If you haven?t done so already, calculate your net worth to assess how you did this past year.? Hopefully, you?ve grown your net worth, despite the stagnant stock markets through aggressive savings, retirement company matches, a diversified investment portfolio, rental property cash-flow, and an increase in your start-up?s value.
Wait, all you have is your savings?? Then you better start diversifying your income stream so you?re always moving forward, no matter how rough the economy.? Once you?ve calculated your net worth, make sure your life insurance levels equals this amount, especially if you have dependents, or a spouse who makes much less than you.? If you die, and want your loved ones to maintain a similar standard of living, consider matching your life insurance amount with your family?s net worth amount.
Some might not agree with this life insurance guideline and wonder whether it would be better to have insurance that equals a family?s debt level only.? Having enough life insurance to pay off all of your family?s debt is better than no life insurance at all.
If you?re single and have no dependents, do you really need life insurance?? Probably not.? If you die with a million bucks in debt, you?re living large!
Consider the Robinson family in San Francisco with two children ages 8 & 7:
* Wife (35) Income: $200,000
* Husband (34) Income: $60,000
* Savings Rate After Tax: 30%
* House Value: $900,000
* 401K/IRA: $500,000
* Cash: $100,000
* Personal Stock Portfolio: $100,000
Total Assets: $1,600,000 + $45,000 a year in savings each year they work.
* Recurring Private Education Cost: $25,000
* Mortgage: $500,000
* Consumer Debt: $20,000.
Total Liabilities: $420,000
Net Worth: $1,090,000 ? $30,000 a year for the next 15 years as their two kids finish high school and go to college.
Take a moment to consider the Robinson?s family situation.? How much life insurance should Mr. Robinson take out, and how much should Mrs. Robinson take out?
Mrs. Robinson?s Situation
Mrs. Robinson is clearly the breadwinner of the family.? If her income disappears, it?s up to Mr. Robinson to take on the $420,000 debt level, which is 7X his annual income.? Furthermore, after taxes, Mr. Robinson will only have about $42,000 left over, barely enough to cover the $30,000 a year in tuition!? In this scenario, is a $420,000 life insurance policy enough?? Probably not, since even after all debt is paid, Mr. Robinson would have to spend the majority of his salary on his kids tuition, buffered by the $100,000 in cash savings he can use penalty free.
With a $1,100,000 life insurance policy, Mr. Robinson can breathe much easier as he can use $420,000 to pay off all debt and have $670,000 left to pay for his kids education for 20 years and maintain his living situation without further disrupting his family.
Mr. Robinson?s Situation
If Mr. Robinson dies, the financial hit is not as great given his $60,000 gross income.? Mrs. Robinson?s $200,000 gross income can pay the $30,000 a year in tuition, an estimated $30,000 a year in mortgage costs at a 4% interest rate level, $10,000 a year in property tax, and $30,000 a year in food, clothing, and travel with $20,000 left over.
$20,000 left over for savings is still good, but will there really be $20,000 left over if Mr. Robinson is no longer around?? Unlikely, given Mr. Robinson had very flexible hours and was able to care for the kids while she worked late and sometimes on the weekends.? Mrs. Robinson needs help as a single mother, and the $20,000 goes towards paying for help.
Given Mrs. Robinson makes $200,000, she should have no problem paying the extra $50-$100/month for a $1.1 million life insurance policy vs. a $420,000 life insurance policy.
CONCLUSION
When you lose a spouse, the last thing you want to do is have more disruption due to your finances.? Are you really going to pull your kids out of school and away from their friends after their mother or father just died?? No.? The surviving spouse will be in mourning, and needs that life insurance policy as insurance that he or she can have as much time possible to figure things out.
If necessary absolutely necessary, the surviving Robinson parent can sell all assets to cover all liabilities and net roughly $1 million in cash after fees.? However, the family still needs a place to stay and go to school.
It?s foolish to be underinsured to save a nominal amount of money every month.? $420,000 worth of life insurance is better than zero in the Robinson?s case.? However, it?s best to simply match the life insurance amount for each spouse to the estimated net worth of the entire family.
To Review: * At a minimum, take out enough life insurance to cover all liabilities. * Consider taking out enough life insurance to match your family?s estimated net worth. * If you?re estimated net worth is small, consider the cost of getting life insurance equal to 5X-10X the highest income earner. * Check your company policy. Many employers will offer anywhere from a 1-5X base salary life insurance multiple. If you want more, you just have to elect and pay. * Protect your assets by taking out an umbrella policy, which covers liability beyond your car and house insurance policies.
Readers, how do you calculate how much life insurance to take?? Do you have life insurance?? If not, why?? How much life insurance do you have?
Third time's the charm for Ricky Gervais -- or is "three strikes, you're out" more appropriate? The comedian, who hosted the Golden Globe Awards for the third time on Sunday, says he had the time of his life... and that he's never doing it again.
Fujitsu M532 tablet is playing peek-a-boo with the rumor birds for one of its videos have been leaked suggesting this one could out with Android 4.0 ICS on board. Fujitsu isn?t exactly known for its tablets but it seems to break that perception with this tablet packed with a Tegra 3 chipset, display with 1280 x 800 pixels, 6GB of internal memory, a 3-megapixel camera in front and an 8MP shooter at the back. This one?s expected to arrive on shelves this May for price tag of around $630 but we are yet to see any concrete dope on this one.
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Actual score on @scoremobile NCAA bball scores: Western Carolina 141 Toccoa Falls 39. #isthatright?Il y a environ 13 heuresvia UberSocial for BlackBerry
Fan-made video for 'The Kids From Yesterday' looks back at the band's rise to fame. By James Montgomery
My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way in "The Kids From Yesterday" music video Photo: Warner Music Group
Really, My Chemical Romance's Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys deserved better. A big, bold re-invention of their sound and swagger, it was, by the band's own admission, a "missile" aimed at destroying the staid state of rock and roll, and perhaps because of that fact, it failed to catch on here in the states.
You could practically track its decline based on the videos MCR released off the album, starting with the big-budget "Na Na Na" and the equally flashy follow-up, "Sing," in which they offed the titular Killjoys (who seemingly will never be heard of again). Their next single, "Planetary (Go!)" came coupled with a live video, and, to the best of my knowledge, a clip for "Bulletproof Heart" never materialized at all.
My Chem actually seemed to address the matter in an interview with MTV News last year, in which frontman Gerard Way lamented that the band had "gone through so many things" over the course of the Danger Days cycle, and hinted that, if there were to be any more videos off the album, they'd have to be financed by MCR themselves.
So it's somewhat fitting that, on Monday, they unveiled the final clip from Danger Days: a fan-made video for "The Kids From Yesterday" that documents the band's decade-long climb from Neo-Goth New Jersey rockers to interplanetary conceptual quartet. Like the song itself, the clip is a bittersweet thing, recounting MCR's many triumphs (a pastiche of memorable live moments, it culminates with their headlining slots at Reading and Leeds this past summer), while leaving those who love to read between the lines to wonder if perhaps the band's latest era also represents the end ... not necessarily of My Chem themselves, but of a moment in rock that now seems to have all but disappeared. Truly, MCR were the last bastions of the heady heyday of mid-aughts MySpace punk, and now, well, who knows what's next?
Of course, much of the message behind Danger Days seems to be one of self-empowerment, of inspiring fans to take matters into their own hands and shaking up the status quo. That's yet another reason why "Kids" is such a fitting sendoff; it was made in collaboration with a fan named Emily Eisemann, who had culled through live footage and initially created a clip of her own. There's a reason why the video ends with the phrase "Art is the Weapon," after all: it's been the band's clarion call this entire time.
It's also something Way touched on during Danger Days' release, when he told MTV News that the album was not a conceptual piece, but rather "a complete allegory" for smashing the system and placing the power directly in the hands of their fans. And "Kids" is proof that MCR's message was heard loud and clear, perhaps not by a majority of the record-buying public, but definitely — and most appropriately — by their fans. Sometimes, sales aren't the only measure of a band's success, and Danger Days is a testament to that fact. "Kids" may bring one chapter of their career to a close, but wherever My Chemical Romance go next, you know they'll do so boldly; that's what makes great bands truly great after all: the willingness to push the boundaries, to purvey inspiration, to shake things up ... sometimes even at their own expense.
Engineering team completes ambitious Antarctic expedition in the 'deep-field'Public release date: 15-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Athena Dinar amdi@bas.ac.uk 44-122-322-1414 British Antarctic Survey
A team of four British engineers has returned to the UK after completing a gruelling journey to one of the most remote and hostile locations on the planet to put in place equipment and supplies for an ambitious project later this year. Enduring temperatures of minus 35C the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth 'Advance Party' has successfully paved the way to explore an ancient lake buried beneath 3 km of Antarctic ice. A powerful 'tractor-train' towed nearly 70 tonnes of equipment across Antarctica's ice over deep snow and steep mountain passes. In December a science and engineering team will make the 16,000 km journey from the UK to collect water and sediments from the buried lake.
Lake Ellsworth will be the first Antarctic subglacial lake to be measured and sampled directly through the design and manufacture of space-industry standard 'clean technology'. Scientists have been planning for more than 15 years to access the lake, which is one of more than 400 known subglacial lakes in Antarctica, in the quest to yield new knowledge about the evolution of life on Earth and other planets. Lake-bed sediments could also provide vital clues about the Earth's past climate. Through a bore hole, drilled using high-pressure hot water, the team will lower a titanium probe to measure and sample the water, followed by a corer to extract sediment from the lake.
The Advance Party team paved the way for this mission by transporting the drilling equipment more than 250 km through the Ellsworth Mountain range, over deep-snow terrain and crevasses to the Lake Ellsworth drilling site. The final leg of this journey was the most challenging and required powerful tractors to tow heavy containers of equipment on sledges and skis, forming a 'tractor-train'. The soft, deep snow and concrete-hard 'sastrugi' snow forms caused the Advance Party's progress to slow, but after three days they safely reached the Lake Ellsworth drilling site.
Andy Tait, Advance Party Member and Hot Water Drill Designer / Engineer says,
"Lake Ellsworth is extremely remote, cold and hostile ambient temperatures dropped to -35C and with wind chill they dropped further still making living and working on site a physical challenge. We deliberately located the equipment over a kilometer (1.7km) from the drill site to protect it during the harsh Antarctic winter. We will move it to its final position and set up the rig ready for drilling in December.
"Severe winds and the extreme environmental conditions of the area made it vital that we spent a number of days winterising the equipment. Windblown snow will partially bury the equipment and this area of Antarctica is so vast that it would be difficult to find it again without the GPS locators we fitted at the corners of the site. Going back to live there for three months in November will certainly be an experience!"
Chris Hill, Advance Party Member and Lake Ellsworth Programme Manager says,
"This is a major milestone for the programme and we are delighted that our complex logistical operations were a success this season. Working within the short Antarctic summer season adds pressure to our time on the continent, which is why we had to plan two stages of the programme. The drilling season is nearly upon us, and we still have a long way to go before we can access Lake Ellsworth, but the success of the Advance Party this season certainly puts us in a good position for November."
The Lake Ellsworth Programme Principal Investigator, Professor Martin Siegert from the University of Edinburgh says,
"The completion of this stage of the mission is a welcome one we are now one step closer to finding out if new and unique forms of microbial life could have evolved in this environment. The samples we hope to capture from Lake Ellsworth will be hugely valuable to the scientific community. This year we will complete and test both the water sampling probe and the sediment corer. Extracted sediment samples could give us an important insight in to the ancient history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, including past collapse, which would have implications for future sea level rise."
The Lake Ellsworth consortium has published a paper describing how the sampling of Lake Ellsworth can be undertaken with minimal environmental impact - Reviews of Geophysics: Clean access, measurement, and sampling of Ellsworth Subglacial Lake: A method for exploring deep Antarctic subglacial lake environments http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2012/2011RG000361.shtml
###
Issued by British Antarctic Survey Press Office on behalf of the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth consortium:
Heather Martin, Tel: +44 (0)1223 221226; Mobile: 07740 822229; Email: hert@bas.ac.uk
Athena Dinar, Tel: +44 (0)1223 221414; Mobile: 07736 921693; Email: amdi@bas.ac.uk
Follow the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth programme:
Website www.ellsworth.org.uk
Twitter @Lake_Ellsworth
Facebook www.facebook.com/LakeEllsworth
For broadcast quality images of Union Glacier, the Ellsworth Mountains and the Lake Ellsworth drilling site see: ftp://ftp.nerc-bas.ac.uk/pub/photo/Lake_Ellsworth/
Advance Party, British Antarctic Survey
Based UK: Andy Tait, Lead Engineer (hot-water drill) winterised equipment at Lake Ellsworth drilling site
Based UK: Andy Webb, Drilling Engineer accompanied tractor-train Union Glacier to Lake Ellsworth
Based Antarctica: Chris Hill, Programme Manager winterised equipment at Lake Ellsworth drilling site
Based Antarctica: Scott Iremonger, Plant Engineer accompanied tractor-train Union Glacier to Lake Ellsworth
The Lake Ellsworth consortium programme is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.
More than 400 subglacial lakes have so far been discovered beneath Antarctica's vast ice sheet. The most well-known of these is Lake Vostok in East Antarctica. A Russian team hopes to penetrate and collect samples from this lake soon
The space-industry standard 'clean technology' required to penetrate and sample subglacial Lake Ellsworth is the first of its kind to be developed
The hot-water drill to create the borehole has been designed and built by engineers at British Antarctic Survey. Only two companies in the world could deliver a 3.4km-long continuous hose to the required specification both based in the UK
Analysis of the sediments from the sediment corer will reveal clues to microbial life and help scientists assess the present-day stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the likely consequences for future sea-level rise. Water and sediments samples will be analysed by consortium members in research institute and university laboratories throughout the UK
The site is located at S78 58.607 and W090 30.577 - which is 1.7km from the actual Lake Ellsworth drilling site so that it remains unaffected by the equipment's presence over the winter
The unique five metre long water sampling probe was designed and built by engineers at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. Made of the highest grade of titanium to ensure maximum sterility and strength, it will collect 24 water samples at different lake depths, including the top layer of sediments at the lake-floor / water interface.
Scientists at British Antarctic Survey and Durham University, working in partnership with Austrian business UWITEC, have designed and built a sediment corer, which can extract a core up to three metres long. The unique percussion-driven piston corer is strong enough to penetrate even the most compacted glacial sediments.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Engineering team completes ambitious Antarctic expedition in the 'deep-field'Public release date: 15-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Athena Dinar amdi@bas.ac.uk 44-122-322-1414 British Antarctic Survey
A team of four British engineers has returned to the UK after completing a gruelling journey to one of the most remote and hostile locations on the planet to put in place equipment and supplies for an ambitious project later this year. Enduring temperatures of minus 35C the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth 'Advance Party' has successfully paved the way to explore an ancient lake buried beneath 3 km of Antarctic ice. A powerful 'tractor-train' towed nearly 70 tonnes of equipment across Antarctica's ice over deep snow and steep mountain passes. In December a science and engineering team will make the 16,000 km journey from the UK to collect water and sediments from the buried lake.
Lake Ellsworth will be the first Antarctic subglacial lake to be measured and sampled directly through the design and manufacture of space-industry standard 'clean technology'. Scientists have been planning for more than 15 years to access the lake, which is one of more than 400 known subglacial lakes in Antarctica, in the quest to yield new knowledge about the evolution of life on Earth and other planets. Lake-bed sediments could also provide vital clues about the Earth's past climate. Through a bore hole, drilled using high-pressure hot water, the team will lower a titanium probe to measure and sample the water, followed by a corer to extract sediment from the lake.
The Advance Party team paved the way for this mission by transporting the drilling equipment more than 250 km through the Ellsworth Mountain range, over deep-snow terrain and crevasses to the Lake Ellsworth drilling site. The final leg of this journey was the most challenging and required powerful tractors to tow heavy containers of equipment on sledges and skis, forming a 'tractor-train'. The soft, deep snow and concrete-hard 'sastrugi' snow forms caused the Advance Party's progress to slow, but after three days they safely reached the Lake Ellsworth drilling site.
Andy Tait, Advance Party Member and Hot Water Drill Designer / Engineer says,
"Lake Ellsworth is extremely remote, cold and hostile ambient temperatures dropped to -35C and with wind chill they dropped further still making living and working on site a physical challenge. We deliberately located the equipment over a kilometer (1.7km) from the drill site to protect it during the harsh Antarctic winter. We will move it to its final position and set up the rig ready for drilling in December.
"Severe winds and the extreme environmental conditions of the area made it vital that we spent a number of days winterising the equipment. Windblown snow will partially bury the equipment and this area of Antarctica is so vast that it would be difficult to find it again without the GPS locators we fitted at the corners of the site. Going back to live there for three months in November will certainly be an experience!"
Chris Hill, Advance Party Member and Lake Ellsworth Programme Manager says,
"This is a major milestone for the programme and we are delighted that our complex logistical operations were a success this season. Working within the short Antarctic summer season adds pressure to our time on the continent, which is why we had to plan two stages of the programme. The drilling season is nearly upon us, and we still have a long way to go before we can access Lake Ellsworth, but the success of the Advance Party this season certainly puts us in a good position for November."
The Lake Ellsworth Programme Principal Investigator, Professor Martin Siegert from the University of Edinburgh says,
"The completion of this stage of the mission is a welcome one we are now one step closer to finding out if new and unique forms of microbial life could have evolved in this environment. The samples we hope to capture from Lake Ellsworth will be hugely valuable to the scientific community. This year we will complete and test both the water sampling probe and the sediment corer. Extracted sediment samples could give us an important insight in to the ancient history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, including past collapse, which would have implications for future sea level rise."
The Lake Ellsworth consortium has published a paper describing how the sampling of Lake Ellsworth can be undertaken with minimal environmental impact - Reviews of Geophysics: Clean access, measurement, and sampling of Ellsworth Subglacial Lake: A method for exploring deep Antarctic subglacial lake environments http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2012/2011RG000361.shtml
###
Issued by British Antarctic Survey Press Office on behalf of the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth consortium:
Heather Martin, Tel: +44 (0)1223 221226; Mobile: 07740 822229; Email: hert@bas.ac.uk
Athena Dinar, Tel: +44 (0)1223 221414; Mobile: 07736 921693; Email: amdi@bas.ac.uk
Follow the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth programme:
Website www.ellsworth.org.uk
Twitter @Lake_Ellsworth
Facebook www.facebook.com/LakeEllsworth
For broadcast quality images of Union Glacier, the Ellsworth Mountains and the Lake Ellsworth drilling site see: ftp://ftp.nerc-bas.ac.uk/pub/photo/Lake_Ellsworth/
Advance Party, British Antarctic Survey
Based UK: Andy Tait, Lead Engineer (hot-water drill) winterised equipment at Lake Ellsworth drilling site
Based UK: Andy Webb, Drilling Engineer accompanied tractor-train Union Glacier to Lake Ellsworth
Based Antarctica: Chris Hill, Programme Manager winterised equipment at Lake Ellsworth drilling site
Based Antarctica: Scott Iremonger, Plant Engineer accompanied tractor-train Union Glacier to Lake Ellsworth
The Lake Ellsworth consortium programme is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.
More than 400 subglacial lakes have so far been discovered beneath Antarctica's vast ice sheet. The most well-known of these is Lake Vostok in East Antarctica. A Russian team hopes to penetrate and collect samples from this lake soon
The space-industry standard 'clean technology' required to penetrate and sample subglacial Lake Ellsworth is the first of its kind to be developed
The hot-water drill to create the borehole has been designed and built by engineers at British Antarctic Survey. Only two companies in the world could deliver a 3.4km-long continuous hose to the required specification both based in the UK
Analysis of the sediments from the sediment corer will reveal clues to microbial life and help scientists assess the present-day stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the likely consequences for future sea-level rise. Water and sediments samples will be analysed by consortium members in research institute and university laboratories throughout the UK
The site is located at S78 58.607 and W090 30.577 - which is 1.7km from the actual Lake Ellsworth drilling site so that it remains unaffected by the equipment's presence over the winter
The unique five metre long water sampling probe was designed and built by engineers at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. Made of the highest grade of titanium to ensure maximum sterility and strength, it will collect 24 water samples at different lake depths, including the top layer of sediments at the lake-floor / water interface.
Scientists at British Antarctic Survey and Durham University, working in partnership with Austrian business UWITEC, have designed and built a sediment corer, which can extract a core up to three metres long. The unique percussion-driven piston corer is strong enough to penetrate even the most compacted glacial sediments.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Jessica Alba's four-month-old daughter Haven is on her way to eating solid foods! On Thursday, the 30-year-old actress tweeted a picture of Haven about to take a bite of some baby food.
PHOTOS: Haven and more adorable babies born in 2011!
"Someone's not really sure how she feels about solids," Alba wrote.
PHOTOS: Stars' incredible post-baby bodies
As of her own diet? The health-conscious star shed her baby weight fast through healthy eating and exercise. "I did prenatal yoga up until the end," she told Us Weekly. "I just made healthier choices [in my second pregnancy]. I started working out and not going too crazy, but I did what was safe and what the doctor approved."
PHOTOS: Jess' chic pregnancy style
Alba and hubby Cash Warren are also parents to Honor, 3. "I love what I do. But unless it's worth it, I'm not going to spend time away from my daughter," Alba told Latina magazine's August issue in an interview conducted before Haven was born. "Before I had [Honor], work was all I had. Now it's not."
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Public release date: 15-Jan-2012
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