Ben was enjoying being a commercial landlord. His decision to make whole life insurance a foundational element of his financial stewardship turned out to be the most important thing he had ever done. Even though he has been totally disabled and lost every asset not protected by law in the lawsuit, he was still able to steward what he had left for some impressive gains and he was gaining more confidence in his ability to water the seeds the Lord had given.
Surprisingly, each year when he looked at his whole life policy statement he had more dividends and cash value than expected. He knew that interest rates had risen along with inflation over the last decade, so he was shocked to find out that instead of performing worse, his policy was actually paying him more than the company illustrated when he first purchased.
And now a new opportunity presented itself. It had only been two years since he bought the dry cleaners and that was all going fine. He became pretty good friends with Greg, the owner of the cleaners, as well. One day as they were talking, Greg mentioned that there was a great location to open a new dry cleaners, but he didn’t have the money saved up to buy it. His business was doing great, which Ben well knew since he was the landlord and Greg’s friend, but he hadn’t managed his money well and didn’t have the $100,000 it took to open a new dry cleaners.
Ben saw his opportunity and decided to propose a partnership. Ben would put up the $100,000 and Greg would lend his expertise to running it and use the same brand name that was already grabbing attention from customers around the area. Ben would keep 60% of the profits since he was putting up the money and Greg would keep 40% for his expertise and oversight.
This was a different kind of business for Ben because he knew that the first few years would be tough like it is with most businesses, but he also knew that there was a great opportunity here and that his life insurance company did not require any specific terms regarding repayment of the loan. He didn’t have to pay it back until he was dead if he didn’t want to. So, Ben went for it!
As expected, it was a hard few years for Ben and Greg. But it was also an amazing time for growth. Greg came to know the Lord as he worked side by side with Ben and Ben began to feel more productive than he had in years. After the first three years, their new business was booming and the two partners started to take a significant salary out of the business. Ben used this money to pay back into his policy which paid off the loan but also grew his cash values even more. He was also able to convert an old term policy into whole life to increase the power of his own personal banking system.
Ben was thrilled each time he realized the versatility his whole life policies allowed him in stewarding his finances.
This is Part 7 in the story of Ben’s life using Whole Life Insurance in a variety of ways. You might want to read the introduction to this series which will link to each post in the series explaining how whole life works as well as linking to each post in this series on Ben’s story.
Photo credit: Felix Kirsch