What Jane Says: Life Insurance

Everyone within shouting distance of a consumer columnist knows that term life insurance is the smartest and best way of protecting your family. Boomers loaded up when their kids were young, usually with policies that lasted for 20 years. But when you buy, you rarely think about what will happen when the term runs out. [...]

Sales commissions drive the “advice” you get from brokers and other financial advisers. They promote products that pay them the highest commissions, even when they know about better (and cheaper) ones. Case in point: a story in Investment News on the newest tax-deferred annuities. These investments are notoriously expensive for consumers (although you rarely know [...]

Buy life insurance only if you really need it. That sounds so sensible that you probably wonder why I bother saying it at all. But I see thousands of people wasting good money on policies they don’t need and will probably cancel—all because they fell into the hands of an insurance agent. Agents think that [...]

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Jane’s Book Club

“The Big Short." You'll find no better book for explaining how toxic mortgage investments brought down the economy. Lewis is a great storyteller. You watch the disaster unwind through the eyes of four unforgettable investors who saw that these loans had to fail and invested accordingly.
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Jane’s Bio

Jane Bryant Quinn is a nationally known commentator on personal finance, with books and columns read and trusted by millions.
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