Life Insurance or Retirement fund? (Thread 2)

[vixenpixie]

Hi mga sis,

Share ko lang I got a VUL from Sunlife last december 2011 at the age 28.
It's Php26,010 and I pay semi-annual (so about Php13K every 6 months).
I have a 1M life insurance coverage and 500K coverage for accidents and dismemberment.
Since it's a VUL, yung investment part is nilagay ko lahat sa equity kasi wala naman
ako balak galawin cya and it's really meant for retirement.
Equity is good for long term investment kasi.

So far ok naman yung funds ko, Sunlife's VUL year-to-date returns is 22%.
Year-to-date means yield from January up to this day.
So it's means if I invested 100K in January, it's 122K na ngayon. 
Also, it's Year-on-year yeild is 29%, it means if I invested 100K last Oct2011, it's
129K na ngayon. Not bad.  You can withdraw it anytime to enjoy your gains, or
if you want hayaan mo lang dun para mag compound yung gains mo.

[chinablue]

mga sisses, i am 24 years old, single, and no kids. Do you think i should start applying for life insurance na? I have 2 saving accounts, in bdo and bpi. May sss and philhealth din ako. I want to be enlightened kasi both my parents don't have sss, they're not that financially literate ika nga. My father, I think, has life insurance though. Life is unpredictable, so better be prepared. Kaya nga I want to start preparing for the future while I'm still young and working. I'm interested in BPI Get Started. Do you think it's good mga sisses?

[mhy_pie03]

@chinablue: Ako 25 single, no kids, not yet married, lives with parents with no insurance. You need to understand the money devaluation in banks. Banks offer up to 4% interest only with 100k minimum deposit yet pag nagpautang sila 10% pataas ang pataw sa borrower. Every year may inflation rate makikita mo naman sa pagtaas ng bilihin at kung gaano kataas kaya kung hindi ka po magiinvest sa ibang bagay with higher interest masasayang ang bawat sentimo na nilagay mo sa bangko dahil magiging iba na value niyan in 5 years time. As for VULs, smart move yan especially sa mga single na katulad natin at bata bata pa dahil mas mura pa ang premium. Kahit pa unmarried at without kids pag may nangyari sayo sino bang mapepwerisyo mo sa gastusin edi parents or siblings diba. If you failed to plan, you planned to fail. 

[sachism]

Yes, I highly encourage you to start young. Start now. I feel strongly for this specially now that I have a daughter. Mas kampante at panatag ang loob ko. Na at least she will have money to sustain her education even if mawala kami.

I wish I could have started earlier. Para mas malaki na sana ang naipon ko. You should put safety fund sa bank, the rest, invest them.

[sis.cattleya]

naku pareho tayo sis sachism. how i wish din na nagstart ako ng mas maaga as in pagkagraduate ng college kasi insurance is a good instrument to fight inflation. kaya naging advocacy ko yun sa mga young professionals lalo sa mga single pa, sana makapagstart sila investing. may magandang mapupuntahan talaga pinagtatrabahuhan nila.   

[sachism]

That's right sis. And after all those years working and not having a VUL, I actually don't know where my money went. Haha. So at least now I consider it as one of our regular expenses na.

Also normally pag single, we would think na we dont need an insurance. I had that mindset too. And now that I'm married and have a daughter, I am happy I still decided to go with it.
I would like to thank my very good friend who introduced me to this.

Kaya miski ako, I openly talk about this sa mga friends ko din para makatulong din ako in enlightening them about VUL.

[chinablue]

thanks sa feedbacks mga sis! I'm working abroad kasi, honestly, I don't know what to do with my savings kaya I just put it in the bank in the meantime. My account ako sa BPI, majority I enrolled in time deposit. I find it very convenient because I can monitor it online.

Right now I'm researching about other options. Di naman kasi forever na working abroad ako. This VUL thing interests me. Gonna read more on that.

[mayumiyumei27]

Pwede naman term insurance lang then get a separate mutual fund. Example, term life sa Insular life (meron silang good for 15yrs so no need to renew every year) + FAMI mutual fund. No offense sa mga taga Sunlife dito pero parang turtle sa bagal ang mutual fund nila.

aww... Opened VUL for me and my mom there. Kalungkot lol. Is there anyone here who've tried other VULs on other companies?

I've got money again and I'm having second thoughts to stash it in the bank kasi baka magastos ko lang agad (whenever I have money within reach, nangangati talaga kamay ko).

Pru Life UK? Is this really good?

Haay best of luck to me! 

[mxherr5]

^

Do you need more insurance?
VUL is a lifetime commitment, unless you have a single pay VUL,
even then, you have to make sure you leave it there for a longer
time just to break even with the charges.

Why don't you stash it in a UITF first?
First, they have no charges unlike VUL and mutual funds
Second, they have a short waiting period. BPI's UITF doesn't even
have a waiting period now.

But to answer your question, I've looked at Prulife. First when
I was purely looking for protection oriented VUL. I chose Sunlife.
because of their relatively cheap charges.
Then when I was looking for a investment oriented VUL, I chose
Insular, primarily because they're performance rocks plus some
other stuff.

One upside of Pru's VUL is its flexibility. Super flexible.
You can do 1M life, 500k accident, 300k hospitalization, etc etc
You can mix and match riders and dictate what face amount you want them for.

Other VULs have limitations, like if you get accident riders, it has to be the
same amount as the base life insurance, etc.

That's the only Pro I can think of.

But its totally up to you! 

[anna]

^
Do you need more insurance?
VUL is a lifetime commitment, unless you have a single pay VUL,
even then, you have to make sure you leave it there for a longer
time just to break even with the charges.

Why don't you stash it in a UITF first?
First, they have no charges unlike VUL and mutual funds
Second, they have a short waiting period. BPI's UITF doesn't even
have a waiting period now.

what is a UITF? 

[anirazc anasor]

i met with an AXA-Metrobank broker today.. and i like it pero i am still looking at PhilAm-BPI offers naman, i inquire about there XpresPension.

ano bang dapat malaman para malaman mo na maganda ang insurance company na papasukan mo?? are there hidden charges, fees? so on so forth??

[textspeak!] pension mension above is payable for 5 years, with P35k annual premium..with guaranteed cash endowment of 6k from 6th to 15th year, 8k from 16th to 19th year and 108k on maturity on 20th year. plus variable accumulated cash dividend and guaranteed cash value and may free na kasama na rin syang death benefits...

[miksha]

can you shed more light on how XpresPension works?

[sis.cattleya]

try to research best insurance companies in the philippines and then ask for insurance advisors. talk to as many advisors as you can. if the advisor is nagmamadali to close the deal and not letting you go through with the proposal, magtaka na kayo. talking to several advisors may be too much of a hassle, medyo time consuming but from them, you can learn a lot about insurance and investing. wala pa naman bayad ang consultation ng mga advisors so grab the opportunity na. in summary, 3 quick tips from someone na nalito-lito rin nung una:  1) choose from top insurance companies. go to insurance commission website para makita nyo yung top 10 companies as well as yung companies na medyo nagkakaproblema although isa pa lang ata yun.pare-pareho lang naman sila ng ino-offer nagkakaiba lang sa payment ng premiums and sa terms. lahat sila maganda ino-offer. 2) choose advisor na service-oriented, customer-oriented and someone who truly practices after sale services. someone you want to be friend with, yung comfortable kayo sa kanya kasi you'll be like a family in the long run kasi siya yung maga-guide sa iyo til the end. someone who is trustworthy.  3) the advisor should be able to come up with not just 1 but 2-3 policies after financial analysis fact-finding para may pamimilian kayo. hindi naman yun isang upuan lang. take your time. wag din naman masyadong matagal. yung sakto lang. review all the policies na recommended ng mga advisors and yung meeting niyo with the advisors. sino ba yung advisor na magaling mambola, yung may concern talaga, or yung salita lang ng salita hindi ka pinakikinggan, yun mga ganun.  it's okay na magtanong sa mga nakakuha na ng policy but iba't iba naman tayo ng needs, ng savings, ng lifestyle, civil status, social status, health etc. just trust your instinct. you need to follow your heart when deciding the best policy  (whether term, whole life or VUL) for you and for your family because at the end of the day, it's your hard-earned money at stake.         

[lee2ziyan]

@cattleya, I did the same thing din.  may 2 akong friends na advisors from different insurance companies pero di ako sa kanila kumuha.  hindi dahil hindi ako nagtitiwala sa kanila kasi nagtaka ako nung ang prinopose nila na premium, sobrang taas.  kaya ko naman pero malaki pa rin.  then, I tried talking sa other agents.  wala naman masama, sabi mo nga.  sila yung nakapag-explain sa akin why they come up with those policies.  you really have to consider the insurance company, the policies, lalung-lalo na ang advisor.  magtataka kayo meron diyan na hindi kumukuha sa kamag-anak or kaibigan nila. 

[this_is_me]

i am always interested with investing and savings...

i started [textspeak!] i was 18. opened my own savings account. money from gifts and baon. when i started working at age 21, i learned about sss & philhealth and their importance. health insurance also (but this one is benefit from the company i was working)

this is also the time that i learned about insurance. i always think about my future. i always worry. hehe. because i want to improve my status in life. i dont want my children to experience my "paghihirap" in life. somehow, i want them to have a more comfortable life.

at age 22, i got my first insurance. with my little salary, i managed to pay quarterly. i also save 20% of my salary in savings account. i seldom go out with friends (im not naman anti-social, it's just, for me, going out=GASTOS)

now im 29. married. with 1 kid.
i have 2 participating insurance, savings, happiness, little worry. =)
im glad na todo tipid ako when i was younger, now i allow myself for twice a week date/dining out. i buy what i want. this is my time.

its true. save while your young. as we grow older, lahat mas mahal na. baka we cannot afford lalo na kung may anak na kasi dagdag expense.

[this_is_me]

in getting insurance, it should be you who will declare on how much premium you want to pay. it should be you who will decide on how much savings you want.

i always give my clients the decisions. its their money, its their savings.

[Aichusyu]

I am a saver by heart! 

My Pru Life Retirement Fund - I have a VUL just 10 years to pay and a forecasted 4M by retirement (compounding, low-high history rates) so that's money that I don't have to mind as much because it's one of my stable saving tool. I have only 500k insurance coverage together with it but that's ok as is because I'm still single, 26, and have a job at a relatively safe place.

I have a LIFE FUND (aka Emergency Fund-negative connotation eh!) that I store in a rollover time deposit. And also small amounts of money, CUSHION FUND, that I stash on my passbook with ATM for those "need cash asap" times, preventing me from tapping into my Life Fund.

Since I have some stable money, I am trying to throw my income in more fun and fast ways to grow! I'm looking into Mutual Funds by SunLife. My heart is telling me to go Balanced Fund (moderate) but my mind is all about Phil Equity Fund (risk)! Hahaha!

After that its all about my business venture with a network franchise dealing in suuuuper discounted groceries and household/electronic items tied up with online ticketing (international and domestic flight yehey!!) plus cellphone loading in one! This is specifically on the works pa!

What I'm saying is you need to balance everything to become successful! Having a Retirement fund is great, and this gave me a solid foundation so I can anchor myself while I grow my money more and more!

Financial blessings for you!!!!   

[adrian]

Ay sis, ganun din yung approach ko sa Sunlife, equities all the way 

The difference nga lang is sa mindset: I'm treating my Sunlife  Equity MF's as a sort of 5 year time deposit.

- First I chose equities for high possibility of gains( kaya nga the high-risk, diba)
- Then, I pick the back-end load option, so talagang 'mapipilitan' ako to keep the money in there (for 5 years) or else face surcharges (para bang penalty, kung iisipin mo) if I choose to take the money out early.

So, high risk nga, pero spread out over 5 years, balances out naman, in my opinion. Di ba?

It's money I can afford to put away now, like a delayed sahod,  deposit and forget while it works for me, awake or asleep. So far, in a little over a year, the money I already invested has gained about 14% in value.

Which bank will offer you that kind of interest rate, aber?

Goal ko for 2012 is almost there: 100,000 in Sunlife MF, then I let it work for me until 2016 or '17. Next year, same amount, pero in stocks naman. Inaayos ko pa kasi how to allot the money without straining the household budget -- which I plan out for a whole year, in advance.

[Aichusyu]

Thats so cool adrian! 

I am also committing 5 years to any Equity if mag open na talaga ako. Don't know yet about the back-end load option pero I'll note that, because I don't like losing money from penalty haha!

Thanks for the info!

[adrian]

You're welcome sis,

Sa Sunlife MF, there are 3 sales load  options:

A - front end - they take it off the top kaagad, so if you need to w/draw money, wala ka nang babayaran
B - back end - you have surcharges, but the closer you get to the maturity date, 5, 4,3, pababa ng pababa until I think you can get without any more charges in the 4th or 5th year
C - front end with redemption fee (if applicable)