Archive for » June, 2009 «

This is a very important factor in purchasing an insurance policy.

The reason of having an insurance protection is to ensure that you or your dependents’ future lifestyle will not be affected should something unwanted happened.  The most basic calculation is to work out the yearly expenses needed and multiply by the numbers years that your dependent needed it.

For example your dependents needs 30,000 a year and they have another 10 years before they can make their own living, then you need a minimum coverage of 300,000. Please do take note of the inflation rate as well.

Another decision factor is your current income, you should not spend more than 10% of your current income on insurance policy. Please take note that if you are not able to pay your insurance premium, your policy will be terminated ( it is different scenario if you insurance tie to an investment link product ).

It is always good get advice from the professional, call your financial advisor today to find out more about insurance coverage that you need.

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Having decided that you need an insurance protection, the next step is to decide  what kind of insurance policy that you need ?

The major types of personal insurance including :

-          Life insurance – to compensate you against Natural Death

-          Income Supplement Insurance – to compensate your monthly income

-          Personal Accident – to compensate you in the event of accident occurred.

-          Critical illness – to compensate you if you diagnose with critical illness

-          Medical Insurance – to compensate you if you seek medical treatment

Who needs Life Insurance ?

Life insurance is designed to protect your family and anybody depend on you financially.  If you loss your life, these person will not have the income to sustain their life.  So if nobody depends on you financially, then you don’t need life insurance coverage.

For example children do not need life insurance coverage as no one is dependent on children financially.

If you are young and planning to start a family in the future, it is always good to plan early and purchase a life insurance, the reason is the younger you buy your life insurance the cheaper the premium.

Who needs Income Supplement Insurance ?

Working adult needs income supplement insurance.  Imagine if you are not able to work, do you have any income to sustain your life ?  Even if you are single and no dependent, do you have any others form of income ? If you don’t, then you need an Income Supplement Insurance.

Another reason is you do not need to burden your family who might oblige to help you financially.

Who needs Personal Accident?

Personal accident insurance is for everyone in any age group, unless you wealthy.

Children – you need personal accident coverage if the children meet an accident and lost both his leg, you may need to hire a maid to take care of his daily life in the future. The personal accident coverage will provides you with the financial assistance.

Working adult – you need personal accident coverage if you meet an accident and lost your hands, you may need financial assistance seeking others living skill for your future needs. Another reason is you do not need to burden your family who might oblige to help you financially.

Elderly – you need personal accident coverage because if you meet an accident and lost both you leg, you may need to hire a maid to take care of your daily life in the future. The personal accident coverage will provides you with the financial assistance. Another reason is you do not need to burden your family who might oblige to help you financially.

Who needs Critical illness Insurance ?

Critical illness Insurance is for everyone in any age group, unless you wealthy.

Treatment of critical illness such as heart attack, cancer, stroke and artery by-pass is expensive. Critical illness insurance will come in handy to settle the medical treatment bill and any others follow-up medical treatment may required in the future. Another reason is you do not need to burden your family who might oblige to help you financially.

Who needs Medical Insurance ?

Similar to personal accident insurance, medical insurance is for everyone in any age group, unless you wealthy.

Medical cost is expensive and warded to hospital may incur thousand of dollar. A medical insurance will come in handy to settle the medical bill.

It is always good get advice from the professional, call your financial advisor today to find out more about insurance coverage that you need.

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Before you know if you need a personal insurance, it is good to understand what personal insurance is.

Insurance is a form of contract between two parties where one party call insurer or the insurance company who undertake the risk for a sum of money call premium. Another party call policy holder who responsible to pay a premium to the insurer in exchange for a fixed sum of money ( sum of insured ) should the event cover in the contract occurred.

For example, a person buys a personal accident insurance from an insurance company for the sum of USD100,000.00. If that person met an accident and loss his/her life, the insurance company will compensates their family with USD100,000.00.

So insurance is a financial leveraging tools where you pay a small sum of amount in exchange for a bigger sum of money should something happened to you.

Why do you need a personal insurance ?

First, you have to ask yourself, if something happen to you today, for example, you met an accident and lost your life, for lost your leg, your eye sight. Will you or your family member depending on you able to survive financially in the future ?

If the answer is yes, then you do not need insurance because you are self insured.

If answer is no, then you need an insurance to protect you or your family depending on you.

What if you do not have anyone depending on you ? Do you still need an insurance coverage ?

Let’s go through this scenario, Mr. A is 30 years old, single and work as an accountant, he has got a good salary and some saving. Does he needs an insurance coverage ? 

Before we decide if Mr. A needs an insurance coverage, we need to find out some fate about Mr. A.

1)     If Mr. A diagnose with a serious illness tomorrow, does he has enough money to undergo medical treatment ?

2)     If Mr. A lost both his hand tomorrow, does he able to carry on his job and earn the same income for the rest of his life ?

3)     If Mr. A meet an accident tomorrow and become disability and ward on bed for the rest of his life, does he has enough money to hire a maid to take care of his life for the rest of his life ?

If any one of the answer is NO, then Mr.A needs any insurance coverage to ensure that he will enjoy the same quality of life should something bad happen to him.

It is always good get advice from the professional, call your financial advisor today to find out more about insurance coverage that you need.

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You have all the rights to pay off your personal loan earlier before the end of the period.  In fact you are encouraged to do so that you can save some interest.

However, most financial institution will imposed early settlement penalty if you decided to settle the loan before the maturity date.

Please check with your lender about the early settlement penalty fees before making your decision, especially if you think of getting another personal loan with more attractive interest rate to settle the existing loan.

In any situation, it is a good sign that you are able to settle your personal loan earlier than expected.

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If you plan to buy something using personal loan, you may want to use your credit card, check with the merchant if they offer interest free interest installment.

The advantage of using credit card is you don’t need to go through the application process and the approval is guarantee up to the credit limit that you have.  If the merchant does not have an interest free installment plan, the disadvantage of using credit loan is paying higher interest rate than personal loan.

If you plan to get a personal loan for others purpose, such as going for holiday, repay your existing loan, paying debts due to friend or business associate, then you might consider selling off some of the unused items at home.  Try eBay or having garage sales will be a good to get rid of some old junks and get some fast cash to serve your needs.  The most popular items are electronics gadget and jewelry.

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