Be Cautious Who You Listen To About Buying Life Insurance
A
little while ago I saw a page on the internet that, unfortunately, I
can't share for legal reasons, that said that you only need to have life
insurance that amounts to three times your annual take home. This
irritates me and no, not because I believe that people should purchase
more than that as a general rule, but because person and family are
unique and have different personal needs, family needs and obligations.
It's highly unlikely that a qualified life insurance agent would
intentionally lead you to believe this to be true. Why? Read this.
Here's an example of why this won't work for most people.everyone. Let us say that we have a family of 4 where the children are young, ages 7 & 5, respectfully. The wife is a housewife and has no job experience other than working at KFC as a teenager, which was a long time ago. The husband brings home the money and makes a decent income of around $60,000.00 each year and, like most American families, has bills to match that income.
They live in a nice home that they're buying, have two car payments Health Insurance which, even though it's an extra as a job benefit for himself (after deductibles), he still must is required to} pay to have the family covered. They also must pay vehicle insurance for two cars, life insurance for four people, in varying amounts, homeowners insurance, dental benefits and of course all of the other frequent expenses such as food, clothing, utilities, ect. Also, they have to send money at the end of the month to pay for their mother who is in a care home.
There are many other things that could be added into this and I could easily add more and more monthly obligations, but do you see how the bills added up for this family?
This may even be similar to your own situation,living situation, give or take. In the event of this man's untimely death do you really believe that three years worth of his annual income would be a sufficient amount of life insurance for their family? Let's do some math.
With the man of the house earning an annual paycheck of sixty thousand dollars that trippled by three years would give their family one hundred eighty thousand dollars coverage of life insurance. This might be stretched into four years worth of living money considering that one family member is now gone, but that only brings the little one's to the ages of 9 & 11, what now?
It's possible that the man may have allowed for this occurence, even beyond normal life insurance, by also buying a "Mortgage Life" policy that would pay off the home in the event of his death. He may have also made arrangements in the automobile contracts. But what if he didn't? Even though he had done this it still would have stretched their living expenses another 3 or 4 years, depending on how much they cut back on unnecessary things. That would bring the youngsters to the ages of 13 years old and 15 years old now. What's going to happen the next five years until the littlest child turns 18? What about college for each of them? Do the couple's parents have burial arrangements? They may not if this couple is already sending money each month for the mother's nursing care.
This is all simply an example of a common family situation but I wanted you to take a minute and really think about these things. The only way for you to determine how much life insurance will be enough for you and your loved ones is to actually sit down and look at every bill that you currently have, the bills that you know you'll have in the future, all of the variables that could happen (if these didn't happen there might not be a need for insurance) and then when you think you've got a good number add 20%, just in case. It's always better to have more than you need than not enough.
If you are the primary provider of your family wouldn't you want to know for for sure that your family was going to be okay in the event that something happened to you, no matter what happens? Me too. The only point that I'm trying to get across is to not let someone else dictate to you how much life insurance you need. Sit down with your other half and then call or email a qualified agent. Get it right the first time because, unfortunately, there is no second chance in these life and death circumstances.
Here's an example of why this won't work for most people.everyone. Let us say that we have a family of 4 where the children are young, ages 7 & 5, respectfully. The wife is a housewife and has no job experience other than working at KFC as a teenager, which was a long time ago. The husband brings home the money and makes a decent income of around $60,000.00 each year and, like most American families, has bills to match that income.
They live in a nice home that they're buying, have two car payments Health Insurance which, even though it's an extra as a job benefit for himself (after deductibles), he still must is required to} pay to have the family covered. They also must pay vehicle insurance for two cars, life insurance for four people, in varying amounts, homeowners insurance, dental benefits and of course all of the other frequent expenses such as food, clothing, utilities, ect. Also, they have to send money at the end of the month to pay for their mother who is in a care home.
There are many other things that could be added into this and I could easily add more and more monthly obligations, but do you see how the bills added up for this family?
This may even be similar to your own situation,living situation, give or take. In the event of this man's untimely death do you really believe that three years worth of his annual income would be a sufficient amount of life insurance for their family? Let's do some math.
With the man of the house earning an annual paycheck of sixty thousand dollars that trippled by three years would give their family one hundred eighty thousand dollars coverage of life insurance. This might be stretched into four years worth of living money considering that one family member is now gone, but that only brings the little one's to the ages of 9 & 11, what now?
It's possible that the man may have allowed for this occurence, even beyond normal life insurance, by also buying a "Mortgage Life" policy that would pay off the home in the event of his death. He may have also made arrangements in the automobile contracts. But what if he didn't? Even though he had done this it still would have stretched their living expenses another 3 or 4 years, depending on how much they cut back on unnecessary things. That would bring the youngsters to the ages of 13 years old and 15 years old now. What's going to happen the next five years until the littlest child turns 18? What about college for each of them? Do the couple's parents have burial arrangements? They may not if this couple is already sending money each month for the mother's nursing care.
This is all simply an example of a common family situation but I wanted you to take a minute and really think about these things. The only way for you to determine how much life insurance will be enough for you and your loved ones is to actually sit down and look at every bill that you currently have, the bills that you know you'll have in the future, all of the variables that could happen (if these didn't happen there might not be a need for insurance) and then when you think you've got a good number add 20%, just in case. It's always better to have more than you need than not enough.
If you are the primary provider of your family wouldn't you want to know for for sure that your family was going to be okay in the event that something happened to you, no matter what happens? Me too. The only point that I'm trying to get across is to not let someone else dictate to you how much life insurance you need. Sit down with your other half and then call or email a qualified agent. Get it right the first time because, unfortunately, there is no second chance in these life and death circumstances.
Be Cautious Who You Listen To About Buying Life Insurance
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