I Wish You'd Had Life Insurance ...

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We all have stories of life insurance (or lack of it) effects us when a loved one dies. For a colleague of mine, it was about five years ago, living out West with her husband and teenage son. One day, they received a call that their son had died in a car accident - he'd fallen asleep at the wheel.

Her husband (the son's step-father), had to work the day of the funeral in order to scrape together the money to pay for the funeral.

I can't imagine that. They couldn't afford to grieve.

Six months later, tragedy struck my friend's family again. Her husband died unexpectedly, again with no life insurance. With no way to cover the funeral or the mortgage any longer, she lost the house.

That's right, within a year, she lost her son, her husband, and her house. She had no way to survive, so she had to move across the country and move in with relatives in North Carolina. It took her 3 years to get back on her feet.

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My personal story is about what could happen to my family if something happens to me.

My first career was a s a biomedical scientist, but from about 2010 to 2015, I was living in an area where there weren't jobs in my field, and I was broke. I had a wife and two young children who depended on me, and I was broke. The strain ruined my marriage, and I had to move to earn money to support my children.

I saw what financial problems did to my family, and the people that I loved. It broke my heart. I'm doing better now, but not so much better that I don't worry about what could happen to them if I wasn't supporting them financially. It kept me up at night.

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Life Insurance (and Health Insurance) helps me sleep better at night.

I spend close to 10% of my income on life and health insurance because I want to sleep better at night. I want to know that:

if I die, the money will still be there to allow my daughters to attend college.
if I have a heart attack or cancer, I'll have my medical expenses covered and money to continue supporting my daughters.
I can affordably go to the doctor to make sure that (1) and (2) don't happen.
and I gain cash value with these plans that allows me to retire one day. I don't want to have to work until the day I die.

I have three plans to help me do that:

First, I have a fixed indemnity plan as health insurance on myself, as an affordable way to see the doctor if something happens to me.

Second, I have guaranteed universal life plan on myself, with critical and chronic illness benefits, so that if I die, get cancer or can't work any longer due to illness, I'll have money to replace my income and (if necessary) bury me with.

And third, I have an IUL that grows interest on the cash value of my life insurance, so I can retire one day.

I have all of this, because I want to sleep better knowing my loved ones will be okay.

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Written by Dan Rhoads.