Traditional families in the past have their fathers working and their mothers staying at home to raise their children and teach them good values. From a financial standpoint, it would seem sufficient in raising a family. At that time, everyday costs weren’t as high as it is today. Nowadays even though both parents working, many families across the USA can barely stay financially afloat.
In the book by author and founder of the Infinite Banking Concept, Nelson Nash, titled “Becoming Your Own Banker,” asks these questions: “Could it be there’s no money at work? What happens if you get back every dollar you put in? Would you ever object to putting more money into it?”
What is the Book About?
The book is for people who want to use infinite banking (other terms like private family banking or lifestyle banking are used the same way) for their own purposes. It is structured more like a guidebook than a traditional book. The author provides useful examples and pieces of advice that can assist you in applying them in your daily life.
How the Author Developed the Infinite Banking Concept
As the pioneer and founder of the Infinite Banking Concept, Nelson Nash was a highly educated and interesting man with vast experience in many fields like life insurance, real estate, and banking. When you see things from his viewpoint, you will come to understand how he was able to develop the Infinite Banking Concept.
He had one such challenging experience that impressed upon him his entire understanding of finance and was instrumental in shaping his outlook on it.
In the 1980s, he got himself into a financial crisis where he had to pay twenty-three percent interest for a property worth five-hundred thousand dollars. He had to look for another alternative.
He discovered that in a particular whole life insurance policy, he could borrow against its cash value component since its policy loans have much less interest paid. The amount of money being borrowed as a policy loan had technically no limits, and the only thing he had to make sure of was the built-in cash value was as high as possible.
He then had to alter his financial system so that he could pay more for whole life insurance premiums, which in turn, afforded him a large amount of cash value.
He was eventually successful in this endeavor, and thus the general idea of borrowing cash against a cash value component of a whole life insurance policy was born, which was then called the Infinite Banking Concept.
Becoming Your Own Banker: What Does it Mean?
“Becoming your own banker” is a self-explanatory statement, which refers to a system allowing you to use lifestyle banking in building up your cash value. It enables you to take cash out of borrowed money from your life insurance policy rather than going to financial institutions for the same type of service. This concept will only work if the rate you will need to pay for the loan is lower than the rate you will be paying to someone or somewhere else to borrow cash.
What Does Lifestyle Banking Mean?
Infinite or lifestyle banking means strategically using your life insurance policy from an insurance provider as a personal endless banking system that allows you to get a new car, build wealth, pay for your vacation, earn interest, generate enough money for Wall Street investments, and earn financial peace.
Essentially, lifestyle banking means becoming your own banker, wherein you will take a loan against your own life insurance policy and make sure your premiums are paid. Doing this means you will never have to borrow money from financial institutions anymore.
However, this does not mean you’ve only changed the institution but rather, you are now borrowing from an insurance provider, and loaning from them has many advantages, like:
- It has lower interest rates
- It has no deadline to pay back the loan (if this will happen, it will take money from your cash value)
- The growth rate of its cash value remains uninterrupted and stable
With these in mind, your goal should be to become financially successful and pay for your own lifestyle, and to do so, you need to build the value of your own bank. It can be done by duplicating the process of repaying and lending cash stored in the cash value of a whole-life policy.
Benefits of Cash Value Life Insurance-based System
- You can have freedom from the constraints of financial institutions
- You don’t have to worry about the loan rate set by banks
- You have full control of your finances
- After becoming your own banker and mastering the system, it will become a routine
How Will Lifestyle Banking Work?
Here are three steps based on the book:
- To overfund (along with after-tax money) a high cash value whole life insurance policy from a life insurance provider
- A tax-free cash value accumulation throughout your entire tenure as a policyholder
- You will use tax-free loans against the cash value of your policy for your expenses
It will enable you to borrow funds against your cash value as you would borrow from a bank. In addition, you will also ensure your whole life insurance is earning dividends.
The life insurance company is on your side for this, and it is in their best interest that you have to apply for permanent life insurance, which you pay regularly. It will then increase the cash value balance over time. Due to cash value accumulation, you will be financially free and become your own banker.
Truths and Myths about Becoming your Own Banker
Truths
- You can become your own banker using life insurance as your own private bank, and this is called Infinite Banking Concept. Here are seven key benefits:
- It is for your own principal protection and growth every year
- It is for a tax-free advance of some of your death benefit if you become habitually sick
- It is for a competitive growth rate that won’t start with a decimal point
- It is for a tax-free death benefit over and above your position of equity
- It is for creditor protection in many US states
- It is for access to your equity for any reason at any age
- It is for tax-sheltered growth and tax-exempt distributions
- Policy design will matter in utilizing whole life insurance in becoming own banker. The insurance agent helping you set up the insurance policy must use a combination of optional riders and policy design features to grant strong cash growth to happen often and early. Designing whole life insurance this way will allow for quicker cash value growth and reduce agent commissions within the policy utilized for your own private family bank.
- When you pay your insurance provider a loan interest, they will continue crediting your whole life insurance policy with dividends and interests, which also happens in your loaned money.
Myths
- It is a bad investment to use the “becoming your own banker” concept for your whole life insurance. (false) It will only depend on how the policy is designed.
- You will pay back the interest when utilizing your whole life insurance for becoming your own banker. (false)
- You are better off just paying cash than borrowing against your whole life insurance policy to be your own banker. (false)
Conclusion
Nelson Nash expressly wrote this book for consumers like you to create your own banking system. For him, the ultimate goal is for you not to rely on banks and financial institutions anymore for capital. Instead, you will raise capital on your own and be financially independent.
To get the best and most sound financial advice, Jojo Alamillo is the financial adviser you will need. Here are his contact details:
Email – jojo@ascend99.com
Phone – 3124690016
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