ANA's Lifetime Membership Option!

dpoole · June 9, 2019 5:41AM

Got in the mail yesterday an alternative to my annual $28 membership dues. A "Lifetime Membership category that fits your lifestyle!"

For a Basic Life Membership, you pay only $800. But if you're over 55, like me, the price plummets to $600.

I'll be 74 this year, so that means I'll be 95 before I can start to cash in on this discount (@ $28/yr).

But wait! For pennies more ($1200/$900), I can get a Regular Life Membership.

With my discounted $900, that's about 33 years @$28/annum. So, if I make it to 107, I'll really begin to really take advantage!

Decisions, decisions....

Broadstruck · June 9, 2019 6:18AM

Please bump this thread in 33 years to update us on which would have been a better option?

Edited to add: The post office clerks always try to get me to pay 1 year dues on my P.O. Box instead of 6 months.

Beyond there being no savings I always feel it would bother me paying ahead if we got hit by an asteroid.

jmlanzaf · June 9, 2019 6:39AM

@dpoole said:
Got in the mail yesterday an alternative to my annual $28 membership dues. A "Lifetime Membership category that fits your lifestyle!"

For a Basic Life Membership, you pay only $800. But if you're over 55, like me, the price plummets to $600.

I'll be 74 this year, so that means I'll be 95 before I can start to cash in on this discount (@ $28/yr).

But wait! For pennies more ($1200/$900), I can get a Regular Life Membership.

With my discounted $900, that's about 33 years @$28/annum. So, if I make it to 107, I'll really begin to really take advantage!

Decisions, decisions....

Don't forget the opportunity costs.

At $800 per year, 4% return is $32 per year. So you are actually losing $4 per year.

illini420 · June 9, 2019 7:18AM

Dues will certainly go up several times over that many years. But still hard but calculate if it's a good financial deal to get the life membership.

I would guess most just do it as a charitable donation. Or perhaps to show off to others that they are life members.

davids5104 · June 9, 2019 7:38AM

I am waiting for an ANA groupon to come along.

BryceM · June 9, 2019 7:39AM

I got my renewal notice this week too. I looked at it. Didn’t tempt me either and I could potentially be collecting for another 40-50 years.

RogerB · June 9, 2019 7:39AM

I get out my interactive "American Academy of Actuaries" medal and see what it says in the fine print.

Boosibri · June 9, 2019 8:10AM

I don't in principle believe in being a life member to anything.... Ideologies and practices change over time and I'd prefer to deliberatly renew my association annually.

Imaging the horror of signing up for a life membership to any political party and looking at that affiliation today.

2ndCharter · June 9, 2019 8:46AM

The only lifetime option I regret not taking advantage of was in 1965 - Coin World was offering a lifetime subscription for $150. (An annual subscription was $5 at that time). Unfortunately, I was 15 then and $150 was way out of my price range. I think about that offer every year when I get my Coin World renewal notice.

golden · June 9, 2019 9:04AM

I joined the ANA in May 1969. I became a Life Member ( The certificate was signed by John J. Pittman ) in December 1971. I will get my 50 year membership medal in Rosemont in August.

BStrauss3 · June 9, 2019 9:14AM

Joined 12/1973 - it's on my 25-year medal along with my old R- number. Upgraded shortly after. So I'm somewhere around 20 years of dues for my one-time payment.

I'm also a LM of Numismatics International and CONECA.

Tibor · June 9, 2019 9:27AM

With decisions like this and many others, I sometimes wonder
if there are any benefits to being a senior.

WCC · June 9, 2019 10:09AM

I'd rather spend my money on coins or numismatic literature related to my areas of interest. For $600, $900 or $1200, I can buy some nice coins. If I was going to support any coin related club or society, it would be the ANS.

CaptHenway · June 9, 2019 10:10AM

I joined in 1971 and upgraded to LM around 1977 for I think $300. However, for the 5-1/2 years I was on staff one of our employee “benefits” was free membership, and they would not pay me the annual dues back in cash!

dbldie55 · June 9, 2019 11:16AM

I did this over 15 years ago. I have the "full" membership, that includes the mailed copies of the Numismatist. I think this was $750 back then.

I did have a similar issue with the thought of benefits for permanent license plates. in our state, if your vehicle is over 10 years old, you can get permanent plates for a one time fee that is equal to about 4 years. i debated this on my old truck in 2004, wondering if I would keep it 4 more years. That was 15 years ago, and i was driving it this week, so that one was a good deal.

jonathanb · June 9, 2019 11:23AM

I've looked at life membership several times. I absolutely would do it... if it wasn't actively a bad deal for me. Several other people have already commented that the financial numbers are absurd, and I came to the same conclusion.

If the life membership rate was more like 10 years worth of dues rather than 30+, I'd have a lot more to think about.

The ANA is leaving money on the table.

dpoole · June 9, 2019 11:30AM

In my professional organization, you get free lifetime membership after 40 years of dues paying. That makes more sense.

In the meantime, and otherwise, solicit voluntary donations (which the ANA already does).

RogerB · June 9, 2019 11:38AM

RE: "...and they would not pay me the annual dues back in cash!"

Well - don;t keep us in suspense ! How did they pay you back? Free authentication? Extra cream in your coffee? A donut a day? I know it can be tough to get these old emotional traumas out, but it will be good for you!

BillDugan1959 · June 9, 2019 12:32PM

Been a regular member of the ANA for 41 years, but can't begin to tell you how embarrassed I have been for the last ten years or so. Completely and totally embarrassed.

Had I never attended a Summer Seminar, I would have dropped out years ago.

RKKay · June 9, 2019 1:19PM

I may be the only person who has benefited from becoming a life member. I let my membership lapse when I went away to college in the early 80s, and it wasn’t until the late 90s when I got back into it. Nearly 20 years of not paying dues and my membership was immediately changed to lifetime when I paid the lifetime membership fees at that time.

PerryHall · June 9, 2019 1:20PM

@BillDugan1959 said:
Been a regular member of the ANA for 41 years, but can't begin to tell you how embarrassed I have been for the last ten years or so. Completely and totally embarrassed.

Why are you embarrassed? Can you be more specific?

BillDugan1959 · June 9, 2019 4:27PM

I could easily list ten to twenty embarrassing things, but I would be worried that the moderators would think I am too negative.

This year I sent in my annual dues simply because I expect to go to Rosemont.

cameonut2011 · June 9, 2019 5:18PM

@CaptHenway said:
I joined in 1971 and upgraded to LM around 1977 for I think $300. However, for the 5-1/2 years I was on staff one of our employee “benefits” was free membership, and they would not pay me the annual dues back in cash!

Adjusted for inflation, that would be nearly $1300 value in today's money in 1977!

cameonut2011 · June 9, 2019 5:19PM

@BillDugan1959 said:
I could easily list ten to twenty embarrassing things, but I would be worried that the moderators would think I am too negative.

If I'm still here, you have nothing to worry about.

ricko · June 10, 2019 6:19AM

As we seniors realize, lifetime membership offers are not a good investment.... I did invest in a lifetime membership in one organization back when I was thirty years old... That has certainly paid off....Now, I would not consider any such offers...Cheers, RickO

amwldcoin · June 10, 2019 6:56AM

The only lifetime opportunity I regret not taking advantage of was a lifetime subscription to National Geographic magazine in the 70's. It was a bargain when they offered it and with the cost of the magazine now the savings would be mind boggling!

cardinal · June 10, 2019 11:10AM

I became a life member 15 years ago. I do not recall how much it cost back then.

That same year, I submitted an article to the Numismatist, and after the article was published, unexpectedly I received a check from the ANA for my article. The check was more than I paid for a life membership!! So, basically, the time spent writing up an article gave me a free subscription for life!! Perhaps others willing to write an article for the Numismatist could do that same?

Treashunt · June 10, 2019 11:29AM

I thought about it, but hate that it costs extra for the paper copy of the magazine

DotStore · June 10, 2019 11:35AM

Is this bad -- I was thinking of a membership as the most cost-effective way to get coin submission privileges to NGC

BStrauss3 · June 11, 2019 2:54PM

@jonathanb said:
I've looked at life membership several times. I absolutely would do it... if it wasn't actively a bad deal for me. Several other people have already commented that the financial numbers are absurd, and I came to the same conclusion.

If the life membership rate was more like 10 years worth of dues rather than 30+, I'd have a lot more to think about.

The ANA is leaving money on the table.

Not really... the actuarial answer is to look at your life expectancy vs. the cost of fulfilling the membership.

Say you are a 70 year old male... your life expectancy is 14.4 years (https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html) so they need to be able to invest your $$$ to provide a 15 year cash flow of $28/year.

If you simplify things with an expectation that the dues more or less grow to match inflation, so the time value of money doesn't matter. $500 lasts not quite 17 years... If you die tomorrow, the house wins. If you live to 101, they lose.

if you look at the ANA's financials, you will see a liability for future dues for life members and money brought in from an escrow account for the current year's costs.

jonathanb · June 11, 2019 4:14PM

OK, I'll rephrase.

Over the past 10 years, there were several times when I was actually in the process of renewing my dues and I actually had discretionary money available. Each of those times when I looked at the life membership costs, my conclusion was always, "They've got to be kidding, no way I'm doing that".

I'm not an actuary and I don't make my decisions based on the ANA's financials. If they ANA had shown a reason why this was good for ME, I would have given them a big chunk of money. Since they didn't, I didn't.

thisistheshow · June 11, 2019 4:58PM

I joined earlier this year for the first time. I have used the NGC benefit as well as some of the online resources. I know that I have underused the resources thus far. I plan on trying to use the rest of my year to gauge the value.

TwoSides2aCoin · June 12, 2019 9:10AM

Life member here. One benefit is the death notification. That's how you will know my membership expired, unless I get kicked out, first.

ANA's Lifetime Membership Option!

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