considerable income or net worth is lmao
I don't know what that means
he means that observing that wealthy people have chosen that investment vehicle is not good evidence that it is a competitive investment vehicle.
Like I said, I won't argue either side. I could see it being good tool for some of my needs, but would never consider it as a primary wealth building investment either.
Also, mimicking people richer and smarter than I has served me well so far.
I feel like this could be settled with a spreadsheet
It could. But it would require how it's being used.
Example, and keep in mind I absolutely might be rough ridin' up some of what I remember. But from what I was told, you can have whole life and get loans from the whole life company using your policy as the collateral. And the interest you pay, or at least a portion (?), goes back to you. So if you have $100k in your whole life policy, and you take out $50k, you pay yourself the interest on that $50k loan. All the while, your complete $100k is accruing interest at its full value. So if it's 3%, you still make $3k that year in normal interest plus whatever interest you're paying yourself for the $50k loan.
If that is true, then you're essentially using it like a "high" interest savings account. People like me often need liquidity for the short-ish term (say 6 months to 2 years), but hate leaving money in a checking or shitty savings account. So I do think there are some quality uses for whole life, assuming what I was told is somewhat accurate. To use whole life as your retirement plan, probably not a great idea.