How to Upgrade to IMG's New Preferred Membership Online

Good news to IMG members and partners!

Just recently, International Marketing Group has upgraded it's membership into IMG preferred membership with added benefits! On top of the top 10 membership benefits, here are some added perks and privileges exclusive for IMG members. 

The New IMG Preferred Membership

Below is an email sent from IMG's newsletter:

To our dear IMG members and partners:

Since the launch of our new IMG Preferred Membership, many of our members who have availed of this membership have been enjoying a new world of exclusive perks, exclusive discounts and exclusive benefits.

In connection with this, we would like to inform you that, starting Wednesday, March 1, 2017 (12:00AM, Manila Time), all new IMG membership applications will already be Preferred. As such, the new membership fee of P4,500.00 will already take effect for Philippine code and for International membership,the new rates that will apply to your respective country will soon be available in our ejoin site. Likewise, the new fee of P1,500.00 will apply to all Accreditation Renewals (all codes) and P700.00 for all Membership Upgrade (all codes).

Besides our Top 10 benefits, our IMG Preferred Membership initially offers these additional privileges in partnership with the following providers: 

1. Fidelity Mutual Life

Fidelity Life is a mutual benefit association exclusively created for the IMG Preferred Members. It provides IMG Preferred members P50,000.00 life insurance with free memorial concierge service through Everest. As an additional benefit, the IMG management has successfully negotiated the waiver of membership fee that is usually required from all Mutual Benefit Association members, for all new IMG Preferred Members until further advise...

2. Everest Memorial Services 

Everest Memorial is a 24/7 FREE concierge service for IMG Preferred Members and their immediate families. Our trained Family Assistance Officers will help members in organizing personalized funeral plans when they need it. During the very difficult time, our preferred members and or their family members need not look for the best-priced suppliers; nor coordinate set-up and deliveries of funeral services. Members will just focus on giving the perfect send-off to their loved one and Everest will do the rest.  Everest is prepared to provide the convenience and peace of mind when you need it most... 

3. Ozone International 

Ozone Therapy has been popular with people from all age categories: from the younger generation who uses ozone therapy as a disease-preventing measure, to senior citizens who want to maintain an active lifestyle, and even to patients who use Ozone Therapy to complement their prescribed medical treatment. This medical breakthrough is now available to all IMG Preferred Members at a special discounted rate of P5,000/session (P1,000 discount) or P50,000/program (P10,000 discount).

Please check your emails to read full email newsletter from IMG. 

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How to compute your MOST annual premium

Lately we have been receiving emails requesting a proposal or quotation with IMG's partner company, Philam Life with its product - Multiple Option Super Term (MOST). 

As much as we want to send you a proposal, as part of our advocacy in sharing financial education, we want people (especially IMG members) to become their own money manager. 

Looking for a quotation or proposal? Learn how to compute your MOST annual premium

Instead of depending on an agent or your IMG trainer, why not learn how to do-it-yourself (DIY).

So today, let me share to you how to compute your Multiple Option Super Term annual premium.

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My Kaiser Healthcare Experience

No. I'm not saying I got hospitalized and used my Kaiser long-term healthcare program. I just want to share how happy I am with Kaiser and my personal experiences with it. How I started and now that we are fully paid including all my family members. 

While there is no perfect financial product out there and the services you avail depends on your financial needs, I believe regardless of what program you are getting, make sure you fully understand how it works. 

Anyway, here's my personal story: 

How I started my Kaiser long-term healthcare: 

I became a member of IMG since last Nov. 2011 and I was just so amazed of their advocacy, the learning and even the earning opportunity. Because I want to avail all the benefits of becoming an IMG member, I also wanted to try their career as a financial trainer. 

However, to my surprise, the requirement to become a financial trainer is to get started with their recommended program: Kaiser long-term healthcare. Since I want to maximize my membership, I got the savings program right away without much thought for 2 reasons: (1.) I wanted to earn as a financial trainer (2.) I trusted the person who introduced it to me who is the sister of my college classmate (who I believe are wealthy. hehe so I concluded these people will never do things that will bring harm to their names.) 

Recommended article: Why Kaiser Long Term Healthcare Is The Best Starter Savings Program

How I understood Kaiser healthcare benefits: 

The beauty however of IMG is its continuous training and lectures. I attended a lot of its product training and there I understood about the benefits of this program: how it works, the difference between a short-term and long-term healthcare and its difference with health insurance, critical illness benefits. 

Unlike talking to an agent, I got to learn it myself by actively attending and maximizing my IMG benefits. (It's so unfortunate to those who do not maximize attending the training. We need to be proactive and take charge of our investments.) 

My Kaiser healthcare experience: 

Fast forward: after almost 5 years, I fully paid my Kaiser program and also all my family members (my mom, 3 brothers and 1 sister, my dad was 60+ when I was introduced to this program so we weren't able to get one for him). The program we got was the Kaiser Long-term Care Premium (now we have 7-year Kaiser Ultimate program)  which was only a 5-year program. 

Kaiser Healthcare Certificate of Full Payment

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Why is Financial Education a Need

"You can't hire someone else to do your push-ups for you" - Jim Rohn

And so should personal finance. 

While personal finance is common sense, a lot of Filipinos are still struggling financially. Thus, it is something that we should also learn. But unfortunately, financial education is not taught in schools. It is not also evident in the financial industry like the banks, insurance and investment companies. 

Let's take a look at the current situation why Financial Education is a major need especially to Filipinos: 

Financial Education is a need

1. Schools

If financial education should also be taught in school, then who are qualified to teach this course? No offense, but even teachers (most of them) are living in debt. It is just like taking an MBA (Masters of Business Administration) and having a professor who doesn't even own a business. Talk about, "If you can't apply it, teach it."

For accounting and economic subjects, the educational system is teaching students to be prepared how to count or manage other people's finances as in the case of preparing students to work as accountants in the corporate world. Though these subjects can be applied in a personal level, not everyone applies it to themselves.

"Kapoy ihap ug kwartang d ako." (It is tiring to count money that isn't mine.) - a bank teller friend of mine often says. 

Thus, the most qualified industry to teach about personal finance should be the financial industry. The financial industry composes of the following: the banks, insurance companies and investment companies. 

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How Life Insurances are Designed

Understanding life insurance is a vital part in total financial planning. As in the article, What Type Of Life Insurance Do You Need?, there are two types of life insurances: Term insurance and Cash Value Insurance. 

To understand how life insurances are designed, we need to base it on the three rules of insurance:

1. All insurance is term insurance

2. The cost of term insurance always goes up.

3. There is no free insurance. 

How life insurances are designed

In other words, all insurance is either term or term plus cash. The cost of term insurance always goes up as you get older (the probability of death is increasing). And, you must pay for the term insurance directly or you must have enough cash value to pay for the cost of insurance. 

Basing on these rules, here is how life insurances are designed:

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Money Machine Concept: If something happens to you, how much are you worth?

What if you own an automated teller machine (ATM) that dispenses money every month for the rest of your life, what will you do with it? I'm pretty sure you'll take good care of it. Keep it clean, place it in a safe area and lock it. You want it protected because the machine is very valuable. 

The same is true with your earning ability. You are the money machine of your family and you provide them through your monthly income. But, have you been taking good care of yourself? Have you protected yourself? 

Let us understand how to fully maintain ourselves as the money machine of our families.

You are the money machine of your family

Assuming your ATM dispenses 20T per month and suddenly it breaks down. You have it repaired but to your surprise, it now dispenses only 10T per month. Will you be happy? 

Now relating to our earning ability, let's say we are earning 20T per month, what if something happens to us (example: accident, job loss, health degradation or worst case - death) can we still provide to our families? How much are we worth as a money machine?

Sometimes its very ironic, when we have a car worth 1 million, we have it insured for 1 million. When we have a house worth 5 million, we have it insured for 5 million. But when it comes to us, as a money machine to our families, we are usually under-insured or no insurance at all! Now, which or who is more valuable, the car? The house? Or you? And if its you, how much are you worth?

Are you properly insured?

Now using the 10/20 Rule: 

Annual Income x 10 = Protection Needs

Related Article: 10/20 Rule: How To Compute And Achieve Your Retirement Goal?

So if you are earning 20T per month using the 10/20 rule:

20T x 12 = 240T annual income

240T x 10 = 2.4M protection or insurance need

Therefore you are a 2.4M worth of a money machine. When something happens to you, your family will receive 2.4M. It is also then important to financially educate your family so that they will not spend all the money they received but learn how to invest it. 

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Multiple Option Super Term (MOST) by IMG and Philam Life

After understanding the basics of life insurances, its different types and knowing how to compute your protection needs , it is important to translate all this knowledge through execution and application. And as International Marketing Group (IMG) is a believer of the BTID strategy, we have partnered with one of the largest life insurance company in the Philippines: Philam Life with its powerful product - "Multiple Option Super Term" (MOST).

must have protection at its best - life insurance

Recommended Reads:
1. Understanding the basics of life insurance
2. What Type Of Life Insurance Do You Need?
3. How Much Life Insurance Protection Do You Need?
4. What Is Buy Term Insurance And Invest The Difference (BTID) Strategy?

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How much life insurance protection do you need?

Buying a car insurance is simple. If your car is worth 1M, you need a 1M of coverage to cover the car in the event of a total loss. Same with your house, if the value of the house is 5M, then you'll need a 5M of coverage in case of disaster. However, when it comes to life insurance, people can't apply the same valuation because they don't know how to calculate how much they need.

Compute your financial needs

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What is Buy Term Insurance and Invest the Difference (BTID) Strategy?

The primary purpose of a life insurance is for protection and income replacement. With that, IMG believes that the best product for protection purposes is buying term insurance. While most insurance companies are offering whole life and investment-linked products, IMG believes that the reason most Filipinos are not insured or underinsured is because of the affordability of premium. It does not mean however that their products are not good, it just means that since most Filipinos are not properly insured, the best way to help Filipinos get enough protection is by making people understand its importance and at the same time offer a very affordable premium. With that IMG believes in the “Buy Term, Invest the Difference” (BTID) strategy. So, what is the BTID strategy?

The purpose of life insurance is to protect our income 

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What Type of Life Insurance do you need?

Life insurance is a very broad topic. Fully understanding its technicalities is a very tedious task. In IMG, we try to make it as simple as possible that all people from all walks of life can understand. We stick to the basics: understanding its purposes, how to fully determine or compute one's insurance needs and understanding what type of insurance that will fit to your needs. Here, let's tackle the different types of life insurances:

Understanding different types of life insurance is a crucial part of in budgeting 

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Understanding the Basics of Life Insurance

Life Insurance isn't a fun topic, but it's a critical part of your financial strategy. People don't often talk about it. Most don't understand it. Few want to buy it. Even those people who buy it don't necessarily understand it or appreciate its importance in building and preserving wealth. As a result, a lot of people don't have any life insurance protection. If they do, most don't have enough.

Understand the basics of life insurance

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Top 5 Reasons Why We Need to Save

Everyone wants to achieve financial freedom. We all want to be wealthy. Thus, we ride a vehicle called a job or business in order for us to earn income. This income provides temporary security and helps in paying our bills. The income we earned goes to spending and/or saving. However, because we are already exposed to spending money even at an early age, majority of our income goes to spending and there may be little (or none at all) left for saving. Thus, it is a must that we should also consider the importance of saving money. Here are the top 5 reasons why we need to save and why it is important to realize and start saving before it is too late.

We need a reason to save money

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How to Apply Financial Education with Financial Products

A lot of Filipinos are buying financial products for the wrong reasons.

"I can't say no to my agent because she's my relative."

"I have a surplus of money and I don't know where to put it."

"My friends are investing and I wanted to join too."

Are you one of them?

Financial education is the key 

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How to save the right way versus the wrong way

We work hard to earn income. This income goes to two major streams: spending and saving. We are all experts in spending money and there is no need for us to learn more about spending. However, not all us are "masters" in saving money, a lot don't even save at all. For those who are already into saving, the question is, "Are you saving the right way or the wrong way?" Here is how:

Building a solid financial foundation

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Is IMG an Insurance or Investment Company?

IMG is not an insurance or investment company. It is a financial organization that has established partnership with many financial services companies including insurance and investment companies.

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