#80: Ask Paula – Joe Says Life Insurance Won’t Make the Headline. But It Did.

Chris, age 30, makes $200,000 per year and saves 50 percent of his income. What accounts should he use in order to maximize his tax benefits?

Dee, age 39, is getting tired of apartment living. She found a great neighborhood in which she’d like to own a home, and she’s saving for a 20 percent downpayment. But she’s nervous about the high cost of home maintenance. How can she deal with this?

Chelsea just moved into a new house with her husband. He purchased the house outright, in cash, and she wants to pay him so that she can share in the home’s ownership and equity. But she also has student loan and credit card debt. Should she make progress towards all three of these goals (build equity, pay off student loans, pay off credit cards) at the same time? Or should she prioritize one — and if so, which one?

Charlene is curious: what’s so great about Vanguard? Why do Joe and I like the Vanguard Target Date funds so much, as compared to funds from another brokerage? (Note: neither of us have any financial relationship with Vanguard, other than being an ordinary, run-of-the-mill customer.)

Alma is looking for a term life insurance policy that’ll protect her if she passes away outside of the United States. Where and how can she find this?

My friend Joe Saul-Sehy, a former financial planner and host of the award-winning Stacking Benjamins podcast, joins me today while we tackle these 5 questions … and somehow, also we go on a tangent about Burger King. It’s a whopper of an episode. 🙂

Enjoy!

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Resources Mentioned:

A.M. Best – This agency rates insurance companies

Here’s the A.M. Best rating scale:

• A++, A+ (Superior)
• A, A− (Excellent)
• B++, B+ (Good)
• B, B− (Fair)
• C++, C+ (Marginal)
• C, C− (Weak)
• D (Poor)
• E (Under Regulatory Supervision)
• F (In Liquidation)
• S (Rating Suspended)

(Original source is this, but you can get a more concise version here.)

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