The Bank On Yourself Revolution. Pamela Yellen

a foundation.

      “The Bank On Yourself method offers something you truly deserve, but may not have—financial security and peace of mind. With Bank On Yourself, you can sleep well knowing your savings can only grow, never shrink. With Bank On Yourself, you know, rather than hope.”

      Eliminate Volatility and Create Real Wealth

      “The reduced volatility you see in the chart is completely expected, obviously, because we’re out of the stock market. We’re not having those ups and downs, so I’m not surprised to see the volatility be lower. But the growth! That just blew me away.”

      Here’s a more detailed version of Dan’s net-worth chart that makes it clear how market volatility was affecting his wealth:

       NET WORTH OVER TIME: EXCLUDING HOME/REAL ESTATE (WITH ANNOTATIONS)

      Because all of your principal and growth is locked in when you use the Bank On Yourself method to grow your nest egg, you have real rather than paper wealth. The numbers you see on your annual statements represent the real values of your plan. They don’t go backward when the markets crash. And that makes all the difference in the world. The next chapter shows you why.

      Dan noted that his income has increased some in the last four years, as has the amount he saves each year. But the significant difference is that he now has a great place to put that income—his Bank On Yourself plans—where he no longer loses any of it to the randomness of the market. Dan’s convinced that the picture of his net worth wouldn’t look nearly this good if he hadn’t discovered Bank On Yourself.

      That’s the kind of story I consistently hear from folks who use the Bank On Yourself wealth-building method. Because you can see the growth and you have access to your money in the plan, you’re actually more motivated to save. You don’t have to worry about losing your hard-earned dollars due to the events of the day in the U.S. or in some faraway place. And that gives you the confidence to save more.

      Why would someone be willing to discuss something as personal as his net worth for the whole world to see? Because, in Dan’s words, “If I can help a few people start Bank On Yourself this year, instead of next year or instead of never, then it’s well worth it.”

      But Dan did even more than banish volatility and gain financial peace of mind by creating real wealth instead of paper wealth. He also uses the living benefits of his policies to live a fuller lifestyle today. Here’s one of his examples:

      “I’m fortunate that my mother has a home in New Hampshire, and we spend some time there in the summer. My brother has four children, and I have three children, and we have a boat that we put on the lake. This boat holds eight people. When the kids were younger, we could squeeze the four adults plus my mother and all seven kids into the boat. Twelve people into an eight-person boat, but it wasn’t too bad.

      “However, the kids have gotten older and bigger. My oldest is sixteen and drives the boat, but we can no longer squeeze everybody in. This summer, everyone wanted to go on the lake, so we had to take turns. That really bothered me because we enjoy boating so much. We’re only all together up there a couple weeks a year. So after my brother’s family left, I started dragging my wife around to used-boat stores. We found a twelve-person boat that we really liked. And we were able to make a decision on the spot to buy that boat.

      “I called my Bank On Yourself Authorized Advisor and said I needed a policy loan. We got the money within days, and we bought the boat. I set up a repayment schedule to pay off the policy loan. It was an easy decision to make, given that we knew the money we spent on the boat was still continuing to grow.” (Learn how this unique feature of the Bank On Yourself method works and how to fire your banker and become your own source of financing in Chapter 7.)

      To listen to or read the full interview I did with Dan Proskauer, go to www.BankOnYourself.com/dans-interview

      Is Bank On Yourself for You?

      I would need to write a book the size of the New York City phone book to tell you all the inspiring stories I’ve heard from Bank On Yourself revolutionaries like Dan Proskauer. My commitment to spreading the word about this concept deepens every time I hear a new story of success from these quiet revolutionaries. I would love for everyone to take a serious look at Bank On Yourself!

      But I can’t coerce you into taking that look and investigating this. Heck, I can’t even make you finish reading this book! (But I hope I’ve intrigued you enough to keep reading.)

      Is the Bank On Yourself Revolution right for you? Perhaps it all comes down to how you answer these questions:

       • Are you determined to never again tolerate another go-nowhere-for-more-than-a-decade level of performance in your financial plan?

       • Are you tired of pinning your financial future on things you can’t predict or control?

       • Are you concerned about another market crash in the next five or ten years—or even tomorrow?

       • Are you sick of being held hostage to high interest rates on your credit cards, and fed up with begging for money from bankers who hold all the cards?

       • As you think about your future retirement, is it looking pretty bleak—unless you hit the lottery jackpot?

       • Are you tired of the hope-and-pray method of financial and retirement planning?

      Don’t be concerned if at the moment you don’t know where you’ll find the funds to begin with Bank On Yourself. Don’t worry about any health challenges you may have that have made you ineligible for other types of insurance. Don’t worry that you may be too old to take advantage of this. You’ll discover that those concerns are often irrelevant.

      Your financial success is up to you. There’s no bailout coming for us. There’s no financial silver bullet coming from the government. Banks and Wall Street will continue to line their own pockets at your expense—but only if you let them. You can opt out of the system where the odds are stacked against you.

      It’s up to you. But I believe you would do yourself and your family a disservice if you didn’t at least investigate this option. I encourage you to keep an open mind and keep reading. As John F. Kennedy said in his address to the 1962 graduates of Yale University:

       “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived, and dishonest—but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic… We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”

      I invite you to turn the page, release the “comfort of opinion,” and really investigate and consider this. There are conventional wisdom myths that are sabotaging your financial peace of mind—and there’s another way.

      Note: This book is not a training manual for financial advisors who want to help their clients implement this strategy. It will show you the basics, but if you want to learn to become an expert at it, expect it to take a year of study—even if you’re an experienced financial advisor. (To find out how you can get the training you need, turn to “Bank On Yourself Is Looking for a Few Good Men and Women” near the end of the book, or visit www.BankOnYourself.com/authorized-advisors.)

CHAPTER 2

       You Can’t Eat Paper Profits

       Just ’cause you’re following a well-marked trail doesn’t mean that whoever made it knew where they