There's a lot to it if you don't know how whole life insurance works, but basically you can buy a life insurance contract with monthly or annual premiums and the contract itself builds up a "cash surrender value", which is the amount of money the insurance company will give you if you decide you don't want your policy anymore. This cash value is contractually guaranteed to grow over time, and it grows exponentially faster the older you get (i.e., the closer to death you get). You have a contractual right to collateralize this cash value in the form of a policy loan, which the insurance company will make to you and cannot refuse to give it to you upon demand. You can use this money to finance anything you want, though of course it takes time to build up your cash value as you are starting your own "bank" from scratch. Mutual life insurance companies that offer these policies also pay dividends to their policyholders each year. Those dividends also grow over time (they start off small and get larger each year). When you take these dividends and re-invest them into your policy, you buy more life insurance which increases your cash value and also the amount of dividends you will receive next year. Dividends are not guaranteed to be paid, and the rate at which they are paid is different each year, but many mutual life insurance companies have been around for over 100 years and have paid a dividend each and every year, even during war-time, the Great Depression, the stagflation of the 70s, etc. They are the most financially stable institutions on the planet, with the exception of the banking cartel that can print its own money, I guess. That was a quick and dirty explanation and I could go on, but I don't want to belabor you with too much text at one time. I would recommend picking up a copy of Nelson Nash's "Becoming Your Own Banker", which is only 92 pages with large text and several illustrations, so it is a quick read. Despite that, you will find that each time you read it, you learn something new. He despised the banking cartel (he called them the "snakes and dragons") and calling their counterfeiting "evil" (which it is). I can explain more later if you have questions, but I have to run to an appointment right now.