Among many stories about those who have benefited from cash value life insurance, my family and I have enjoyed massive benefits in our finances.
I’ll spare you all the details, but suffice it to say for nearly 11 years I participated in the stock market and mutual funds like the average investor. In short, after over a decade, I had less money than I had put in. Like many of you, that strategy simply did not work for me.
Since then I’ve followed a different philosophy. Never lose money. Almost every wealthy individual I’ve ever met or learned about was driven by keeping money safe, reducing risk, and making smart decisions. It’s never uncalculated, and it’s never out of their control.
In fact, one of the greatest investors of our day, Warren Buffett, subscribes to a similar mentality. When it comes to investing, he’s quoted as saying, “Rule number one is never lose money. Rule number two is never forget rule number one.”
Just watch the TV series “Shark Tank” for 5 minutes and you’ll understand how the wealthy look at risk. These billionaire investors pass up opportunity after opportunity waiting for home run deals. I call the risk they take “smart risk” and I’ll explain why in a bit.
In 2008 the markets took another huge dive. It’s a common characteristic of the market to have massive setbacks, but this one was devastating. Some have said it was the worst since the Great Depression.
While everyone was in a panic, I had not lost a penny. I had my money safely tucked away inside my cash value life insurance policies. I was safely growing my money, unaffected by the changes in the markets.
As more and more people struggled with losses, there became more and more opportunity for those of us that had access to money.
After waiting patiently, I found the perfect opportunity to invest in two real estate properties. Just like many of the stories I’ve shared, I borrowed from my cash value policies and paid for the properties in full. I purchased them for same price they sold for in 1984, nearly 25 years earlier.
Now fast forward 3 years. Those properties have more than tripled in value, and I’ve recouped my entire investment from rental income alone. A handsome reward for patience and smart, calculated risk taking.
I stuck by my rule: never lose money. While that can’t always be guaranteed, the absolute worst case scenario I could think of was breaking even on my investment. There was a lot of upside potential, and seemingly little downside. It was risk worth taking.
I consider myself very fortunate to have learned about cash value life insurance and to have used it so heavily in my life. I’ve been blessed to avoid so many of the pitfalls and disasters that plague the vast majority of hard working Americans. Greed has shaped the investment community, rigging the game against the individual investor (you and me). I’ve witnessed it first hand. As pretty a picture as they have painted, the financial industry is unraveling quickly, and people experiencing the market roller coaster are looking for a better way to handle their finances. I urge you to take serious consideration to what I’m about to teach you, and how you can adapt these principles into your finances.