The Importance of Life Insurance

In the last few months I have heard of several young mothers or fathers dying suddenly and leaving their children and surviving spouse behind in a terrible situation because they did not have any or enough life insurance.  In particular, stay-at-home moms.  I've seen mothers go to the hospital to have a baby or have routine surgery and not come out again.  It's absolutely tragic!  But it's made even worse because they didn't have life insurance.  So I'm taking this opportunity to plead with you, PLEASE take the time to get the proper amount and type of life insurance.  It would be hard enough for your loved ones to lose you, but don't complicate things by leaving them in a lurch.  I'm not going to go into great detail because I did that a few years ago.  Here's what I said then.  So briefly, I'll sum up.

1~  You need life insurance if anyone is depending on your income or services.  This automatically includes parents, whether they work outside the home or not.
2~ Avoid Whole Life, Universal or any similar products.  They are a rip off.  If you have one of these policies don't cancel it until you have a term policy in place first.
3~ Find a good term policy for 20-30 years, depending on how old you are.  If you're doing what I teach to do with your money by the time the policy expires, you'll be out of debt, you'll be well invested towards retirement, your house will be paid off, and your kids will be grown and out of the house.  Essentially, you'll be self-insured, so you won't need it.
4~ Get a policy that is 8-10 times your income.  So if you make $50,000/year, then you need a $500,000 policy.
5~ Don't rely on what your work offers.  Often times their rates are more expensive than you can get elsewhere and they don't offer enough for you.  Plus, what happens when you don't work there anymore?  You're suddenly not insured.
6~ If you are a parent, be sure to get a $5,000-10,000 child rider on your policy.  They are only a few dollars more a month and are enough to cover burial expenses if anything should happen.

I have seen first hand the struggle and heart ache that is left behind when a family loses a parent or a child suddenly.  Funerals are expensive and can easily exceed $10,000.  If you don't have insurance, how would your family pay for that?  I've seen families struggle to pay for proper headstones of a lost loved ones.  If that weren't hard enough, listen up you stay-at-home moms.  Think about all the things you do for your family-you're the cook, housekeeper, day care and chauffeur, to name a few.  How would your husband do and pay for all those things if something happened to you?  Likewise, to you fathers.  What would happen to your wife and kids if your income suddenly was gone?

Bottom line, be responsible to those you love and get life insurance.  Whether your a one or two income home, you need it if you have others counting on you.  It doesn't take much to set up, but makes all the difference when you need it.  Don't wait another day.  Do it now!