Welcome to the news page of Creative Wealth Management, LLC. When you log in to look at your accounts, we hope you’ll stop by the news page to keep up to date with our events and activities.
The information provided here is intended to be educational and opinions presented are for general information only and should not be construed directly or indirectly, as an offer to buy or sell any products or investments mentioned herein. Please consult an insurance or investment professional regarding your own individual needs and situation.
Average Cost of Life Insurance -November 11, 2024
You must consider inflation when figuring out how much life insurance you need. Many more people have temporary life insurance needs that could be covered by term policies economically. Speaking to an expert about your life insurance needs can be a great move but you want to be an informed consumer. Factors like your gender, age and medical history, including any current or previous tobacco use, are going to have the biggest impacts.
Basic Life Insurance - August 15, 2024
Fortunately, many people have temporary needs for life insurance at certain times in their lives, and this is an inexpensive way to offer that specific type of protection. A term policy that will pay a benefit if something happens while you’re raising your kids or still paying off the mortgage might be sufficient. Basic insurance can also be used for other long-term debt aside from just a mortgage.
Average Cost of $500,000 Life Insurance Policy- August 15, 2024
The purpose of life insurance is to do the best job possible of making the survivors whole by replacing the financial contributions that would have been expected from the decedent. There are several ways to estimate your life insurance needs. You can do your own research or find tools online to get a ballpark estimate of your needs. There are also general rules of thumb, like multiplying your annual income by the number of working years you expect to have.
Life Insurance Costs- May 14, 2024
The first thing you will need to do before you can estimate the costs of life insurance is determine how much of it you need and for how long. The good news is that there are plenty of online calculators that can estimate costs, but their output is only as good as the input you give them. You will also want to have a basic idea of your overall health since insurance companies have different tiers, charging the “healthiest” people the least.
Retirement Savings- January 25, 2024
We live in a time where it’s harder than ever to see the forest through the trees, especially if the trees are literally on fire. The SECURE Act and SECURE 2.0 have more incentives for retirement and are also changing the default options for certain employees in a way that will help more people save. Typically, you want to take advantage of any matching you might have with a company plan; you could also open an IRA or Roth IRA, depending on your income.
Using Life Insurance as an Investment- January 24, 2024
Usually, the point of life insurance is to provide a death benefit; that’s its main purpose. Life insurance products can offer the benefits of lower risk on the investment side, but that will always come at a price, whether it is higher fees or limited potential upside above relatively low guaranteed rates.
Best Low Income Personal Loans- November 2, 2023
If you’ve never had any debt before and need to take a big loan, you won’t get the best rate. If you have a good credit history, though, you could. It can also help if you have a relationship with a bank or credit union. Sometimes, there could be more favorable rates for existing customers. In general, credit unions should not be overlooked. Many offer broad membership and have interest rates that are below banks.
Finding The Best Term Life Insurance Companies- October 4, 2023
If you need the highest death benefit for a given premium, term insurance will give you that; it's the most pure and easy-to-understand form of life insurance. If you're young and healthy and temporarily need a death benefit, term is the way to go. For example, you might need insurance until your kids are grown, your mortgage is paid off, or you may be investing elsewhere to make up the difference before the end of the term. This could also be a good use case for decreasing term policy.
Finding The Best Life Insurance for Parents- August 29, 2023
For seniors, though, we would usually be talking about a permanent policy, not a term. To provide liquidity for an estate or to make a surviving spouse whole. Sorry to break it to you, but everyone dies. There will always be final expenses, and one way of covering them is to have a smaller permanent policy or perhaps even a final expense policy. This could also be planned for without using insurance if we are just talking about the cost of a funeral, burial, etc.
401(k) vs. Life insurance- August 28, 2023
Everyone dies, and no one wants to talk about it, so conversations around life insurance are always uncomfortable. This, on top of the complexity of life insurance products on the market, can lead people with good intentions to purchase contracts they don’t fully understand that pay someone a high commission.
Should I buy Crypto Currency- April 2, 2023
No, cryptocurrencies aren’t an investment vehicle, and right now, there aren’t many investment vehicles like ETFs that base their price on specific coins. Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies with a decentralized ledger that can’t be edited post-transaction.
Expert Insight For Beginner Rental Property Investors- March 31,2023
You might find out that it's more complicated than you had expected or harder to break even and turn a profit; that pill would be a little easier to swallow if you start small than if you jump in completely blind. It also depends on your personality, access to capital and other personal or professional commitments. Whatever you think your maintenance cost will be, double it and try to figure out if you'd be able to manage that. Spending twice as much as you thought you would on maintenance is a real possibility, so tread carefully if that would sink your ship.
Finding the Best Life Insurance For Seniors- March 28, 2023
If your estate liquidity needs are relatively small, you may not need life insurance. When looking at life insurance earlier in life, typically, there are people depending on your income, and there could be something like a mortgage balance that you might want to be paid off in the event of your untimely death.
Finding the Best First-Time Credit Cards- March 22, 2023
Credit cards can be a great tool for building credit, purchase protection and rewards. Using them to pay for something you can't afford this month is a slippery slope that leads a lot of people into unmanageable debt.
Older Adults' Guide to Income Streams and Money Management in Retirement- December 9, 2022
Finding ways to continue to earn money can be very powerful in retirement, especially if you can delay taking social security and increase your base for it. When you retire, you'll need to figure out how to spend your time. There could be things you can do that don't feel like work, things that you would have never considered your "career", but things that can help get your retirement meaning and make it mathematically possible.
How to Start Saving and Investing - November 11, 2022
Money and investing share a lot in common with diet and exercise, so much of it is tied to behavior. Making small modifications, you can stick with will give you a better chance at success than something like a fad diet or some program to get your perfect body in 30 days.
Check out the recent Redfin article we were featured in:
Inflation and House Prices: What Homebuyers, Sellers, and Renters Need to Know- June 1, 2022
Prices are up almost everywhere – from food, to gas, to home prices. In February 2012, the nationwide price of a house in the U.S. was $160,000. More than ten years later, that number is up to a record $412,000. Homes in markets like Seattle, WA, regularly face bidding wars, while nationwide, nearly 6,000 have sold for $100,000 or more above asking price this year. Home prices have been steadily rising for years, but they have dramatically increased in recent months. Why?
How Life Insurance Can Help With Estate Planning - March 31, 2022
It depends a little bit on your situation, but if people depend on your income it's incredibly important for them to have a way to replace it should something happen to you. There are lots of insurance products out there, some of them include investments and build-up cash value while others don't. If you have multiple professionals for insurance, investment, tax, and legal considerations, it's probably a good idea for all of them to be communicating with each other. You may have a great advisor, a great attorney and a great accountant, but a bad plan if they're not all on the same page.
How to Build Income Streams In Retirement- March 31, 2022
Redefine Retirement, maybe you're retiring from your career, but that doesn’t have to mean stopping any sort of gainful employment. Finding ways to continue to earn money can be very powerful in retirement, especially if you can delay taking social security and increase your base for it.
Smart Spending In Retirement- December 23, 2021
How much should retirees withdraw annually and from what accounts should they draw income first? What is the best strategy to ensure that retirement funds last? What are the worst retirement moves for retirees, contrary to popular belief? What are the biggest retirement regrets?
Beginner's Guide to Credit Card Basics- How Credit Cards Work- November 5, 2021
What are a few credit card myths people shouldn't believe? What should they do instead?
Rising rates means 2% interest on savings could be 'new normal'- January 14th, 2018
If the Fed continues to raise rates, The downside: Lenders are likely to charge more for all loans, says Solomon. Know too, that " long-term bonds are in more jeopardy as the Fed rises rates. They are more unstable in a rising interest-rate environment," says Michael Kresh, chief investment officer with Creative Wealth Management in Islandia. So what should you do? Play defense
