All Life Insurance Tips

Can someone please give me advice on what is best: Life insurance, Annuities or Term if you're 53 years old?

I'm looking to invest in life insurance, annuIties and term insurance, mutual funds. However, I don't know where to start? How can I invest especially in annuities if I want to get a check a month in about 10 years to live on when retiring. My friend's mom invested in annuities and when she got sick at 55 years old and couldn't work she was receiving annuities check which helped out alot.Can experienced people respond who have annuities, life insurance and/or term insurance with the kind of insurance they chose and which company you chose and WHY YOU CHOSE TO GO WITH THAT PARTICULAR COMPANY.THERE ARE SO MANY OF THEM OUT THERE...ITS' CONFUSING AS TO WHICH ONE IS BEST? Thanks in advance for advice.

Public Comments

1. Don't do annuities. Annuities = they make the sales person very rich and you very poor. Only a person that has absolutely no clue how to handle money should ever consider an annuity. Consider instead buying long term cd's from a broker like Charles Schwab. As a matter of fact, call them up, I think they have something called a CD annuity - practically no cost. Please do not touch variable annuities - like your life depends on it. You pay a whole lot of money for this convenience. I'm a cost analyst - have done the math on it. Let me rip-you off, and all I had to do is make sure you get a check each month. You need a broker like Schwab - they will take care of you. Don't deal with a financial advisor like Edward Jones - they will sell you everything under the sun to pay for their new Lexus. I hate people that take advantage of people - and annuities is an easy way to do it. The person buying the annuity never realized how much more they are paying for it. Note you don't need life or term insurance if you have no dependents that depend on you. /
2. You don't invest in life insurance. BUY term life insurance and invest in investment vehicles. Annuities are very tricky. Find out what kind of fees are involved and think about what return you are truly getting on your money. You want a set check. What if you invested the money in mutual funds and took out a set amount each month? If you are thinking about annuities, you need to do LOTS of reading and seek the advice of a FEE-ONLY Financial Advisor. Don't ask someone who sells them - guess what they will recommend? Start reading MONEY magazine each month.
3. LIFE insurance isn't an investment. You don't mention what the GOAL or OBJECTIVE is, directly, but if it's INVESTING, then that lets out life insurance, including whole and term. I'm not CRAZY about annuities as a primary investment, and they're darned hard to get out of. Regarding INVESTING, we have about 3/4 invested in small and mid cap mutual funds, and the remainder in single stocks. That's the mix I'm comfortable with.
4. Your lucky. You got great answers. You really need to listen to them. You might want to post more questions under the category "investing" or "personal finance".
5. I don't know much about your personal situation, but if you have no retirement plan at age 53, you should consider opening both a Roth IRA and a variable annuity. I particular like Metlife Prime Elite IV variable annuity. It has low costs and hundreds of investments to choose from. It has some special features such as guarantee protection for 10 years against market volatility, meaning your investment will grow when the economy is doing bad. If your investment grows, so does your death benefit. The death benefit will lock at the highest value that your portfolio has grown. For example, if you put in $50,000 investment and it grows to $100,000, your death benefit will be $100,000. If it drops to $80,000, the death benefit is still $100,000. As for life insurance, what reason do you have for needing it? Do you have debts such as mortgage and credit cards to pay? Do you have dependent children to care for? If you have a reason for needing life insurance, term insurance is the best way to go. Everyone don't want to pay for life insurance forever. Most people who retire will cut their expenses and the first thing to go will be life insurance. Anyway, I open a Roth IRA at Primerica and own their 30 year level term insurance. I choose them because of their quality service and how they developed a plan to meet my goals.
6. Well, the best thing to have is something known as a fixed annuities, why because it is the most helpful and will definitely help you in a time of need. Basically you sign with an insurance company about giving them a check every month. There are different plans but when you retire or get sick they pay you back the amount every month. Thanks