The Importance of Life Insurance

 

Why You Need Life Insurance Sooner Than You Think (and Why Term Insurance Makes Sense)

Paul’s dad started pestering his 29-year-old son about buying life insurance soon after Paul got married. Paul kept putting it off. He and his wife wanted to travel. They bought a house. When they had a baby boy who was diagnosed with autism, they decided she would stay home to care for his needs. Money from Paul’s $130,000 salary came in and went out. And Paul lived in the moment through the good times and the bad.

Then a car skipped over a median and split Paul’s car in two. The wide eyes of the driver in the other car were the last thing Paul ever saw.

No one saw it coming. So no one planned for it.

With no death benefit from a life insurance policy, her son’s daycare costs and medical bills, and her inability to earn what Paul had brought in, Paul’s wife filed for bankruptcy five years later.

Life Insurance Is Important

Most of us are too busy living life to think about what happens when we’re no longer living. But the following statistics may encourage you to stop a minute and take stock.

• According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the average funeral expenses total $7,500.
• According to reporting by CNBC.com, average annual childcare costs are more than $10,000.
• According to emarketer.com, the average outstanding mortgage loan debt is $177,477.
• According to a study conducted by nerdwallet.com, the average credit card debt is $6,006.
• According to U.S. News & World Report, a middle-class annual income in a three-person U.S. household hovers around $200,000.
• According to the United States Census Bureau, the medical debt the average American family carried in 2021 was around $2,000.

If you take out your calculator, the math is sobering for the average family with kids. And if you think you can’t afford life insurance, you’re not alone.

According to a recent Bankrate article, 42% of millennial-aged adults think a $250,000 term life insurance policy costs $800 more per year than it really does.

Term insurance makes life insurance doable—especially if you start early.

Why Term Insurance Makes Sense

It’s simple.

You pay a low monthly premium; your loved ones receive a guaranteed lump-sum death benefit.

You decide the benefit amount and the length of coverage you need. Every penny of your paid premiums goes directly toward your death benefit.

It’s tax-free.

Unlike permanent insurance, term insurance does not yield dividends, which allows your family to keep the entire death benefit amount. It frees you to invest your money elsewhere to secure your family’s financial future.

Why tie up your earnings in a permanent policy when it may make more sense to invest them somewhere else?

It’s cheap.

The sooner you buy, the cheaper it is. A $1 million death benefit will cost a healthy 35-year-old man a monthly premium of around $35.

If your needs change as you get older, you can always adapt the policy to meet those needs by adding clauses when you renew or convert to a more permanent policy with extra features.

Paul’s wife eventually landed on her feet. After her bankruptcy went through, she found an excellent job with a salary that provided her and her son with a healthy standard of living. And when her son grew older, she remarried.

But had Paul listened to his dad, he could have saved his wife and son from darkly desperate times.

Protecting your family costs less than you think. Get online life insurance quotes today.