[garysears]

Looks like I’m in the minority with my comfort being underinsured. I have tried to stay away from buying a policy that would mean my wife never would have to work again. Not because I dislike her. Maybe I really am too cheap and should consider more.

If I do get more I won’t tell her though since I don’t want to get knocked off. I can laugh about it but really, how well do I know her? Certainly for 2 million she wouldn’t have to worry about my stingy ways ever again. Even for 1 million she would probably be tempted.

[garysears]

I’m not an insurance expert. My basic philosophy is to separate needs from wants. When I was still single I determined my goal with life insurance was simply to not be a burden on anyone else if I were to die. I just wanted my revolving debt paid off and funeral expenses covered. I rejected thoughts about a potential windfall I might “gift” the family. Likewise, when the whole life peddlers came and I was unable to determine a significant benefit vs term insurance and investing the difference, I opted for term for the flexibility and simplicity. I am confident today that was a good choice.

Now that I am married with a child I am “underinsured” when the insurance sellers look at my situation. I was told by the USAA rep I should consider $1-$2 million. I only have 500k (SGLI plus a 100k term policy) but I am happy with that. I think 5x income is reasonable advice given your house is not upside down. If need be your wife could sell the house and downsize significantly.

For me, I am happy to have enough to pay off my soon to be mortgage, leaving over half as a cushion for my wife. With minimal housing cost she would be able to support herself on a low wage part time basis if required (we will have rental income with our property).

The ability to pay off the mortgage with some combination of savings and insurance is HUGE in my opinion. If she can drastically lower the monthly cash flow requirement by retiring the mortgage, your wife will have great flexibility financially.

[garysears]

I’m not an insurance expert. My basic philosophy is to separate needs from wants. When I was still single I determined my goal with life insurance was simply to not be a burden on anyone else if I were to die. I just wanted my revolving debt paid off and funeral expenses covered. I rejected thoughts about a potential windfall I might “gift” the family. Likewise, when the whole life peddlers came and I was unable to determine a significant benefit vs term insurance and investing the difference, I opted for term for the flexibility and simplicity. I am confident today that was a good choice.

Now that I am married with a child I am “underinsured” when the insurance sellers look at my situation. I was told by the USAA rep I should consider $1-$2 million. I only have 500k (SGLI plus a 100k term policy) but I am happy with that. I think 5x income is reasonable advice given your house is not upside down. If need be your wife could sell the house and downsize significantly.

For me, I am happy to have enough to pay off my soon to be mortgage, leaving over half as a cushion for my wife. With minimal housing cost she would be able to support herself on a low wage part time basis if required (we will have rental income with our property).

The ability to pay off the mortgage with some combination of savings and insurance is HUGE in my opinion. If she can drastically lower the monthly cash flow requirement by retiring the mortgage, your wife will have great flexibility financially.

[garysears]

I’m not an insurance expert. My basic philosophy is to separate needs from wants. When I was still single I determined my goal with life insurance was simply to not be a burden on anyone else if I were to die. I just wanted my revolving debt paid off and funeral expenses covered. I rejected thoughts about a potential windfall I might “gift” the family. Likewise, when the whole life peddlers came and I was unable to determine a significant benefit vs term insurance and investing the difference, I opted for term for the flexibility and simplicity. I am confident today that was a good choice.

Now that I am married with a child I am “underinsured” when the insurance sellers look at my situation. I was told by the USAA rep I should consider $1-$2 million. I only have 500k (SGLI plus a 100k term policy) but I am happy with that. I think 5x income is reasonable advice given your house is not upside down. If need be your wife could sell the house and downsize significantly.

For me, I am happy to have enough to pay off my soon to be mortgage, leaving over half as a cushion for my wife. With minimal housing cost she would be able to support herself on a low wage part time basis if required (we will have rental income with our property).

The ability to pay off the mortgage with some combination of savings and insurance is HUGE in my opinion. If she can drastically lower the monthly cash flow requirement by retiring the mortgage, your wife will have great flexibility financially.

[garysears]

I’m not an insurance expert. My basic philosophy is to separate needs from wants. When I was still single I determined my goal with life insurance was simply to not be a burden on anyone else if I were to die. I just wanted my revolving debt paid off and funeral expenses covered. I rejected thoughts about a potential windfall I might “gift” the family. Likewise, when the whole life peddlers came and I was unable to determine a significant benefit vs term insurance and investing the difference, I opted for term for the flexibility and simplicity. I am confident today that was a good choice.

Now that I am married with a child I am “underinsured” when the insurance sellers look at my situation. I was told by the USAA rep I should consider $1-$2 million. I only have 500k (SGLI plus a 100k term policy) but I am happy with that. I think 5x income is reasonable advice given your house is not upside down. If need be your wife could sell the house and downsize significantly.

For me, I am happy to have enough to pay off my soon to be mortgage, leaving over half as a cushion for my wife. With minimal housing cost she would be able to support herself on a low wage part time basis if required (we will have rental income with our property).

The ability to pay off the mortgage with some combination of savings and insurance is HUGE in my opinion. If she can drastically lower the monthly cash flow requirement by retiring the mortgage, your wife will have great flexibility financially.

[garysears]

I’m not an insurance expert. My basic philosophy is to separate needs from wants. When I was still single I determined my goal with life insurance was simply to not be a burden on anyone else if I were to die. I just wanted my revolving debt paid off and funeral expenses covered. I rejected thoughts about a potential windfall I might “gift” the family. Likewise, when the whole life peddlers came and I was unable to determine a significant benefit vs term insurance and investing the difference, I opted for term for the flexibility and simplicity. I am confident today that was a good choice.

Now that I am married with a child I am “underinsured” when the insurance sellers look at my situation. I was told by the USAA rep I should consider $1-$2 million. I only have 500k (SGLI plus a 100k term policy) but I am happy with that. I think 5x income is reasonable advice given your house is not upside down. If need be your wife could sell the house and downsize significantly.

For me, I am happy to have enough to pay off my soon to be mortgage, leaving over half as a cushion for my wife. With minimal housing cost she would be able to support herself on a low wage part time basis if required (we will have rental income with our property).

The ability to pay off the mortgage with some combination of savings and insurance is HUGE in my opinion. If she can drastically lower the monthly cash flow requirement by retiring the mortgage, your wife will have great flexibility financially.

[garysears]

I appreciate the ego boost patient. Truth is I am NOT smart, practically speaking. My life history so far includes a number of DUMB financial decisions and any real learning was done the hard way.

This site was the gateway for me to a basic financial education. I also visited thehousingbubbleblog for awhile but never posted. I currently spend a lot of time on Calculated Risk where I sometimes post as Not_Going_To_Post. I know you visit there. (really I intended to never post)

Besides Rich and his excellent primer and posts I learned a little from lots of posters here, enough to have confidence in my ability to evaluate potential properties. I am confident I will not have a cash flow problem with my purchase though only time will tell if I overpaid or not. Like most people I ended up paying a little more than my original target price.

I appreciate your insights as well. I know for a fact I take more than I give here.

[garysears]

I appreciate the ego boost patient. Truth is I am NOT smart, practically speaking. My life history so far includes a number of DUMB financial decisions and any real learning was done the hard way.

This site was the gateway for me to a basic financial education. I also visited thehousingbubbleblog for awhile but never posted. I currently spend a lot of time on Calculated Risk where I sometimes post as Not_Going_To_Post. I know you visit there. (really I intended to never post)

Besides Rich and his excellent primer and posts I learned a little from lots of posters here, enough to have confidence in my ability to evaluate potential properties. I am confident I will not have a cash flow problem with my purchase though only time will tell if I overpaid or not. Like most people I ended up paying a little more than my original target price.

I appreciate your insights as well. I know for a fact I take more than I give here.

[garysears]

I appreciate the ego boost patient. Truth is I am NOT smart, practically speaking. My life history so far includes a number of DUMB financial decisions and any real learning was done the hard way.

This site was the gateway for me to a basic financial education. I also visited thehousingbubbleblog for awhile but never posted. I currently spend a lot of time on Calculated Risk where I sometimes post as Not_Going_To_Post. I know you visit there. (really I intended to never post)

Besides Rich and his excellent primer and posts I learned a little from lots of posters here, enough to have confidence in my ability to evaluate potential properties. I am confident I will not have a cash flow problem with my purchase though only time will tell if I overpaid or not. Like most people I ended up paying a little more than my original target price.

I appreciate your insights as well. I know for a fact I take more than I give here.

[garysears]

I appreciate the ego boost patient. Truth is I am NOT smart, practically speaking. My life history so far includes a number of DUMB financial decisions and any real learning was done the hard way.

This site was the gateway for me to a basic financial education. I also visited thehousingbubbleblog for awhile but never posted. I currently spend a lot of time on Calculated Risk where I sometimes post as Not_Going_To_Post. I know you visit there. (really I intended to never post)

Besides Rich and his excellent primer and posts I learned a little from lots of posters here, enough to have confidence in my ability to evaluate potential properties. I am confident I will not have a cash flow problem with my purchase though only time will tell if I overpaid or not. Like most people I ended up paying a little more than my original target price.

I appreciate your insights as well. I know for a fact I take more than I give here.

[garysears]

I appreciate the ego boost patient. Truth is I am NOT smart, practically speaking. My life history so far includes a number of DUMB financial decisions and any real learning was done the hard way.

This site was the gateway for me to a basic financial education. I also visited thehousingbubbleblog for awhile but never posted. I currently spend a lot of time on Calculated Risk where I sometimes post as Not_Going_To_Post. I know you visit there. (really I intended to never post)

Besides Rich and his excellent primer and posts I learned a little from lots of posters here, enough to have confidence in my ability to evaluate potential properties. I am confident I will not have a cash flow problem with my purchase though only time will tell if I overpaid or not. Like most people I ended up paying a little more than my original target price.

I appreciate your insights as well. I know for a fact I take more than I give here.

[garysears]

I think for the low end the “flooding” of the market was 2007-2008 for REOs. I could be wrong but I am currently buying anyway, so I have placed my bet.

I also want to take the opportunity to vent about the REO process as I see it. In general it appears most lenders are not taking offers unless you use a predetermined lender of their choice to do the pre-approval. I don’t even know how this is legal but apparently it must be since it is the rule and not the exception. I played the game for one property but then decided I was done. If my current pre-approvals were not enough to get into escrow I wasn’t interested. Even with 2 current pre-approvals from different lenders, BofA still demanded I get a pre-approval from BofA. I refused and vowed to never do any business with them if I can avoid it. There is no reason I should have to have my credit run by a different company each time I simply want to make an offer.

My other observation: Fraud, Deceit, and Misrepresentation appear to be the norm for real estate transactions, at every level of the process. There is no transparency. There is no honest market.

End rant.

[garysears]

I think for the low end the “flooding” of the market was 2007-2008 for REOs. I could be wrong but I am currently buying anyway, so I have placed my bet.

I also want to take the opportunity to vent about the REO process as I see it. In general it appears most lenders are not taking offers unless you use a predetermined lender of their choice to do the pre-approval. I don’t even know how this is legal but apparently it must be since it is the rule and not the exception. I played the game for one property but then decided I was done. If my current pre-approvals were not enough to get into escrow I wasn’t interested. Even with 2 current pre-approvals from different lenders, BofA still demanded I get a pre-approval from BofA. I refused and vowed to never do any business with them if I can avoid it. There is no reason I should have to have my credit run by a different company each time I simply want to make an offer.

My other observation: Fraud, Deceit, and Misrepresentation appear to be the norm for real estate transactions, at every level of the process. There is no transparency. There is no honest market.

End rant.

[garysears]

I think for the low end the “flooding” of the market was 2007-2008 for REOs. I could be wrong but I am currently buying anyway, so I have placed my bet.

I also want to take the opportunity to vent about the REO process as I see it. In general it appears most lenders are not taking offers unless you use a predetermined lender of their choice to do the pre-approval. I don’t even know how this is legal but apparently it must be since it is the rule and not the exception. I played the game for one property but then decided I was done. If my current pre-approvals were not enough to get into escrow I wasn’t interested. Even with 2 current pre-approvals from different lenders, BofA still demanded I get a pre-approval from BofA. I refused and vowed to never do any business with them if I can avoid it. There is no reason I should have to have my credit run by a different company each time I simply want to make an offer.

My other observation: Fraud, Deceit, and Misrepresentation appear to be the norm for real estate transactions, at every level of the process. There is no transparency. There is no honest market.

End rant.

[garysears]

I think for the low end the “flooding” of the market was 2007-2008 for REOs. I could be wrong but I am currently buying anyway, so I have placed my bet.

I also want to take the opportunity to vent about the REO process as I see it. In general it appears most lenders are not taking offers unless you use a predetermined lender of their choice to do the pre-approval. I don’t even know how this is legal but apparently it must be since it is the rule and not the exception. I played the game for one property but then decided I was done. If my current pre-approvals were not enough to get into escrow I wasn’t interested. Even with 2 current pre-approvals from different lenders, BofA still demanded I get a pre-approval from BofA. I refused and vowed to never do any business with them if I can avoid it. There is no reason I should have to have my credit run by a different company each time I simply want to make an offer.

My other observation: Fraud, Deceit, and Misrepresentation appear to be the norm for real estate transactions, at every level of the process. There is no transparency. There is no honest market.

End rant.

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