It is been said that we are living in one of the worst economic time since the great depression. Banks are no longer lending like they used to. Money is tight, loans and credit lines are harder to come by. Retirement plans are down by up to 50% or more, and the government is looking to increase the amount that businesses and business owners must pay in taxes. There is no doubt that it is getting harder and harder for business owner like you.

If you’ve recently tried to get a loan or a line of credit from a bank, you know exactly what I am talking about. Even though you may have more money in your retirement plan than you’re looking to borrow, you’ll still have to; file an application with the bank, tell them exactly what you are going to use the money for, provide them with financial statements and possible audited statements on an ongoing basis, prove to them that you have the ability to repay, show them your past 3 or more tax return, provide them with a business plan, let them check your credit, put up some sort of collateral and still provide them with a personal guarantee.

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Most research done on a car involves the Make, Model and reliability of the car. We occasionally get hung up on the color, the engine type and whether to buy new or used. After making our decision and doing all that research we go searching for our perfect car with only two objectives in mind-lowest price and the best interest rate.

Even if you were to get a car loan at just 8.5% APR, 18% of your car payments go towards interest. When you consider the number of car you will purchase over your life time, that’s a lot of money flowing away from you and your family. Let’s assume you’ll buy a new car every 4 years for the next 44 years, so 11 cars in total. Each car will be financed for $10,550 and you get an interest rate at 8.5% for 48 months. You have a choice with how to pay for these cars. There are really only 5 ways to pay for a vehicle: You can buy them through a bank or financing company, lease them with a contract, pay cash for them, use an interest savings account, like a CD or use your 101 Plan Insurance Policy. Let’s look at each method in further detail. Buying a car through a bank at 8.5% interest, would cost $260 per month, which is $3,120 per year, over 44 years that amounts to $137,280.

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Safety is a primary concern in any financial strategy taking a calculated, understood and informed risk is one thing, but exposing yourself to unnecessary risks, which could easily be avoided, is quite another. When it comes to money that you’re counting on and especially money you have worked so diligently to save, that expect to have access to during your retirement you better be sure it is stored in a safe place. But which places are safe? Massive amounts of advertising have conditioned us to store are money in banks both for short and long term storage, but are banks the safest place to hold your money? Rather than answer that question directly, let’s compare and contrast holding your money to bank versus depositing it with the insurance company via a permanent, dividend-paying, whole life insurance policy and then you can decide for yourself.

Let’s start by considering what the overall purpose of a bank or a life insurance policy is. There sole reason for existence is to make money, but who are they making money for? A bank’s primary responsibility is to make money for their stockholders so that they can get a return on their investment, after all, that’s why the bank was created in the first place, to benefit the stockholders. Stock-owned life insurance companies like AIG are also responsible for making money for their stockholders, just like banks they must keep their stockholders happy.

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