Hello My Peoples,
I love being black, don't you? I also love being around black people, especially church folk. Have you ever heard a white choir try to sing a Negro spiritual, it ain't right. You can't pretend soul and suffering.
And As my Mom used to say, "Can't nobody give you strength on Sunday to deal with the demons on Monday but a black preacher."
With Christmas all around us, I should have written this sooner. I apologize to those of you who have already paid several thousand for an expensive brand name, but here is the low down. Most of the flat screens produced today come from China, Korea or Singapore. The insides like the motherboard are pretty generic and the cheap ones at the big box stores are pretty good in quality. I purchased a 50" Hisense for $379 two years ago and it is still kicking. The technology is changing so rapidly that what you overpay for today will be available cheaply tomorrow. I recommend the following:
1. Buy the largest cheap flat screen that your budget and room will allow: 50-60" should do it.
2. Purchase it with an American Express card at Costco and you get this.
a. One year manufacturer warranty
b. Plus a additional year from Costco
c. Plus an additional year from American Express
3. Buy Hisense, Vizio, Sceptre over a brand like Emerson(don't like the picture) but cheap the picture
of the same TV in different stores for consistency.
4. Try not to spend more than $600, but do get a surge power stripe( spikes can damage your flat screen
even when turned off)
Happy Shopping!
Frugal Frank on the black side
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Friday, December 11, 2015
Beware the Financial Advisor/Insurance Man Bearing Gifts
Hello My Black People,
It's the holiday season, which is a time for "Merry Christmas Baby", Chitluns or Chitterlings(as the Black Hamps say), peach brandy and the Black Nativity. I can still smell the soul food cooking in my mother's kitchen and see the uncles and friends of my father who dropped by on Christmas Eve for a drink and some SousMeat(Hoghead Cheese) making sure they always gave us kids a brand new silver dollar before they left. Those people have passed on but linger in my memories.
But, along with the visitors was the life insurance man who came by monthly to collect the premium on the $500 life insurance policy that my mom had on everyone. Like millions of blacks, she had been sold these policies years ago when you could, for $500, bury a black person. Over the years as prices for funerals rose these policy values stayed the same making them not really helpful for the purpose they were originally purchased for. The insurance man knowing this, just kept coming by with a nice smile and collecting those checks. These policies have over the years been a contributor to the income gap between blacks and whites. While we were being sold policies that just barely covered burial costs, whites were buying $100,000 plus policies to take care of family security and education passing wealth to generations.
Today this still happens, because the former life insurance men are now financial advisors. They come in with a smile and do a financial review of your situation and end up selling you a life insurance product like whole or variable life. If you have a nice sum of investment money, for instance sitting in a company 401K, they sell you an annuity; still a life insurance product. Today, while we have upgraded to $25,000 policies whites have upgraded to $1,000,000. I could give you an deep analysis of the insurance industry and its practices, you don't need it in this blog. So without babbling on too much, I give you, my frugal friends the life insurance break down.
1. Life insurance should be looked at like a wealth builder for the survivors. If you have very little assets but wife and kids, buy between $500,000 to $1,000,000 policy, cheaper than you think see number 2.
2. Buy Term. Again Buy Term policies with 20 year or 30 year terms. This will cover your family during your wealth accumulating years. If you have done things right, in 20 years your kids should be out of college and with retirement, home equity and investments assets between 500k to a mil. These policies build no cash and end at the term year, they are mainly for taking care of your families if you die.
3. Insurance is not an investment tool. It is not and Education saving vehicle. Only buy whole if you plan on blowing your retirement and you want to leave your kids a 100k when you die at 90.
4. Purchase insurance when you are young and healthy. If done, you can get the above amounts for under $900 a year. Remember, when you are young and healthy everyone wants to sell you insurance, but when you are old or sick no one will sell it to you.
5. If you are single with no dependents, you don't need life insurance life.
6. Do not roll your 401K into an annuity. Best accounts for these are Vanguard and TIAA-Creff. They are low cost investments with solid returns. You can always buy a payout annuity with part of your savings at retirement.
7. Educate your family about investments so they won't blow that million dollars you left them.
A million dollars in an investment account that returns 5% will produce $50,000 a year to spend and the family never has to touch the principle.
8. Remember, you will never benefit from life insurance. It is to help you build wealth for future generations and as frugal blacks, we have got to think generationally forward.
It's the holiday season, which is a time for "Merry Christmas Baby", Chitluns or Chitterlings(as the Black Hamps say), peach brandy and the Black Nativity. I can still smell the soul food cooking in my mother's kitchen and see the uncles and friends of my father who dropped by on Christmas Eve for a drink and some SousMeat(Hoghead Cheese) making sure they always gave us kids a brand new silver dollar before they left. Those people have passed on but linger in my memories.
But, along with the visitors was the life insurance man who came by monthly to collect the premium on the $500 life insurance policy that my mom had on everyone. Like millions of blacks, she had been sold these policies years ago when you could, for $500, bury a black person. Over the years as prices for funerals rose these policy values stayed the same making them not really helpful for the purpose they were originally purchased for. The insurance man knowing this, just kept coming by with a nice smile and collecting those checks. These policies have over the years been a contributor to the income gap between blacks and whites. While we were being sold policies that just barely covered burial costs, whites were buying $100,000 plus policies to take care of family security and education passing wealth to generations.
Today this still happens, because the former life insurance men are now financial advisors. They come in with a smile and do a financial review of your situation and end up selling you a life insurance product like whole or variable life. If you have a nice sum of investment money, for instance sitting in a company 401K, they sell you an annuity; still a life insurance product. Today, while we have upgraded to $25,000 policies whites have upgraded to $1,000,000. I could give you an deep analysis of the insurance industry and its practices, you don't need it in this blog. So without babbling on too much, I give you, my frugal friends the life insurance break down.
1. Life insurance should be looked at like a wealth builder for the survivors. If you have very little assets but wife and kids, buy between $500,000 to $1,000,000 policy, cheaper than you think see number 2.
2. Buy Term. Again Buy Term policies with 20 year or 30 year terms. This will cover your family during your wealth accumulating years. If you have done things right, in 20 years your kids should be out of college and with retirement, home equity and investments assets between 500k to a mil. These policies build no cash and end at the term year, they are mainly for taking care of your families if you die.
3. Insurance is not an investment tool. It is not and Education saving vehicle. Only buy whole if you plan on blowing your retirement and you want to leave your kids a 100k when you die at 90.
4. Purchase insurance when you are young and healthy. If done, you can get the above amounts for under $900 a year. Remember, when you are young and healthy everyone wants to sell you insurance, but when you are old or sick no one will sell it to you.
5. If you are single with no dependents, you don't need life insurance life.
6. Do not roll your 401K into an annuity. Best accounts for these are Vanguard and TIAA-Creff. They are low cost investments with solid returns. You can always buy a payout annuity with part of your savings at retirement.
7. Educate your family about investments so they won't blow that million dollars you left them.
A million dollars in an investment account that returns 5% will produce $50,000 a year to spend and the family never has to touch the principle.
8. Remember, you will never benefit from life insurance. It is to help you build wealth for future generations and as frugal blacks, we have got to think generationally forward.
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