I want to preface this post by saying I am a longtime reader and follower of this sub. However, the opinions I express here will go counter to much of the advice we typically see on this page. While I don't expect (or want) to change the way many of you invest, I think it is important to consider things from another perspective.
First, I will get this out of the way, my day job is that of the so called enemy of this sub. I work for a large life insurance company and regularly sell front loaded mutual funds, annuity products, and the "dreaded" whole life insurance. I am currently working on getting my CFP, but until then I earn my income solely from commissions.
I want to acknowledge the obvious fact that these products are sub par compared to DIY investing with no load index funds and ETF's (with a few exceptions I will save for another time). What seems to be forgotten here is that they are much better then the plan that millions in this country have, which is no plan.
While most people on this sub will max out our roth every year, keep to a budget, have an emergency fund, and do our best to max out the 401k, we are obviously the exception.
What I see on a daily basis is instead of investing the difference between term and whole life, people will buy the term, and waste the rest. Leaving them with little to no emergency fund and still only contributing the lousy 3% (or whatever match is) to their retirement. In fact, many of the people I work with have no retirement plan, and often have never heard of a roth. While I realize how much the 4-5% front load hurts over a lifetime of contributions, they are now contributing up to $5,225 annually into their roth, obviously a great improvement.
My point here is that while this sub is great at math and facts, there is a massive misunderstanding of the need for retirement and insurance products to be sold. Because otherwise very few people would have them.
Submitted October 18, 2018 at 09:06PM by Sinsyxx https://ift.tt/2pXwsGy
