone^^^^

[monoflo]

Parenting .................. pretty much teaching kids to take advantage of opportunity..
Parenting ..... teaching kids the value of education.
Great schools with un motivated students --undisciplined students --the result on average not so much.

[oldE]

There are myriad reasons why some are not achivers, let alone over achivers. Some folks just do not or can not look ahead to the consequences of their actions. My daughter is one of these. She is in her 30s now and could easily be one of Rick's clients, that is if she could plan far enough ahead to mail a card.
Before blaming things on the current education system or government, I would like to point out that my parents, who were born in the first decade of the last century, used to mention servants or hired hands who would never have been able to make it on their own, so worked wherever they could.
There have always been folks like that.

Best
Les

[tabs]

Originally Posted by stevej37

My first home mortgage in 1982 was at 15% interest balloon payment.
At the end of 3 years it was re-examined.

Luckily rates started dropping.

How did you get such a low rate??? Didja have to know somebody?