“Do I need life insurance?” “Is whole life insurance a good investment?” “Is term life insurance risky?” Questions like these are posted in online communities on a daily basis. The answers vary widely, with the term life and whole life camps polarized. The tone of the debate is surprisingly strident. After all, the topic is insurance—not a something expected to inspire strong opinions, let alone strong language. But words like “rip-off,” “scam,” and “waste of money” fly back and forth, sometimes accompanied by rows of exclamation marks or worse. What is behind the brouhaha? And which camp—if either—is right?

The two sides do not even agree about whether a person needs life insurance. Whole lifers say, yes. You do not want the death of a family member to disrupt your family’s finances or jeopardize its future. It is hard enough to adjust to the loss of a loved one. Adding financial difficulties exacerbates the problem. With the skyrocketing costs of funerals, even children and seniors should have at least a small life insurance policy.

Not so fast, say the term lifers. The only reason to have life insurance is to replace the lost income of a family member who dies, and then only when the spouse or family is dependent on that income. If you are single with no dependents and no debts that might be transferred to your family in the event you die, then you do not need life insurance. If you are married and your spouse works, you probably do not need life insurance, either, assuming your spouse makes enough to support himself or herself.

The time for life insurance, term lifers say, is when the policyholder’s income is vital to the financial security of the family. If, for example, you have purchased a home together and your spouse could not pay the mortgage and other bills by himself or herself, then life insurance is in order. If you have children, you will want to have enough life insurance to allow your family to maintain its lifestyle after you are gone. This includes not only meeting day-to-day expenses, but also being able to follow through with plans for higher education. Insurance professionals recommend buying a policy with a face value 5-10 times the breadwinner’s annual salary to help family meet expenses for a period of years.

Whole lifers see problems with the term-life scenario. The view it as overly optimistic, even naïve. Many things can happen during the 20- to 30-year period covered by term life insurance that could extend the need for coverage beyond the policy’s end date. For example, children may be born mentally retarded, with severe autism, or with another serious condition that could prevent them from becoming independent when they reach adulthood. Children also can develop a disease or suffer an accident that disables them. A spouse, too, can become disabled. In these situations, the family will remain dependent on the breadwinner’s income long after the term life policy expires.

Term life insurance advocates point out that in such cases, the breadwinner can renew the term life policy, or take out a new one. Now it’s the whole lifers’ turn to say, “Not so fast.” By the time the second term life policy is needed, the breadwinner will likely be in his or her fifties or even sixties. Due to the age of the insured, the cost of a second term life policy will be much higher than the cost of the first was. With the added years come added risks of certain diseases. If the breadwinner is obese, has developed high blood pressure, a heart condition, diabetes, or another disease, the cost of the term life policy will skyrocket. If the individual has developed cancer or AIDS, he or she may not be insurable at all. In such situations, the cost savings realized on the first term life policy could be wiped out by the high cost of a second term life policy.

By contrast, the premiums of a whole life policy are set for life and do not go up with age or medical condition. A whole life policy cannot be canceled due to medical conditions, either. The policy remains in force until death, as long as the premiums are paid.

“Until death” is another advantage of whole life, its advocates maintain. Whole life gets its name from the fact that it insures the policyholder life until death. As a result, whole life insurance is guaranteed to pay a death benefit—the amount the policy pays upon the death of the insured. The death benefit can be increased—at certain points at no additional cost—as the policyholder ages. A small policy designed to cover the funeral costs of a child can be increased to provide adequate coverage during an adult’s peak earning years. Whatever the death benefit or “face value” of the whole life policy, the insurance company guarantees to pay it. As a result, the policyholder or his or her beneficiaries always receive some, all, or more than the premiums paid into the policy.

This is not the case with a term life policy, whole lifers point out. The term life insurance policyholder can pay premiums for 30 years, but if he or she outlives the policy—even by a day—then all of the premium money is gone. The only thing the policyholder will have received is 30 years worth of peace of mind.

Whole life insurance, by contrast, accumulates a value that the policyholder can access during his or her lifetime. This value is known as the cash value or the surrender value. The whole life policy holder can use the cash value as collateral for a loan, or even borrow some of it during his or her lifetime. The policyholder must pay this amount back. If he or she dies before it is paid back, then the unpaid amount is deducted from the death benefit. If the policyholder decides to cancel the policy, the insurance company will pay him or her the cash value, which is then known as the surrender value. Whole life, its proponents maintain, is not only insurance against death. It is an investment for life.

This is where the debate turns nasty. Term lifers often ridicule the investment features of whole life. Because whole life always pays a death benefit, it costs 5-10 times more than term life does. Term lifers argue that a person is much better off getting a term policy for the same face value that they would get a whole life policy, then saving and investing the difference in premiums. Almost any investment will return more than a whole life policy will, term lifer proponents maintain. Over 20 or 30 years, the difference can be vast. Buy insurance to insure, the term lifers say, and use the savings to invest.

Whole lifers respond that the return on a whole life policy is guaranteed at the outset, something than cannot be said for other investments. To earn greater rewards, the term life policyholder must take greater risks in the open market. Many investments will outperform whole life insurance, but not all will. Some investments lose money, as shareholders in World Com, Enron, Peregrine Systems, and many other companies can attest.

Even if the investment will pay out, it is not certain that the term life policyholder will actually make it. To do so, he or she must calculate the amount saved over whole life insurance; save that money every month, quarter, or year; research possible investments; and contribute to that investment regularly for 20 or 30 years. This makes sense for disciplined and savvy investors, but many others will find the endeavor daunting and time consuming. They may not start it, and if they do, they may not continue it. Whole life takes care of insurance, savings, and investment in one easy payment. Even if the returns on whole life are not great, saving something is better than saving nothing, and nothing is exactly how much many term life policyholders will end up saving.

Both whole life and term life have pros and cons. People who are financially savvy and disciplined will gain from the term life scenario. Those who need a convenient and simple mechanism for insurance and savings will benefit from whole life insurance. Deciding which is best for you requires an honest appraisal of your goals, your lifestyle, and your investing skills.

An award-winning author of books for young adults, Bradley Steffens is a frequent contributor to online and print publications, including Gig and Broker Agent Magazine. A copywriter with 25 years experience, he creates website content for health insurance, life insurance, and homeowner’s insurance professionals. His most recent book, Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist, is the world’s first biography of the medieval Muslim scholar known in the West as Alhazen.

Writing a business plan for home-based e-entrepreneur is easy and you can do the job within 10 minutes. If you are an e-entrepreneur, all you need is to learn how to write a business plan that is simple and practical. Just visualize why you get involved with your Internet business, define what your dreams are, set realistic goals, plan your business activities, and then work your business plan.

The Internet is a source of profits for all e-entrepreneurs. And as an e-entrepreneur, the main purpose of your business plan is to guide your Internet business activities and to keep them focused so that you can grow your Internet business substantially to achieve your dreams and goals of making money on-line.

Here are five simple steps on how you write a business plan for your home-based Internet business.

Firstly, you develop a vision of your Internet business and write your vision statement. Ask yourself why do you want to be an e-entrepreneur. If you are into affiliate marketing, what is your main reason that you join an affiliate program? What you value most of your Internet business? Do you have a strong desire to be your own boss? Why do you want to be your own boss? Why do you want to run your own home-based business? What do you want to do with the remainder of your life? These are some of the crucial questions you must answer as you write down your vision statement in your Internet business plan.

Secondly, you define what your dreams are and write them down. Of course, you want to have lots of time and money to do what you want. To make your dreams work, you must write a clear, concise statement in your Internet business plan on why do you need more time and money. You must be specific in your dreams. What kind of a car you want to drive – what model, cost, color, etc.? What home do you desire – by the beach, on top of a hill, etc? What debts you like to pay off – credit cards debts, housing loans, car loans, etc? As an e-entrepreneur, visualize as clearly as you can the kind of Internet lifestyles you want to enjoy if you have all the time and money to do what you want..

Thirdly, you set your goals that you want to reach in a specific time – short-term, medium term and long-term. You use your goals to fulfill your dreams. Remember, what you write for your Internet business plan is a personal matter. No one can write your dreams or goals for you. It is up to you to decide which level of success you want to take your Internet business. Whatever level that you have set for yourself, you have to work it. Nobody is going to do the work for you. You need to set your goals for the next three months, six months, twelve months, two years and five years. Make sure to write down your goals that are realistic, achievable, and quantifiable.

“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.” – Denis Watley

Fourthly, you create your action plan around the goals you have set for yourself as a e-entrepreneur. A good, solid action plan includes your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly activities. Your action plan for your Internet business will probably include how you are going to use your marketing aids, marketing methods, and your budget to promote your products or services. Don’t forget to allot time to continuously educate yourself in your chosen Internet business. A successful e-entrepreneur must keep abreast with current trends happening in the Internet. This will give you the extra leverage against other e-entrepreneurs in your market.

Once you have listed down all your Internet business activities, you must assign your time to do them. Time management for the e-entrepreneur is very important when you write your Internet business plan. One of the most practical ways of managing time is to schedule blocks of time for every activity that you must complete each day for your Internet business. You must stay focused on your business activities. You must not be distracted by other activities that do not contribute profitably to your goal of making money on-line.

Finally, you must take action according to the business plan that you have just created. You must carry out what you have written in your Internet business plan. You must be committed, consistent and persistent. Also, you need to have lots of patience. You build your Internet business step-by-step. As an e-entrepreneur, you must believe in yourself and that you can do something to change your present situation using the Internet as a source of profits. By taking positive actions, you will develop profitable habits that can make your dreams come true. All the hard work that you put into developing your vision, dreams, goals and action plan will be wasted if you do not take actions. If you do nothing, nothing will happened.

Your business plan is the compass that points you the way to Internet success. And success is just the progressive realization of your dreams because of the actions you take to achieve your goals. Your opportunity for success as an e-entrepreneur is absolutely possible if you carry out this simple and practical business plan that you have just created for your home-based Internet business.

Remember, a business plan will change over time as your situation and focus change. It is dynamic and has to be reviewed and tweaked regularly to meet new goals you have set according to your current situation. As an e-entrepreneur, you must also constantly fine-tune your business plan to reflect the needs of an ever-changing Internet environment.

To help you get started on how to write your Internet business plan, you can download this printable form HERE.

Alvin Chung is the owner of ChungSite.com a website dedicated to helping newbies to Internet marketing achieve success. Alvin is also an affiliate of Strong Future International and operates a site at SFISuccess that teaches new team members get started with free resources from the Internet.

s plan is an essential toll for building your small business ideas. Without it as your guide to success the future of your business is one of failure.

Your business plan needs to be a live document that is in constant development and is continually checked and updated, You must know if you are meeting your goals and if you do not continually check your business plan it can not work for you. Your business plan will allow you to make the needed changes to adjust to your small business growth or lack of growth.

The basic outline of a business plan is to detail the systems you will use and the task that are needed to accomplish your goals. By reviewing your business plan on a monthly basis at first you will be able to check your progress or lack of it. Once your business is up and running inn the direction you desire you may want to revise the time you review your plan. If your small business is progressing the way you planned and growth is steady checking your plan quarterly might be a good choice.

At first financial goals should be small. Although small they should be accomplished in the time frame you set. The initial small goals are as vital to your overall plan as the larger goals you have set for later dates. If your plan is working correctly in the early stages you will be able to determine if the complete business plan is achievable. Make sure that each goal is achieved as planned.

As in most aspects of life the best of plans can fail. You must ask yourself two questions. 1. Were you able to complete your goals in the time frame set. Were you able to achieve some of your goals but not all of them.

2. Were you able to use the systems you put in place and did they work as planned. Maybe some them performed as expected while others did not.

Look carefully at your answers and analyze them. You will have systems that worked correctly and performed as expected. Keep those and continue working with them. You will also have those systems that did not work as planned and did not meet your expected goals. Look at these systems and find why they did not work.

You need to know why they did not work, if the system was flawed, were there steps in the system you may have missed. In answering those questions you can adjust future plans to accommodate errors that may have been made or discard the system completed and replace it with a new one.

A good solid business plan will continually improve and adjust. By adjusting your business plan and making needed changes you will improve the effectiveness of you business plan and ensure future growth of your business.

A business plan can increase your confidence and help build any small business ideas you may have. It can be your silent partner that is there to help you grow your business to it’s fullest potential.

Stephen Meyer is an experienced small business owner who has helped many people in starting their own profitable small businesses. To see his many ideas and opportunities please visit his Small Business Ideas website.