Hey egmail,

Never be too quick to buy what commissioned salespeople are selling.

Insurance salespeople tend to be extremely nice, well-trained in the positives of what they sell, andignorant of the negatives. I'm not saying they are stupid. I'm saying their on-the-job training is selective.

Here are reasons to treat life insurance as a short-term solution:

1. It is a wasting asset, because inflation steadily decreases its value (at an average of 4% annually from 1945 until now).

2. It is not an investment.

3. A policy that includes cash surrender values carries a "premium" (cost) that's 10 times as much as a term policy even though it provides a benefit no greater than a term policy's.

4. Among its other negatives, a cash-value policy builds cash values, which you will be encouraged to borrow against -- and never to repay the loan.

Trouble is, the annual interest on the loan balance is deducted at the beginning of each passing year from the remaining cash values and added to the loan balance -- so the amount of your loan snowballs while the cash values melts, and the amount of interest grows ever larger, and is treated as taxable income by the IRS. The long-term tax implications are disastrous.

As David Hanson has said, you have no clear need for life insurance. And you won't until someone else is dependent on you for financial support -- a parent, a spouse, a child, or a friend.

Also, I agree that you ought to open a Roth IRA if you qualify or a traditional IRA if you don't. As its sponsor, choose a company that sells no-load mutual funds. Examples, in alphabetical order, include Fidelity, Rydex, T. Rowe Price, and Vanguard.

Just now, my indicators for both the economy and stocks (and bonds) are so negative that it's hard to choose an investment that makes good sense. Besides, that's a different subject for another time.