Finance Blog
Four Reasons to Have Life Insurance Now
No one wants to talk about death, but unfortunately far too many people put off discussing life insurance until it is too late. When you have others relying on you and your income, your death can spell disaster for them. The bottom line is that it is imperative to have a good life insurance policy in place to provide for your final expenses and for your loved ones going forward.
Here are four good reasons why it is important to have life insurance.
1. Life insurance pays for your final expenses.
This is the first and most obvious reason to have insurance coverage. It typically costs thousands of dollars for burial expenses and a funeral—up to $10,000 in some cases. This can create an unnecessary financial hardship and is not something you want your family to have to scramble to pay after you’ve passed away..
2. Life insurance provides financial support.
A comprehensive life insurance policy will provide enough financial benefits to keep your family from falling into financial ruin due to the loss of your income. Such coverage can give survivors money for house payments, bills, and other expenses. This can be a great benefit to families who have lost their primary income provider or to a non-working spouse. The benefits from a life insurance policy can also be used to wipe out any debt that could be crippling a family.
3. Life insurance offers you peace of mind.
This might be more important than any of the other reasons. If you are concerned about the impact your death would have on your loved ones, it makes good sense to do the research and locate the type of policy and coverage that will give you simple peace of mind—sometimes that can mean more than anything else. By thinking responsibly about the future, you’ll be putting some measures into place to protect those that you care about.
4. Life insurance might not be available later.
Like a lot of people, you may think that you can put off getting life insurance coverage. It could be that you don’t see a reason at present—you don’t have a spouse or dependents, or you see yourself as young and healthy. Whatever the reason, you probably want to put it off. But if you get sick or learn you have a terminal illness and that you aren’t eligible for coverage at that point, it will be too late to do anything. It doesn’t have to be that way.
It should go without saying, but obtaining life insurance is very important. It can make a big difference to your quality of life now and later, and it might make a big difference to your family. Think about it. Do the research and find the type of coverage that makes sense for you.
Jeff Rose is a Certified Financial Planner and author of the blogs Good Financial Cents and Life Insurance by Jeff. Learn more about his Life Insurance Movement that has inspired many personal finance bloggers to educate families on the importance of buying life insurance.
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I think besides providing help for your family after your gone, finding peace of mind is a huge reason to have life insurance coverage. This is a great movement Jeff, thank you!
Jeff, I’m a reader of your blog…Good Financial Cents. This is a good article. The two most compelling reasons to me are; that it might not be available later. It’s a must to take advantage of life insurance while you’re healthy. Not only that, but to get the death benefit right (buy enough coverage) the first time, so you don’t run into a situation where you can’t raise the benefit amount.
Second, final expenses. I’ve had to bury a family member, and was completely surprised by the cost and the amount.
Sincerely,
Jared Balis
Carrie and Jared:
Thanks for your comments.
Carrie: I agree with you – buying life insurance provided a huge peace of mind to myself and my husband, Sam, when we did it the first time. But it felt even better when, realizing our circumstances had changed, we went through the process again and upgraded our term life policies so that our children would be protected if we died suddenly. We wanted them to be able to live the life we imagined for them, at least through college and graduate school.
Jared: The cost of buying someone is astronomical. Unfortunately, I lost one of my best friends (at age 47) and his widow asked me to pick out a plot and arrange for the funeral. The cost would be prohibitive to many families. The plot alone was several thousand dollars, and the tombstone his mother picked up cost more than $1,000 on top of that. There were all sorts of other fees, and I’m sure she spend nearly $15,000 by the time she was done with it all.
Thanks for reading the blog and following Jeff. We think he’s pretty smart, too. I hope you’ll forward this blog post to your contacts and connections so we can share the great information we have on the Equifax Finance Blog, and I hope you will join us again.
Hi Jeff,
Great post I would agree on you on this”Life insurance offers you peace of mind.” I think what your doing here is great as your educating people on how things work. Been reading your blog lifeinsurancebyjeff and one called http://termlifeinsurancemales.com/. helps a lot.