Disclaimer: I got lucky. Don't follow my lead. Don't buy ILPs. I'm not an FA. None of this is investment advice. If anyone is interested enough, you can go dig through my post history and find me writing (multiple times) against buying ILPs. I also remember writing several years ago about why I decided to keep this ILP instead of surrendering it.

8 years ago, a friend from university reached out. He was upfront that he just started working as an FA, and asked if I wanted to meet for a chat. I obliged. He was not pushy, and gave me several days to consider. I eventually bought the original AIA Pro Achiever (1.0 version) with him at $300 per month. I vaguely remember that we discussed a few options and agreed on a slightly higher risk allocation (increased allocation to tech and emerging markets).

A quick note before we continue: This is the original version of the AIA Pro Achiever. I understand it has since gone through several revisions and is now sold as AIA Pro Achiever 3.0. I don't know what difference there are, and have no interest in spending time to find out. 

A couple years in, I started reading up more on how to invest and jumped on the IWDA+EIMI train (VWRA did not exist at that time). I overhauled all my insurance policies (sold to me by another university friend), terminated my whole life policies and bought term life from a different agent. Basically this sub's mantra of "buy term and invest the rest". But for various reasons, I kept this ILP. It was performing decently, I didn't need the money, I could afford $300 per month, the fact that I can shift fund allocations whenever I want (never did in 8 years), sunk cost fallacy, etc etc. It's the only ILP I still hold.

By then, the friend who sold me this policy had left the industry, and I met up the agent who took over my account. I recall the new agent trying to tell me to shift my allocation away from tech as it was performing badly (this was during the COVID crash). He also mentioned how he had helped his other clients to rebalance their allocations so they didn't lose as much money during the crash. But I didn't vibe well with him, so I declined shifting my allocations and didn't contact him further. Less than a year later when the markets rebounded to all time highs, I couldn't help but think about how his clients would have missed out on one of the fastest market recoveries in history.

I continued paying $300 per month until 2-3 years ago, when I switched to paying annually. Fast forward to today, the policy is reaching its 8th year anniversary soon, so I decided to check how this policy is doing. To my surprise, it performed way better than I expected. In fact, if you ignore the surrender penalty, it's actually beating the 8% projection in the policy illustration.

• Purchase date: 5 Oct 2018
• Premium paid to date: $28,800
• Current policy value: $42,199.88
• Current surrender value: $27,429.92
• Money weighted return (XIRR): ~9% p.a.
• If surrender today: ~1% p.a. net loss

Regardless of how you look at it, 9% p.a. is really good. Of course if I had put the money into IWDA or VWRA, I would probably have gotten around 12-14% p.a. with the added benefit of full liquidity instead of being locked in.

But this is exactly what an ILP is supposed to be. For people who don't know how to or don't have the discipline to invest on their own, 9% p.a. is a fantastic deal. 

I must say this wasn't what I had expected when I logged in to the AIA app today. Again, no idea what has changed in the newer AIA Pro Achiever policies or other ILPs, so YMMV.

This policy has another 5 more years before reaching year 13 when I can surrender without a penalty. So I guess stay tuned for an update in 5 years.

I know this sub is generally against ILPs (and for good reason). But perhaps if someone has already sunken cost in, depending on the policy, it's not always the worst decision to just bite the bullet and hold on. Does anyone have any similar positive experiences with ILPs? (please show receipts so people don't accuse you of shilling)

Addendum: Because people keep harping on this, yes I know no ILPs will beat the market. But for the vast majority of people outside this sub who don't know how to invest themselves or don't have the discipline to, a 9% return is way better than putting money into fixed deposits or savings accounts. This is also less than 10% of my total investments (excluding property). The rest of my money are all in all-world indexes in IBKR.

Taken this morning opposite boat quay. There were more of them on the trees. There is a large population of crows in that stretch. Sometimes you will see tourists feeding them, and also huge patches of bird shit on the pavement.

I moved to a new apartment. The letter box uses a simple cam lock. The apartment doesn't allow units to change the locks to maintain consistency and to discourage Airbnbs. Is there a way I can modify just the interior of the cam lock so I can unlock it via bluetooth/nfc?