Wednesday, November 10, 2010

managing your personal finance






Before purchasing life insurance as an investment, a potential investor should understand a few things about the types of life insurance and how they work.  Basic life insurance can be broken down into two major categories, term insurance and whole life insurance.


Term insurance is insurance for which one makes annual premium payments in exchange for a death benefit. This is the least expensive type of life insurance and cannot be purchased as an investment. The death benefit is all that one receives from term life insurance, provided one passes away while the policy is active.


This type of insurance is ideal if you do not believe you will need life insurance in your later years; the older one becomes, the higher the premiums for term life insurance. The primary purpose of term life insurance is to protect those people who depend on you; as one gets older, most people accumulate retirement savings and/or their children become self sufficient, decreasing the need for term life insurance.


Whole life insurance, also known as permanent or cash value life insurance is the second type of life insurance and can be broken down into whole life, universal life, variable life, and variable universal. In general, cash value life insurance offers protection throughout one's entire life, and also includes an investment — the cash value. Only a portion of the premium payments on a cash value life insurance policy cover the actual insurance. With the other portion of the premium, the insurance company sets up an investment known as an accumulation account which is invested in interest-bearing securities.


The cash value reduces the amount at risk to the insurance company and thus, the insurance expense over time. The owner can access the money in the cash value through policy loans or other options which reduce the death benefit. Accordingly, premiums for such policies generally tend to be higher than those associated with term life insurance, at least in the earlier years.


Until now, Seattle startup Doxo has been pretty secretive about what it’s up to. All it’s revealed is that it’s backed by Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions and Mohr Davidow Ventures, and that it’s been developing a paperless billing product.


Today, however, co-founder and chief executive Steve Shivers gave me a demo of the service. And the site is now handing out invites and letting in users.


Shivers and his team tried to answer this question: If so many of us are Web-savvy, why haven’t we gone completely paperless? Shivers said 55 percent of US households pay some of their bills online, but only 15 percent of them have gotten rid of paper completely. The gap between the two numbers includes people who still pay some of their bills the old-fashioned way, as well as people who still receive their bills and other messages in the mail, even if they pay online.


There are a couple of problems with the current way of doing things, Shivers said. Customers have to go to separate websites for each bill, and it’s an impossible headache to log in to 15 or 20 different accounts each month.


Doxo should help push users towards a state of complete paperlessness. It offers an online dashboard for managing each account where you need to pay bills. Users will be able to upload their bills (whether they downloaded it from the company website or scan a copy they received in the mail) and store their login name and password for each account. That way, they’ll have all of their billing information in one place. Then, if the billing company decides to create an account with Doxo, they can send you your bills via the Doxo website, and they can send other messages, such as a revised privacy policy.


All of the documents belong to you, Shivers said. Doxo can’t sell the data to anyone else, and you can download each bill whenever you want.


The approach sounds a little like Mint, the popular Intuit-acquired personal finance service. They both bring multiple accounts together and make the data easy to understand. At the same time, by focusing on bills, not financial institutions, Doxo is tackling a different problem. Plus, it has a different business model — instead of making money when it convinces users to sign up for different accounts or credit cards, Doxo will charge businesses, since they’re saving money by not sending paper bills. Businesses supposedly spend $30 billion a year to mail 50 billion bills to customers.


One question right now is whether the service can be useful even if the companies sending you bills haven’t signed up with Doxo. Shivers predicted that the experience will vary from user to user. Some will be fine just using Doxo as a repository for bills and account data. Others will find that a number of the businesses they need to pay are in Doxo already. And yes, there will be a group that doesn’t get much use out of the site right away, but they might sign up for the companies whose bills they want to pay, and then they’ll receive notifications as businesses join.


There are some shortcomings right now — mainly the fact that you can’t make payments on the Doxo site. Doxo just gives you the bill, hands you over to the billing site, then you can mark the bill as paid in Doxo once you’re done. But Shivers said Doxo is definitely looking to add in-site payment features, mobile features, and more.



Next Story: SkillSlate grabs $1.1M to find local service providers Previous Story: Symbian CEO Lee Williams steps down




eric seiger

<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com

NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...

Great <b>news</b>: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5% « Hot Air

Great news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/10 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Kansas City Chiefs fans! Another full day of news for you. DJ, Special Teams, Parity, and this Sunday's opponent wait below. Enjoy.


eric seiger





Before purchasing life insurance as an investment, a potential investor should understand a few things about the types of life insurance and how they work.  Basic life insurance can be broken down into two major categories, term insurance and whole life insurance.


Term insurance is insurance for which one makes annual premium payments in exchange for a death benefit. This is the least expensive type of life insurance and cannot be purchased as an investment. The death benefit is all that one receives from term life insurance, provided one passes away while the policy is active.


This type of insurance is ideal if you do not believe you will need life insurance in your later years; the older one becomes, the higher the premiums for term life insurance. The primary purpose of term life insurance is to protect those people who depend on you; as one gets older, most people accumulate retirement savings and/or their children become self sufficient, decreasing the need for term life insurance.


Whole life insurance, also known as permanent or cash value life insurance is the second type of life insurance and can be broken down into whole life, universal life, variable life, and variable universal. In general, cash value life insurance offers protection throughout one's entire life, and also includes an investment — the cash value. Only a portion of the premium payments on a cash value life insurance policy cover the actual insurance. With the other portion of the premium, the insurance company sets up an investment known as an accumulation account which is invested in interest-bearing securities.


The cash value reduces the amount at risk to the insurance company and thus, the insurance expense over time. The owner can access the money in the cash value through policy loans or other options which reduce the death benefit. Accordingly, premiums for such policies generally tend to be higher than those associated with term life insurance, at least in the earlier years.


Until now, Seattle startup Doxo has been pretty secretive about what it’s up to. All it’s revealed is that it’s backed by Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions and Mohr Davidow Ventures, and that it’s been developing a paperless billing product.


Today, however, co-founder and chief executive Steve Shivers gave me a demo of the service. And the site is now handing out invites and letting in users.


Shivers and his team tried to answer this question: If so many of us are Web-savvy, why haven’t we gone completely paperless? Shivers said 55 percent of US households pay some of their bills online, but only 15 percent of them have gotten rid of paper completely. The gap between the two numbers includes people who still pay some of their bills the old-fashioned way, as well as people who still receive their bills and other messages in the mail, even if they pay online.


There are a couple of problems with the current way of doing things, Shivers said. Customers have to go to separate websites for each bill, and it’s an impossible headache to log in to 15 or 20 different accounts each month.


Doxo should help push users towards a state of complete paperlessness. It offers an online dashboard for managing each account where you need to pay bills. Users will be able to upload their bills (whether they downloaded it from the company website or scan a copy they received in the mail) and store their login name and password for each account. That way, they’ll have all of their billing information in one place. Then, if the billing company decides to create an account with Doxo, they can send you your bills via the Doxo website, and they can send other messages, such as a revised privacy policy.


All of the documents belong to you, Shivers said. Doxo can’t sell the data to anyone else, and you can download each bill whenever you want.


The approach sounds a little like Mint, the popular Intuit-acquired personal finance service. They both bring multiple accounts together and make the data easy to understand. At the same time, by focusing on bills, not financial institutions, Doxo is tackling a different problem. Plus, it has a different business model — instead of making money when it convinces users to sign up for different accounts or credit cards, Doxo will charge businesses, since they’re saving money by not sending paper bills. Businesses supposedly spend $30 billion a year to mail 50 billion bills to customers.


One question right now is whether the service can be useful even if the companies sending you bills haven’t signed up with Doxo. Shivers predicted that the experience will vary from user to user. Some will be fine just using Doxo as a repository for bills and account data. Others will find that a number of the businesses they need to pay are in Doxo already. And yes, there will be a group that doesn’t get much use out of the site right away, but they might sign up for the companies whose bills they want to pay, and then they’ll receive notifications as businesses join.


There are some shortcomings right now — mainly the fact that you can’t make payments on the Doxo site. Doxo just gives you the bill, hands you over to the billing site, then you can mark the bill as paid in Doxo once you’re done. But Shivers said Doxo is definitely looking to add in-site payment features, mobile features, and more.



Next Story: SkillSlate grabs $1.1M to find local service providers Previous Story: Symbian CEO Lee Williams steps down




eric seiger

<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com

NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...

Great <b>news</b>: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5% « Hot Air

Great news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/10 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Kansas City Chiefs fans! Another full day of news for you. DJ, Special Teams, Parity, and this Sunday's opponent wait below. Enjoy.


eric seiger

eric seiger

G20 Summit, London, G20 London, G20 Protests, G20 Demonstrations by G20London2009


eric seiger

<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com

NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...

Great <b>news</b>: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5% « Hot Air

Great news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/10 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Kansas City Chiefs fans! Another full day of news for you. DJ, Special Teams, Parity, and this Sunday's opponent wait below. Enjoy.


eric seiger





Before purchasing life insurance as an investment, a potential investor should understand a few things about the types of life insurance and how they work.  Basic life insurance can be broken down into two major categories, term insurance and whole life insurance.


Term insurance is insurance for which one makes annual premium payments in exchange for a death benefit. This is the least expensive type of life insurance and cannot be purchased as an investment. The death benefit is all that one receives from term life insurance, provided one passes away while the policy is active.


This type of insurance is ideal if you do not believe you will need life insurance in your later years; the older one becomes, the higher the premiums for term life insurance. The primary purpose of term life insurance is to protect those people who depend on you; as one gets older, most people accumulate retirement savings and/or their children become self sufficient, decreasing the need for term life insurance.


Whole life insurance, also known as permanent or cash value life insurance is the second type of life insurance and can be broken down into whole life, universal life, variable life, and variable universal. In general, cash value life insurance offers protection throughout one's entire life, and also includes an investment — the cash value. Only a portion of the premium payments on a cash value life insurance policy cover the actual insurance. With the other portion of the premium, the insurance company sets up an investment known as an accumulation account which is invested in interest-bearing securities.


The cash value reduces the amount at risk to the insurance company and thus, the insurance expense over time. The owner can access the money in the cash value through policy loans or other options which reduce the death benefit. Accordingly, premiums for such policies generally tend to be higher than those associated with term life insurance, at least in the earlier years.


Until now, Seattle startup Doxo has been pretty secretive about what it’s up to. All it’s revealed is that it’s backed by Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions and Mohr Davidow Ventures, and that it’s been developing a paperless billing product.


Today, however, co-founder and chief executive Steve Shivers gave me a demo of the service. And the site is now handing out invites and letting in users.


Shivers and his team tried to answer this question: If so many of us are Web-savvy, why haven’t we gone completely paperless? Shivers said 55 percent of US households pay some of their bills online, but only 15 percent of them have gotten rid of paper completely. The gap between the two numbers includes people who still pay some of their bills the old-fashioned way, as well as people who still receive their bills and other messages in the mail, even if they pay online.


There are a couple of problems with the current way of doing things, Shivers said. Customers have to go to separate websites for each bill, and it’s an impossible headache to log in to 15 or 20 different accounts each month.


Doxo should help push users towards a state of complete paperlessness. It offers an online dashboard for managing each account where you need to pay bills. Users will be able to upload their bills (whether they downloaded it from the company website or scan a copy they received in the mail) and store their login name and password for each account. That way, they’ll have all of their billing information in one place. Then, if the billing company decides to create an account with Doxo, they can send you your bills via the Doxo website, and they can send other messages, such as a revised privacy policy.


All of the documents belong to you, Shivers said. Doxo can’t sell the data to anyone else, and you can download each bill whenever you want.


The approach sounds a little like Mint, the popular Intuit-acquired personal finance service. They both bring multiple accounts together and make the data easy to understand. At the same time, by focusing on bills, not financial institutions, Doxo is tackling a different problem. Plus, it has a different business model — instead of making money when it convinces users to sign up for different accounts or credit cards, Doxo will charge businesses, since they’re saving money by not sending paper bills. Businesses supposedly spend $30 billion a year to mail 50 billion bills to customers.


One question right now is whether the service can be useful even if the companies sending you bills haven’t signed up with Doxo. Shivers predicted that the experience will vary from user to user. Some will be fine just using Doxo as a repository for bills and account data. Others will find that a number of the businesses they need to pay are in Doxo already. And yes, there will be a group that doesn’t get much use out of the site right away, but they might sign up for the companies whose bills they want to pay, and then they’ll receive notifications as businesses join.


There are some shortcomings right now — mainly the fact that you can’t make payments on the Doxo site. Doxo just gives you the bill, hands you over to the billing site, then you can mark the bill as paid in Doxo once you’re done. But Shivers said Doxo is definitely looking to add in-site payment features, mobile features, and more.



Next Story: SkillSlate grabs $1.1M to find local service providers Previous Story: Symbian CEO Lee Williams steps down




eric seiger

G20 Summit, London, G20 London, G20 Protests, G20 Demonstrations by G20London2009


eric seiger

<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com

NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...

Great <b>news</b>: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5% « Hot Air

Great news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/10 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Kansas City Chiefs fans! Another full day of news for you. DJ, Special Teams, Parity, and this Sunday's opponent wait below. Enjoy.


eric seiger

G20 Summit, London, G20 London, G20 Protests, G20 Demonstrations by G20London2009


eric seiger

<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com

NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...

Great <b>news</b>: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5% « Hot Air

Great news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/10 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Kansas City Chiefs fans! Another full day of news for you. DJ, Special Teams, Parity, and this Sunday's opponent wait below. Enjoy.


eric seiger

<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com

NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...

Great <b>news</b>: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5% « Hot Air

Great news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/10 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Kansas City Chiefs fans! Another full day of news for you. DJ, Special Teams, Parity, and this Sunday's opponent wait below. Enjoy.


eric seiger

<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com

NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...

Great <b>news</b>: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5% « Hot Air

Great news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/10 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Kansas City Chiefs fans! Another full day of news for you. DJ, Special Teams, Parity, and this Sunday's opponent wait below. Enjoy.


eric seiger eric seiger
eric seiger

G20 Summit, London, G20 London, G20 Protests, G20 Demonstrations by G20London2009


eric seiger
eric seiger

<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com

NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...

Great <b>news</b>: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5% « Hot Air

Great news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/10 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Kansas City Chiefs fans! Another full day of news for you. DJ, Special Teams, Parity, and this Sunday's opponent wait below. Enjoy.



People attend school for 12 years and are never taught personal finance. By definition, personal finance addresses the ways in which individuals or families obtain, budget, save, and spend money. It includes obtaining and managing checking accounts, credit cards, loans, retirement plans, social security, insurance, income tax and 401k information.

Children learn key subjects such as math and reading, but they don't learn anything about personal finance. Learning about personal financial matters such as budgeting, emergency funds, and savings are a part of every household. Personal finance is all about your money management techniques. How much you have at the end of every check is dictated by your ability to manage money well. The schools don't teach it, churches don't preach it, and parents can't teach it.

Money management skills that encourage planning and saving have to be taught. These skills can't be assumed. Discipline isn't like hearing and seeing, people aren't born with the ability to be disciplined and save money. It takes training and practice to learn how to become disciplined and manage money well.

Schools haven't seen a need to prepare children for personal finance or money management. The education process assumes these skills are taught at home. But, where did the parents learn the skills from? There is a great chance that most parents don't know enough about personal finance to teach their children correctly. This creates a blind leading the blind scenario. Money management discussions are rarely if ever held in most homes. These discussions didn't occur in our house when I was growing up. Children ask questions about what Santa Claus is bringing for Christmas but they never ask why the lights are on or if the bills are paid.

The lack of proper personal finance training and poor money management skills causes havoc and chaos in people's lives. All too often people entertain discussions on being in debt. They tell you how they are making partial payments or late payments on their bills. People talk and complain all of the time about not having enough money to pay their bills or not having enough money left over after paying the bills.

Splurging is not a solution. Fulfilling instant gratifications and buying things because you see and want them doesn't show discipline. The home shopping networks know they have a market for you. When you see the item and it's displayed so beautifully, you tell yourself you just got to have it. There is a great chance that when the item is delivered you'll have forgotten you purchased it. Often, these articles are thrown in a drawer or put up for safe keeping and never used. Everyone remembers the special occasion that necessitated the perfect outfit ensemble. A must have outfit has caused many gas and electric bills to remain unpaid.

Personal finance and money management skills should be taught to everyone if the truth were told. Some people need the training worse than others. Everyone can benefit from learning about how to manage money better. Children need to be taught as early as possible and the schools should require it as part of their curriculum.

America saves less than 5 percent of their income because we haven't been taught how to save. Seeking the services of a financial advisor whose profession is to teach personal finance skills will help Americans save more. A financial advisor is different than a financial planner. Don't get the two different professions mixed up. A financial advisor also known as a financial coach will teach you how to change your attitude about money. Learning how to plan and budget sounds simple but these skills present a great challenge to the average person. Learning what an emergency fund is and how to save for it while incorporating your current and future goals take skill.

Learn how to plan a course for financial well being. You can stop living from paycheck to paycheck if you commit to learning about personal finance and improve your money management skills. Awaken the financial genius in you.


eric seiger

<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com

NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...

Great <b>news</b>: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5% « Hot Air

Great news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/10 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Kansas City Chiefs fans! Another full day of news for you. DJ, Special Teams, Parity, and this Sunday's opponent wait below. Enjoy.


eric seiger

<b>News</b> Corp Names EVP Office Of Chairman – Deadline.com

NEW YORK, NY, November 9, 2010 – News Corporation today announced that Former New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein will join the Company as Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. ...

Great <b>news</b>: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5% « Hot Air

Great news: Jobless rate expected to drop in 2012 to … 8.5%

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/10 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Kansas City Chiefs fans! Another full day of news for you. DJ, Special Teams, Parity, and this Sunday's opponent wait below. Enjoy.


eric seiger

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