Courtesy Kelly Burch
The author, Kelly Burch, and one of her daughters.
Last April, I found myself sitting through one of those dreaded timeshare pitches somewhere outside of Orlando, Florida. My cousins and I had booked free accommodation, for the small price of a morning spent here, learning about the so-called benefits of timeshare ownership. I knew I wasn't interested in a timeshare, so as we progressed through the slideshow and bounced around in a golf cart on a property tour, I made better use of my time, completing an application for life insurance.
Earlier that year, I had become the sole provider for my family, which includes my husband and two daughters. That ratcheted up the pressure to buy life insurance, since I wanted to know they could spend time together if I died, without worrying about finances.
I finished my insurance application during the timeshare presentation. A few weeks later, after a brief, at-home physical, I was approved and insured. Now, I've had life insurance for almost a year. Here are the four reasons I don't regret getting life insurance when I did.
It has given me peace of mind
As soon as I paid my first premium, I felt a sense of relief. No one wants to think about their death, but we're all going to die sometime. Realistically, we have no idea when that will be.
If I died uninsured, my husband (a stay-at-home dad) would have to get a job within a month to pay our bills. That would leave my two grieving children thrown into an unfamiliar childcare routine. That wouldn't be good for anyone
As a mom and wife, I love knowing that now, if I die, my husband won't need to rush back to work. I have $250,000 worth of coverage. That's enough to allow my husband to pay off our mortgage and spend at least a year home with our children before he has to get a job. That would make the adjustment to being a single-parent household much easier for everyone.
I am young and healthy, so life insurance is cheap
When I was thinking about buying life insurance, I set myself a deadline: I wanted to have insurance by my 30th birthday. I missed that by a few weeks, but was still fairly young when I signed up.
I'm also healthy. I was a bit worried about getting insurance because I'm overweight, but since my blood tests all came back in the ideal range, coverage was still very affordable despite my BMI.
I pay about $29 a month for my life insurance policy. I'm likely to spend more than that on coffee, a pedicure, or other frivolous expenses each month. If I had waited until I was older to get insurance, the rate would have gone up with age and any health complications that emerged. Since I bought insurance young, I'm locked into that rate for the next 20 years, which seems like a bargain to me.
It's cleared up a lot of mental space
As a mom and a business owner, I have a lot on my mind. There's the day-to-day to-do list that keeps my kids healthy and happy and my home running smoothly. Then, there's the niggling "should do" list that's always in the back of my mind. Those "should do" items usually pop up at the least convenient moments, distracting me from work.
Life insurance used to be at the top of that "should do" list. Now that it's taken care of - for the next two decades - I have more mental space to focus on the things I want to give my attention and energy to, like work and family.
I'm the perfect candidate for term life insurance
Life insurance is offered in either term or whole-life policies. I opted for a term policy, which means that my coverage will last for 20 years. After that, if I want insurance, I'll have to sign up for a new policy.
At the time I signed up for life insurance, my youngest was almost 1 year old. My 20-year policy guarantees that I'll have life insurance coverage throughout her childhood. After that, I hope to be "self-insured": to have enough money saved that paying for life insurance isn't necessary. In the meantime, however, it's great to know that my life insurance will protect my family until my daughters are adults.
Getting life insurance can dredge up a lot of emotions about your own mortality. Facing those feelings isn't fun, but I'm here to tell you that you'll feel better knowing that you've protected your loved ones by buying life insurance. We can't control our deaths, but we can make decisions to make a tragedy slightly easier on our families. That's a cause I'm happy to spend money on.
Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. What you decide to do with your money is up to you. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners. This does not influence whether we feature a financial product or service. We operate independently from our advertising sales team.
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