Hot Pepper Fudge!

Every year I make fudge for my family, but it's not the fudge that most folks remember from their youth.  My Christmas fudge gives you a little more flavor than that plain old stuff that they sell in the candy store!

Some people love it and some hate it but if you are a chili head, nothing is better than hot pepper fudge.  I've listed the recipe below, feel free to add more peppers or to change the type of pepper you use.

I hope you enjoy this ... Merry Christmas Everyone!



HOT PEPPER FUDGE

3 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 12-oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 7-oz. jar Marshmallow creme
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine sugar, margarine and milk in heavy saucepan; bring to full rolling bail, stirring constantly. Continue boiling 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly. Using a candy thermometer make sure the temperature reaches 234 degrees. 

Remove from heat, stir in chocolate till melted, add marshmallow creme, hot pepper and vanilla.

Beat till blended. Pour into greased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Let cool and cut into 1-inch squares.

Enjoy!

J

Can you really name your own price on auto insurance?

So the lady in the strange white room says "tell us what you want to pay, and we'll design a policy to fit."  Wow, does that sound crazy to anyone else?  Can I really just tell the insurance company want I want to pay and they'll give me the coverage I need to fit that price?  Well then sign me up and I'll pay $1 a year!

Of course this idea is just a sales gimmick that is kind of dangerous.  Young people with little experience will hear that message and think that it is true.  They'll call in and name their own price and end up with the state minimum (which is no where near enough) coverage.

Liability covers the other driver if you cause an accident or it is deemed to be your responsibility.  So if you slide through a red light on icy roads this winter and hit another driver causing them bodily injury, it is your liability insurance that will cover their injuries.  If you don't have enough to cover their injuries they can sue you for the rest.  The average cost for just for a broken leg is over $8,000 if it were serious enough to have to be air-evaced to a bigger hospital the bill for the chopper ride could be $15,000 to $20,000 with out the original ER visit or the bill from the hospital that you are being flown to. 

So the point is ... you need liability limits of at least 100,000 per person for bodily injury, and that is what I would consider the bare minimum.  You need to let your insurance agent know what your assets are and you income so they can provide you with the best advice about how much liability to have on your vehicles. 

Oh and NO ... you can't name your own price, that's just silly!

The Perfect gift!

I'm always looking for the perfect gift and with 5 women in my family it isn't easy.  Is it in style?  Will it fit right?  Is it the right color?  Did her best friend just get one like it?  The wrong answer to any of these questions will render the gift a failure and probably doom it to be re-gifted to a lower level friend in the very near future. 

So, what can you get that your daughters, granddaughters and wife will love?  Well they may not love it now but a life insurance policy on a young woman will greatly help her in the future.  If you secure a whole life policy for them while they are young you are making sure that they will have life insurance at a reasonable price for their whole lives.  That's not something that you think about until the insurance guy tells you that because of your age we have to charge you a bucket load of premium for a small policy. 

Fact is that the younger you are the cheaper it is to insure your life and once you own the policy it doesn't matter what your health is as you age.  That policy will be there when you need it most.  I know a lot of supposed experts are saying that you should never buy whole life insurance (they say buy term and invest the difference) but when you can get a $50,000 policy for $16 - $20 a month on a young person and lock in that price for the rest of their lives why won't you?  You're not going to invest the $6 or so that you'll save with a term policy and the term policy will increase in cost throughout their lives.

There are a lot of reasons to buy a whole life policy for the young people in your life but the most important is that you will assure them of affordable coverage for all their lives!  This is just the right size, the right color, it's always in style and it will give them and their family benefits for decades to come.  No, it's not the prettiest or flashiest but you buy them that stuff all year long, for Christmas get them something that they will thank you for on their 40th birthday!

Good luck Shopping!

What's the Cheapest Life Insurance?

I hear this question a lot, and it is a easy question to answer.  It's the life insurance that you buy when you are young, healthy and don't need it.  So what do you do if you've let the years slip by and find yourself in need of a policy to protect your family?  I'll give you the short and simple answer.

Straight annual renewable term, which renews automatically each year and is based on your age.  But if you are getting up there in age this quickly becomes too expensive.  This type of term is the cheapest if you are talking about right now.

Traditional whole life which builds cash value and eventually begins paying it's own premiums when purchased for a young person will be the cheapest when they are older because the cost never goes up and it will have value to use later.

But my favorite cheap life insurance is the FREE kind!  It's called Return of Premium term.  The name says it all, it is a term policy that lasts for 20 or 30 years and if you die during that time your heirs get the death benefit but if you live (which most are hoping to do) you get all your premium back (tax free).

Why doesn't everyone buy this option, you ask?  Well some financial experts (the next statement makes this sound funny) suggest it is smarter to buy the slightly less expensive term policy and invest the difference between the two.  Hhhhhmmmm?!?!?!?  Sounds good except you are not guaranteed to even make back what you invest let alone enough to pay for the life insurance and still come out ahead.  Why not buy the Return of Premium policy and in 20 years have a lump sum to invest (guaranteed) and have protected your family all along the way?

So, what's the cheapest life insurance? Free!

J

How big of a tax bill are you leaving for the kids & grandchildren?

Do you think about this?  I do ... what will Uncle Sam take from my children's inheritance?  How much of my legacy will be lost to taxes?  Do you really want your heirs to lose the money that you have set aside for them?  No, of course not but have you spent a couple of hours to plan a strategy for helping them keep more of what you leave behind?

Here are two quick ideas to help you plan for giving ALL of your legacy to your heirs.  These are just a starting point, you need to speak to your insurance professional to personalize them and see if they will work for you.

First, if you have a lump sum of money that you want to leave to your grandchildren or you kids, lets say you have $10,000 in the bank that you got from the sale of your Great Aunt's home when she passed away.  You figure that you will hold on to it in case you need it but once you are gone you want the Grand kids (let's say you have two) to get enough to buy a car or put down on a small home.  $5,000 is not a bad amount ... and you are not risking it in the stock market so you leave it in the bank and put in your will that they get it when you are gone.  But when you pass away they will have to what for the probate process to be completed.  Then if there are no other liens on the estate they will at least be charged income tax (about 25%) and Indiana inheritance tax (5%).  This means they will both get about $3,500 after those taxes are satisfied. 

Okay let's change one part of this example, let's say that you buy a single premium life insurance policy with the $10,000, this will buy your heirs about $19,444 (assuming you don't use tobacco are age 65, female and in pretty good health) in death benefit when you pass away.  Which means that each grandchild will get $9,722 with no income tax or Indiana inheritance tax and they will get their money right away regardless of thee probate process or any additional liens on the estate.  So your two grand kids will get over 2 & 1/2 times the money.

Now, the second example is if you have 100 acres that you are leaving to your 3 children.  Let's say the fair market value of that 100 acres is $7,500 an acre ... you see where I'm going with this right?  You add the value of the land the value of the home the other assets and soon your children have a pretty big tax bill. 

If you spend a few hours with your insurance professional you will know what that tax figure will look like and you can take out a life insurance policy that will give your children the funds they need to pay the tax bill without having to sell off pieces of the family farm at a time when they are morning the loss of a parent.

Every one's situation is different but by planning ahead you can leave even more  for your heirs and really reduce the tax burden that they will face in the wake of your passing.  One note though ... the earlier in life that you start the process the less it will cost you, both of these options require you to be insurable and under the age of 80.

Here are some online calculators to help you figure out what you will need to pass on all you have worked so hard to get.

http://www.infarmbureau.com/website/general/resourcesTools.aspx

J

What if ?

In the insurance business you tend to spend a lot of time asking "what if".  None of the fun questions that you asked yourself when you were a teenager.  When I was a teen I asked myself  "what if'", I had a million dollars ... or ... what if I asked her on a date ... what if I became a famous rock star?  No, the questions I ask of myself now are more like, what if you have an accident ... what if you had a fire ... what if you died tonight? 

That's my job, asking myself and my clients, what if?  I am forced to think about the future in a way that most people don't want to think about it.  This makes me an unpopular guy in the moment I ask a client "what if", and they are not ready to consider "what if".  But these big looming questions exist whether I ask them or not and the answers will plague my clients with a great deal of sorrow.

One area that is most uncomfortable is the "what if" that surrounds our children.  What if they crash the car?  What if they hurt someone?  What if they get hurt?  What if they die?  No one ever wants to look at these possibilities, but I speak with parents everyday that have had these questions answered for them in the aftermath of a personal disaster.  Many of these parents had not asked the question before hand and they were caught off guard by an accident.  I want to take just a moment to discuss the most difficult of these questions and illuminate the answer to a question you never want to ask.

Lets imagine that you have a teenager who is in college, maybe Ball State or Indiana State University.  You want them to learn the ethics that makes the Midwest famous so you have them work and take out loans to pay for their college.  Lets imagine that it is working, you have a great kid who is in their 3rd year and has an A- or B+ ... they work they go to school and study, they don't drink and drive and they are very responsible.
But it is Wednesday night and your child is on their way to work, they just aced a test and are feeling good about the world, when BAMM!  They are Tee boned by a drunk driver that ran the light.  Your child is pronounced dead on arrival but not before being life lined to Indianapolis.  On the day after the worst day of your life you will realize that your child will never get to use the education that you will now have to pay for, not to mention the thousands of dollars that will be owed to the medical units that worked on them trying to save their life.

How will you pay for those things?  Will you make payments?  A monthly reminder of that day for 3 years, 5 years? 10 years?  This is not a pleasant thought but it is a thought I want to have now rather than later.  Imagine the worse case scenario now and you'll avoid the pain of discovery if you every have to exercise the contingency plans made while asking "what if?".

This is a simple contingency plan, once your son or daughter starts a college program, figure the final debt load they will have upon graduation if they are attending a state university and borrowing half of what is needed then perhaps $30,000 in term life insurance to cover their note.  Just a few dollars a month while they are in school will save you from ever having to make a payment on a loan for your child's unused education.
This is one "what if" that no one should ever have to experience, if you do ... make sure it is not made worse than the horror it already is and make sure their debt is covered.

J

PS: What college costs in Indiana http://www.collegecosts.com/HotTopics/IndianaCollegeCosts/tabid/102/Default.aspx

What is Full Coverage Anyway?

Ever wonder what all full coverage on your auto covers? If the law only requires liability, then why pay more for full coverage? Well, it all comes down to this ... what do you need to protect and how much are you whiling to pay?

Auto insurance is like most other types of insurance, the more bells and whistles to more it will cost you. At base the liability portion of your auto policy is the most important. But it has the most limited coverage.
Liability covers you from your family's mistakes. For example if your teenage son dropped his cell phone while trying to text and he rams the Smart car in front of him when he ducks down to pick it up. That would probably be his fail (or in the eyes of a potential lawsuit, your fault) so the Smart car driver would be entitled to you paying his medical bills. If you don't have liability coverage equal to or greater than his medical bills he would possibly sue you for the difference. Liability coverage will cover litigation and damages for the other driver if it is your fault.
Comprehensive (Comp for short) pays for damage done to your auto by flying rocks or missiles, falling objects, fire, theft, larceny, explosion, earthquake, windstorm, hail, water, flood, malicious mischief, vandalism, riot, civil commotion, and hitting or being hit by an animal. This usually has a deductable that you are responsible for before the damage is paid for by your policy.
Collision pays for damage to your vehicle caused by collision (I know, it sounds too simple but that's it!). This also has a deductable that you are responsible for before the damage is paid for by your policy.
Now full coverage is liability plus comprehensive and collision, all in the same package. It covers those around you that may be hurt by your mistakes and it covers the physical damage to your vehicle. But, full coverage on your auto won't pay for maintenance or any damage from lack of maintenance. Full coverage does not necessarily include towing or rental car, so be sure and ask about those. If your vehicle is more than ten years old you should check out it's value, because your insurance company will only pay you up to the value of the vehicle at the time of loss. So if it would take $10,000 to repair your car but it is only worth $2,000, you would get a check for $2,000 and the insurance company would get the wrecked car to salvage (that's what they mean by totaled out).
The most important part of your auto policy is the agent, because he is the one that will help you find what coverage is right for you, and he (or she) will be there to explain coverage when there is a loss. Make sure to buy liability limits that are high enough to protect your assets because sometimes just being legal for less isn't enough.