How much does term life insurance cost?

Out of curiosity I was looking at life insurance prices. Currently right now I pay for supplemental insurance through my employer.

I did a google search for insurance quotes and came up with the site Quick Quote. They give quick quotes on term insurance for a number of providers and they do not require an address or phone number. So I could easily get quotes based on age and basic health details. I don't like to get quotes from a site that won't tell you anything without your phone number and address because if they want that info it means to me that they'll be sending you stuff in the mail or having salespeople call you at home.

Anyway, I did some quotes on Quick Quote and came up with the following prices for one provider. So below are some quotes to give a basic idea of the costs for term insurance.

For a 30 year old male in good health, the annual rates from ING are for the policy amounts of $100k to $1m and for term lengths of 10,20 or 30 years :

	10 years	20 years	30 years
$100k	$96	$127	$159
$250k	$102.50	$147	$248
$500k	$155	$245	$445
$1 M	$250	$420	$800

And for a 40 year old male in good health the rates from ING were:

	10 years	20 years	30 years
$100k	$109	$160	$231
$250k	$127.50	$198	$335
$500k	$205	$345	$620
$1 M	$330	$610	$1,180

Keep in mind that these are just example quotes from one provider. Your exact age and health condition would impact your rates up or down from these numbers. If you are a smoker then your rates will be significantly higher. A 40 year old smoker would pay $1595 for a 20 year $500k policy compared to $345 for a non-smoker. ING was usually among the cheapest providers quoted but other providers were cheaper for some policies.

I don't know anything about ING insurance or the Quick Quote site. I'm not endorsing either of those services. I'm just using them for convenience to get an idea of rates for term life insurance. If you are interested in term insurance I'd recommend you shop around yourself to find a provider that meets your individual needs for a reasonable price.

BMG Music Club is a good deal

Joining the BMG Music club is a good deal. Their initial membership offer gives you 12 CDs for the price of 1. When you sign up you get 7 CDs for free first and then after you buy your 1 full price CD you get 4 more free CDs. The full price CD will run you around $20 usually and then $2.79 shipping is added per CD. So the total for buying the 1 CD and shipping on all 12 would run you around $54. This comes out to a rate of $4.50 per CD.

OK so what is the catch you might ask? The only real catch for BMG is that they will automatically send you their selection of the month unless you specifically decline it. This means that eventually you'll probably miss the deadline to reject a selection and you'll end up with a CD in the mail that you didn't want and a bill for about $23. So if you decide to join the club and then stay in it for any length of time its important to make sure you decline the selections of the month assuming you don't want to purchase it.

The initial offer for new members on BMG is the best deal. After you've bought your 1 CD at full price and gotten all your free CDs from the 12 then you are free to quit the club if you want. However if you stay in the club you can take advantage of their normal member deals. BMG frequently offers buy 1 get 2 free or get 70% off type deals. Right now the Christmas sale at BMG is get 5 for the price of 1 offer. Regular club prices are about $19-24 per CD generally. Buy 1 get 2 free comes out to about $10 per CD. Get 5 for 1 is about $7.50 per CD.

BMG is always sending members an offer for a sale. In the past 3 months I've gotten offers from BMG for the following sales: Buy 1 get 4 free Halloween sale, get 5 for the price of 1 Christmas sale, an 80% off sale, Buy 1 and pay 99¢ per CD sale, and a CDs for $3.99 sale. The 5-for-1, 80% off sale and $3.99 sales come out to about $7.50 range per CD with shipping added. The Buy 1 and get additional CD's for 99¢ sale would be a good deal if you were buying a large number of CDs. For 10 CDs that sale would average about $5.90 per CD and for 20 CDs it would be about $4.85 per CD. BMG has frequent sales and the sales prices are good deals for new CDs.

So if you are a music lover that buys a fair amount of CDs then consider joining the BMG music club. Its a good way to save on new CDs. Just remember to decline the selection of the month.

Historical price of silver

Previously I discussed the historical price of gold. Generally people think of gold as an investment more than silver. But silver is a precious metal and can be bought as an investment just the same as gold. A relative of mine bought some silver as an investment during the boom in the 1970's and it took decades for the price to return to the level that he paid. Today I'll look at how the price of silver has varied over the years.

The Silver Institute has a history of the price of silver. They discuss why silver went up and down over the years and go into detail about a large boom and bust in silver prices around the 1970's and 1980's. The history they give is an interesting read and I'd recommend checking it out if you're interested.

As I write this in November 2008, spot silver is trading for about $10 an ounce. Earlier this year silver peaked over $20. The Kitco website has historical data on silver prices.

Here is a chart of silver prices for the past 100 years:

The following chart shows the price of silver from 1965 to 2008:
[edit additional] Note:  The numbers shown in the graphs above are the annual average prices.   This graph is meant to show long term trends in silver prices and not short term fluctuation.  The annual high and low prices are not shown.

From 1908 to 1965 silver didn't go up too much. Silver was commonly used to make coins. In the USA our nickels, dimes and quarters were made of silver up until 1964. This kept the price of silver fairly steady since it was tied directly to the value of currency.

After 1965 silver started to go up in value. From 1965 to 1979 silver rose from $1.29 an ounce to over $21 an ounce. For that 14 year period it had an annual average growth rate of 22%. Then the boom busted and by 1985 silver was down to under $6 an ounce. From 1979 to 1985 silver dropped at an average annual rate of -20%. Silver started another boom around 2004. From 2003 to 2008 silver climbed from less than $5 to over $20 at its peak. From 1965 when silver was $1.29 to its current price of about $10 silver has had an annual average increase of about 5%.

Silver has had a couple large booms and busts. The price has been very volatile. Overall as an investment silver has not performed very well. Given the high risk due to volatility you would be much better off investing in stocks or real estate.

Best of Blog posts for the week of November 14th

Lazy Man discusses supplemental newborn screening and How $100 Could Save Your Child’s Life

Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity posts a humorous SNL skit video titled: Don’t Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford

Jim also posts about a bunch of Holiday Photo Deals where you can get discounts on photo items bought online such as calendars and greeting cards.

JD at Get Rich Slowly discusses home loans and the debt to income ratio in : The Debt-to-Income Ratio: How Much House Can You Afford?

My Money Blog writes about a Coinstar Promo: $40 in Coins = $50 in Gift Certificates where you can get an extra $10 gift certificate on Coinstar machines when cashing in $40 in coins. There is no fee when you get the gift certificates.