How to Make Smart Financial Life Decisions

a white and black calculator

Who wouldn’t want to make better financial decisions in life? Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a crystal ball that can tell you which decisions are good and which should be thought out more at any given moment. In fact, the only thing you can be sure is a good investment is yourself. Investing in your education can give you the skills needed to analyze financial options better and set you up for a great future career. If you’re looking for something in high demand, why not look into how to become a cyber security specialist?

If you’re worried that this will take too much time, don’t be. You can complete an intro cybersecurity course and receive your certificate in as little as 14 weeks if you study full-time. You can also earn a cybersecurity certificate in 24 weeks if you study part-time while working your current job. Becoming a full cybersecurity specialist will require additional coursework, of course, but you can get there without completing a bachelor’s degree. There are plenty of computer science fields outside of cybersecurity as well, and learning some hard skills in information technology is a good idea to make you a stronger candidate for all kinds of jobs in this world of big data and digital transformations.

Another great way you can invest in yourself, and your family is with life insurance. You may not think you need a life insurance policy until you’re older and have children but think again. It’s easier to work with an insurance company and get a policy with a higher coverage amount while you’re still young and in good health, and you’ll likely have no trouble with the medical exam that most traditional insurance companies require. If this has piqued your interest, then here are the most common insurance products you should be considering.

Term Life Insurance

img

As the name suggests, term life will guarantee a death benefit to your beneficiaries if you pass before an agreed-upon period of time is up. When the term runs out, you’ll have the option to renew it or convert it to a form of permanent life insurance. If you let the policy lapse, and you pass while your term insurance is inactive, your beneficiaries will receive no death benefit.

These policies generally offer the lowest rates available, so they’re great for people starting out who can’t afford other policies yet. Term insurance is also good for any unique situation where you just need to reach a financial goal in the near future. Check out some term life insurance quotes online to see what’s available.

Whole Life Insurance

Whole life is a form of permanent life insurance that accrues cash value in addition to providing a death benefit. You can speed the collection of cash value by paying your monthly premiums in advance. If you need to, you can make withdrawals from your cash value or borrow against it. Just be careful that you don’t take too much, as doing so will eat into your death benefit. Also, borrowing money from one of these policies is like a traditional loan—you’ll need to pay it back with interest.

Variable Life Insurance

img

These policies seek to strike a balance between term life and permanent life insurance. They offer a lower monthly premium, similar to term life, but they also have an investment component in addition to the death benefit. Cash value is built and invested in subaccounts that act similarly to mutual funds.

If you want to take out your need for life insurance and your financial need to start investing in one move, this can be a great option. Just bear in mind that market changes can be difficult to predict, and you can lose your cash value if the market crashes.