Life Insurance is actually the one policy we are all guaranteed to make a claim on. Everyone, unless you are independently wealthy, needs at least a final expense policy. Life insurance is not for the people that die, it is for the ones you leave behind. Do you really want to leave your significant other all of your bills and final expenses?
Think about this. You are no longer here. Your income paid the mortgage, the utilities, all of the needs that kept your household running smoothly. Now, where is that money going to come from? Who is going to make sure your family doesn’t have to completely lose everything and change their entire lifestyle?
Since your significant other did not make enough money on their own for the mortgage, they are forced to be displaced or find a second form of income. So, you say, they will make money from the sale of the home, right? Maybe. They had to take out a second mortgage on the home just to pay for your funeral expenses (which is today’s dollars cost on the average $10,000).
In addition, with the economy the way it is, and the average household owing more on the mortgage than what the house is even worth. Okay, so maybe the market is in a time of prosper. How long would it take the house to sell? Who is paying the mortgage in the interim, not to mention the heat and electricity bills and heaven forbid you left unpaid medical expenses to worry about now. So, now you have left your loved ones in a situation where they are sitting in a dark home that is in foreclosure, huddled around a candle like paupers, bundled up in blankets to keep warm, still mourning your death and resenting you more for leaving them in this situation.
Yes, there is bankruptcy as an option, but now the surviving parent’s credit is ruined. Forget about getting a different home for your family. The phone bill and the cable bill needs to go under the 5-year old child’s social security number because the Parent’s number didn’t qualify. So, at the young age of not even knowing what credit is; their record is already being marred.
Say your significantly other was fortunate to pick up a second job to pay the bills and keep the home.
This parent, while you were alive and apart of the functioning household, was usually the one that was home on time to await the children’s arrival home from school. They were there to make dinner for the family, to help the children with homework and talk to them about their lives. But, now, that they needed to find a second job, the children have become “latch-key kids” because there is no money to hire a nanny or a sitter.
They are forced to make their own dinner (hopefully they are smart enough to cook a full-balanced meal, I doubt it, but MAYBE even so, the other parent didn’t have time to go grocery shopping so it looks as though its mac n cheese again); the children’s grades drop because they lose interest with school since no one is there to encourage and help them on their homework plus, household chores need to be done so there isn’t time for homework. Well, forget college anyway since there wasn’t enough money for college funds after your death.
Your once loving and stable family no longer has time to connect with each other because the single parent is working 2 or 3 jobs to try and maintain their current lifestyle. It is emotionally hard enough for a family to adjust to the loss of a parent and significant other without having to worry about where their next meal is going to be coming from or how much longer they can continue to live in this quality of life that they were forced to become accustomed to. We all work very hard to get where we are in life, having the money there after you are gone assures your family won’t go through any more hardship then they have to.
So, now lets look at the same scenario with a person that had life insurance: There was enough money there for your family to pay off the mortgage and all your loans. Your significant other’s current job is enough to pay for all the groceries and utilities and every day living expenses. They are still home after the children arrive from school, your children are very healthy from eating balance meals and excelling in school. There is plenty of money in their college funds so that is not a worry, life is good. The family is still loving and stable and enjoys spending their free time together. You have left a legacy to be proud of.
But, if you don’t care enough about your loved ones to worry about what will happen to them once your gone, then, yeah, you’re right, you don’t need life insurance.