Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/630222
The Art of Manliness Continued JOBS for TEAMS | 24 www.jobsfor teams.com coma, make that decision yourself with a living will and a health care surrogate designation (the person who gets to call the shots when you're incapable of doing so). 5. Consider term life insurance. When you're in your 30s, you're starting to build up a financial foun- dation that permits you to give your family comfort and security. But what would happen if you died tomorrow? Would your family still be able to live comfortably or would they be scram- bling to figure out how to make ends meet because you're no longer around to provide for them?Take a step to ensure your family is taken care of by purchasing term life insurance. It's key that you make sure the life insurance policy you get is term life insurance. There's another type of life insurance out there called cash value or whole life policies that are much more expensive and confusing; it lasts for your entire life, and you have to pay into it until you die. With term life insurance, on the other hand, you pay a monthly premium for a set term (could be 10, 20, or 30 years). If you die within the term, the insurance company will pay out a specified amount to your beneficiaries. So for example, if you bought a $500,000, 20-year term life in- surance policy, if you kicked the bucket 10 years after purchasing the policy, your wife (or whoever you set as the beneficiary) will get $500,000 from the insurance company. Most people don't buy life insur- ance because they think it costs too much. But as financial planner Jeff Rose wrote in a previous post: "Not true! A healthy 35-year-old man can get $500,000 of term insurance for 20 years for the price of 6 Double- Doubles per month at In-N-Out Burger. While you won't get the same immedi- ate gratification when making the pay- ment, you can rest assured that your family is taken care of." And what if you outlive the term of the policy? Well, congratulations! You're still alive. That's great news. Hopefully, you've been saving enough during that time that you'll have so much money that you won't need another insurance policy to take care of your loved ones after you die of old age. 6. Start a 529 plan for your kids. I don't know what the future of higher education is going to be. Perhaps in the next 15 years, people will be able to get a college educa- tion for free online, or maybe college tuition will keep increasing at a rate of 5% each year. I'm hoping for the former, but banking — quite liter- ally — on the latter. As soon as each of my kids were born I set up a 529 college savings account for them to which I now make regular monthly contributions. While you can't write off the amount you contribute to a 529 on your taxes, the interest the account generates is tax free. So if Ju- nior's plan earns $10,000 in interest, you don't have to pay taxes on that $10,000 when he starts withdrawing money to pay for school. If your child decides not to go to college, you can re-assign the account