Family Finances: Life Insurance
Well I am definitely going out of my comfort zone here. I am a money spender, not a saver. I am young I plan to live forever and take care of my family. Why spend hundreds of dollars a month on life insurance?
I am turning 40 in December. That’s not really that young. I am excited for the “wisdom”, “patience”, and “simplicity” that I have always imagined 40 would bring me, but if I am embracing it, I have to also embrace the fact that I AM aging.
This new decade that is in my horizon, along with this monumental election and tough economy have turned me into a different kind of person. I opened a new savings account with a credit union this week and hope to one day make a deposit into it. (baby steps!) :-) I no longer consider “frugal” to be a “f” word. And this year while Hubby is gone hunting, instead of picking a large project to do do in the house I am cleaning out the basement and getting rid of HALF of the clutter. I’ll show you pictures. I am also diving into our family finances.
If something happened to either my Hubby or myself, the other would have a hard time sorting out what bills and assets have been left behind. Neither of us is savvy when it comes to insurance so it is my goal to gather info and have some scenarios in hand when the Great Hunter returns. 
How does a person know how to start a big project like that that is so far out of her area of expterise? She googles, of course! Then looks up Suze Orman clips on You Tube. I learned from Suze that life insurance was never intended to be a permanent part of your portfolio! It was meant for protection when you are young before your retirement and other assets kick in later in life. But insurance companies will advise you to buy all sorts of things that you don’t need, that waste your money that you could be investing in your retirement. I’m going to attach the short clip that got my attention and gave me some direction. Basically Suze said to avoid hundreds of dollars a month spent on whole life insurance because you will get your best life insurance rates and the best use of your money by buying only term life insurance plans.
As important as all this financial stuff is, I don’t want to leave on such a serious tone. So in addition to the Suze Orman clip I am going to find a SNL SPOOF of Suze. Kristen Wii’s recurring Orman character is one of my favorite bits!
To summarize… Simplify. Laugh. Invest.
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Good for you for looking into life insurance. My husband and I purchased term life insurance a few years ago at the suggestion of our insurance broker. We had assumed it would be expensive and had been putting it off, but it ended up being less than $100/month for both of us. My husband passed away in July from cancer (he only got sick a couple of weeks before we died, so there was really no warning). I thank God every day that we did get that insurance. I never expected to be a widow at 39, but here I am. I have also started getting my financial papers in order now, too. I always handled the bills anyway, so I wasn’t lost in that area after he died. Everything gets paid on time and I know where everything is, but it’s very disorganized. So, if anything happened to me, whoever has to deal with all of that stuff would have a really hard time.
Good luck with your organizing.
Paula! Four months ago your Hubby died unexpectedly? I am 39 right now… I cannot imagine being in such a situation.You seem like an amazing strong woman. {hugs&love} to you.
I agree you must be a very strong woman Paula. Even if in some cases it can be really good with insurance i still believe that if you put the same amount of money that you pay in insurance and put it away every month into a stable indexfund or 4 stable stocks you will benefit. As long as noone dies within a few years you are safe. You will have a big buffert that grows and grows and if noone dies unexpectedly it could be used for other purposes.