Completely, Totally Not Enough Life Insurance

One day, I am going to die.

How is that for the inspirational statement of the year?

I’m not one of those people who sits around and stresses out about the day that I’m going to die. Let’s face it, it’s going to happen. Preferably not any time soon, because I still have plenty of In-N-Out Burger that I want to eat. There is something about the dying thing that you need to realize, though: it’s going to happen to you, too.

I hope that it’s many years away from now, because I want you to enjoy some of the finer things in life.

For me, with a wife and three boys, I’ve got plenty of adventures planned. I accomplished one of these adventures this summer when I took my entire family on a two-week RV trip to the Grand Canyon.

Like the Griswolds, I would like to make this an annual Rose tradition. I’ve got big plans for the Roses, but if something were to happen to me, I want to make sure that they can still have fun. I want to make sure that they can still enjoy their lives, go to college, and live a full life. The only way that I know to give them a chance to do that is by buying life insurance.

Life Insurance Became a Priority

Buying life insurance was important when my wife and I got married, but it became exponentially more important with each child that we had. That’s why I currently have a sizable policy on myself.

Anytime I come across a young family, that’s one of the first things I want to make sure: have they thought about life insurance? Have they bought any? Have they bought enough? Do they know all of their options?

Having some life insurance is good, but having the right amount is even better. What’s not acceptable? Not having any at all.

Unacceptable

That was a conversation I had with a recent friend earlier this summer. While attending another friend’s wedding, we got the chance to strike up a conversation.

Basically, we’re friends because he married one of my wife’s college friends. Anytime we get together, we always have a good time, and we can talk about anything and everything.

At this wedding, he asked me how my book, Soldier of Finance, was doing, and I was happy to share the good news, but somewhere along the way we got to talking about life insurance.

Before you pass any quick judgments, I promise you I’m not the life insurance guy who talks about life insurance at a wedding reception. I promise you I didn’t bring this up, but somehow he mentioned that he had $10,000 of life insurance through his work. Knowing that he has a wife and two young kids, I pressed him a little bit to ask if he had any life insurance anywhere else.

He figured the $10,000 would be enough to bury him … That’s fair, but what about your house? What about your kids’ college? What about your wife trying to take care of raising your young kids?

When he responded no, I’m pretty sure I let out a very large sigh. Before I passed any judgment, I wanted to hear more about his rationale as to why he only had the $10,000. He said that he figured the $10,000 would be enough to bury him so that his kids wouldn’t have to worry about paying for a funeral.

That’s fair, but what about your house? What about your kids’ college? What about your wife trying to take care of raising your young kids? Don’t you think that losing your income would have an impact on her and how she would raise your children? I tried to press that a little bit, but not to the point of making him feel that he was stupid. Truth be told, I kind of thought he was, but I still like him.

When I gave him those points to think about, he responded with, “Huh, I never really thought about it that way.” I assured him that most people don’t, and that’s why I do what I do.

I explained to him how much life insurance I had on myself, the reason for it, and how much I was paying. I told him that he probably didn’t need as much as I did, but if he did, this is approximately what he would pay.

Even to get a policy a third of that size would cost him nothing compared with the benefit of what it would do for him and his family if something happened to him. Frankly, having $10,000 of life insurance when you’ve got a wife, three kids, a mortgage, and other debt is completely unacceptable.

I’d guess that you are probably in a similar situation—no life insurance or not enough. It’s Life Insurance Awareness Month, so why not take the leap and find out how much you really need with this online Life Insurance Needs Calculator.