11/03/2024
Is Life Insurance a Good Idea?
Hannah Boykin’s parents didn’t think so.
And tragically, both of them passed away within 14 months of each other, leaving 6 kids behind (mostly teenagers) with no financial support.
The children were devastated, not just because they lost both of their parents, but also because they had to be split up. No one in the family could afford to take all of them at once.
Term Life Insurance is extremely affordable. I recommend 10-12x your income over 20-30 years. Get a real-time quote here.
I heard about Hannah’s tragic story from a friend who writes for a life insurance blog. My friend (Chris) had told me although Hannah faced the unthinkable, she still managed to graduate at the top of her class in high school and start a nursing program.
…but after being split up from her brothers and sisters, and suffering the effects of zero financial support in college, I can’t help but wonder how things would have been different for her family if life insurance had been in the picture.
I tell that story not to scare you into buying life insurance but to show that death can not only be unexpected, but it can also have a lasting impact beyond the loss of a loved one.
Fortunately, there’s a simple and affordable way to prevent Hanna’s story from EVER becoming your family’s story… term life insurance.
Do you really need life insurance?
The short answer is, most likely yes.
…let me explain.
If you rent or own a home, and can’t answer the question, “Where would my family be living 1 year from today if I suddenly died,” you need life insurance. (HINT: The answer should be in the exact same place they are living now.)
In fact, if anyone in your family relies on the income (or services) you provide, and would be impacted financially by your death, you need life insurance.
According to popular insurance blog Lifehappens.org, the top four reasons people buy life insurance are as follows:
Cover burial and other final expenses
Replace lost income
Pay Off Debt
College Planning
Between all of these, most people are covered. Let’s take a look at each one in turn:
1 – Help replace lost income
At the outset, I asked, “If you were to die tomorrow, where would your family live a year from now?“
How about 3 years? Will your spouse still be able to make rent or mortgage payments? Will your kids still be able to do sports or other extracurricular activities?
If you’re the breadwinner in your relationship, losing your income could limit your family’s future, especially if you still have 2 or 3 decades left in your working career.
Term life insurance is the best way to cover lost income. It’s cheap and flexible. For example, a 35-year-old male in good health could get a 25-year $1,000,000 term policy for as little as $35 per month.
…you’re not stuck with 25 years either. You can typically choose between a 10-, 20-, 30- or even 40-year term.
2 – Cover burial and other final expenses
Whether or not you have people depending on you financially, you can’t escape these expenses.
…funerals and burial aren’t cheap either, running just over $8,000 on average.
With over 70% of people living paycheck to paycheck and 6 out of 10 people unable to write a check for $1,000 in an emergency, a funeral expense would be a major blow.
The average family would be facing the loss of a loved one and the sobering reality that the only option to honor your loved one at the funeral is to go deep in debt or set up a GoFundMe account.
With term life insurance, you can easily cover the burial and other final expenses for pennies per month. I of course would recommend you get much more life insurance than just $8,000 and we will see why in our next example.
need life insurance3 – Pay off debt
Debt can weigh you down in any financial situation, but more so when you’ve just lost a loved one.
That’s why a lot of people get life insurance to help their spouse pay off debt — including their credit cards, student loans, auto loans, or any type of debt that would burden a family if you were to die prematurely.
…but what about the mortgage?
Basically, you might want to consider getting enough coverage to pay off all debt — including your mortgage. Again, it’s not about getting rich. It’s about preserving your family’s way of life.
4 – College planning
Planning for college is a huge obstacle for most families. The never-ending rise in college tuition, paying for room and board, and everything else that goes along with college planning can seem daunting.
Now, imagine if you were left to plan for this alone and without help from your partner’s income? How much harder does college planning become now? Term life insurance solves this problem for your loved ones who are left behind after you’re gone.
By getting term life insurance now, the burden of paying for college goes away if something were to happen to you. The last thing your loved ones should have to worry about is how to pay for college when you’re gone. This is just another reason why life insurance is so valuable.
