Do You Have Enough (Or To Much) Life Insurance?

[RazzmaTazz]

Had to do a post on this since I got into an argument the other day with a couple of friends of mine. One was a younger friend of mine who is about my age (24), and the other was one of the guys that I work with who is in his 40s. Both had the same side of the argument that life insurance was too expensive, and unnecessary. My side is that not only is it too expensive NOT to be without, but that for everybody, some amount of life insurance is necessary.

First off, even for a guy like myself, 24 years old, unmarried, no kids, at a minimum I should have enough life insurance to cover my funeral should something tragic happen. Right now I just want to be buried in a nice casket, nothing overly fancy, in a decent cemetery. I found that the average price of a funeral like that is going to be roughly around $15,000. So at a minimum that is the amount that I should have in insurance. I don't really want my parents to foot the bill if tragedy strikes before them.

But when you're talking about income, such as the older friend of mine, a person needs to have substantial insurance. And this is where most people fuck it up. And I have a personal experience with this that is why I'm so passionate about it.

Back when I was 15, I had a really good friend who I shared a ton of my personal stories with. His family was pretty well off, not rich, but probably upper middle class. They had a bigger house than my family had, he had a little bit nicer things than I had, but it wasn't like Beverly Hills vs. Skid Row. Tragedy struck his family though when his dad was killed in an auto accident on his way home from work. What followed was like a house of cards.

My friends dad didn't have enough life insurance to cover their outstanding bill, their mortgage, and have income for his mom who only worked a part time job. In a few months my friend and his mom were forced to move into a small apartment, and his mom had to quickly find a full time job. It didn't take long for my friend to move from mourning his dad's death to depression about the after effects. I don't think he was ever suicidal, but the depression took it's toll on his mood, and on his school work. He went from being an "A" student where the two of us fought for grades, to barely graduating. All this because his dad thought insurance was too expensive. Do you think he would have said the same thing if he would have seen what it did to his family?

What is insurance for exactly? It is either to restore you to a position before a loss, or in the case of life insurance to keep your family in the same position after a death. Yea, it can be expensive. But it can be more devastating without out. In my friends case, his dad should have had enough insurance to wipe out their debts, clear the mortgage, and provide enough income so that his wife and son wouldn't have had to change their lifestyle.

I only have two credit cards that I use for emergencies only, and both of them have that "Credit Insurance" on them. If I get injured or die, the insurance pays them off. The bigger one is what is called "Mortgage Insurance". This one is a harder sell as I work in the mortgage industry. This one will pay off the mortgage in the event of the death of the loan holder. There are a few varieties that I won't get into.

Insurance as a whole is a hard sell because you are paying for something month over month that you don't see the value in. How many of you would stop paying car insurance if it were legal? How many of you would stop paying medical insurance if you could?

And there is insurance for just about everything: home repairs, legal issues, cell phones, computers, rental apartments, etc.

You just have to think about what is going to happen to your family if something should happen to you and you don't have enough insurance. It kills me to see how many people open up GoFundMe accounts to get help in tragic situations. I get that their may be folks out there that insurance IS too expensive for them, and I totally understand that. To those folks I just say keep it in the back of your mind and when you can afford it, then that is when you get it. But for the people that I know who can afford it, and just don't, you are the people I want to throw a rock at. My friends dad was someone who could have afforded it, but didn't, and my friend and his mom paid the price.

This is the beginning of summer, and the beginning of when accidents can happen. Well, that can happen anytime really. But I'm sure you get what I mean. Now is the time to review your position and make adjustments as necessary. As for me, I'm going to be looking into getting extra life insurance to pass on a legacy to who ever might have young kids at the time of my passing. Maybe set up some sort of education account. What do you want to leave behind?

 

[trencherman]

I bought term insurance when I reached my forties and stopped when I retired from employment. It was like a double indemnity insurance. You double your policy once you are diagnosed with cancer. I bought it because I loved the movie and I heard one is likely to die of cancer between your forties and your fifties. Once I passed that period I thought I no longer needed it.

 

[Shelter]

Well and here my input to this really very important thread.
Yes I'm an advocate for insurances - not for such baloney as insurances for cell phones or TV's and so on.

But I think everyone should have a life insurance. You never know what will happen in your later years. We are living in Germany and both of us we have a house. And here in Germany it is obligatory to have a fire insurance for your house. Important in my opinion is a household insurance. As well we have a legal protection insurance and for us very important a disability insurance.

Health insurance is obligatory in Germany.

 

[RufusMc]

I only have 'death in service' which pays 3 times annual salary if I die whilst still working. I have no insurance as, at this time, I have no dependents, my assumption is the sale of my property will cover any funeral costs. (I have home and car insurance)

I will, however, take out insurance should I end up back in a relationship so as to not leave the other half with the full brunt of funeral costs.

I think you definitely need some form of cover if you are with someone.

 

[Shelter]

What I think is a real tragedy is - that most of all in the USA it will be for a normal wage earner so terrible expensive or as well impossible to pay for a good health insurance or an accident insurance. In this case I'm really so very happy to live here in Germany where we have all these things regulated.

 

[lhardwick69]

I don't have any because I don't have anyone to leave it to--

 

[brmstn69]

This is something I've been obsessing over for awhile now...

I haven't talked about this here, and really don't want to get into it now, but last November my mother passed very unexpectedly. Her life insurance company would not give me any information without a death certificate, the would only confirm that she had a $15,000 policy. In my state it takes two weeks to get a copy of a death certificate, I only had three days to plan the funeral. So I went ahead and arranged a nice, but not extravagant service, skipping out on a few unnecessary extras like the limo. Most of my family already drive Cadillacs and Lincolns anyway, lol...

In total I spent about $12,000. When I got the insurance check, it was only $7,500. It seems that she had borrowed money against the policy.

Now I'm in bankruptcy, my house is being foreclosed on, and I will soon be living in my van. I was already planning to live in my van later down the road when I retire, but I was hoping to take my time and restore it first and build it out slowly exactly as I want. Now I'm forced to slap together something on an extremely limited budget, on a half finished restoration. But I'll make due.

As for my insurance, well... Given my heart problems we always thought I'd go first, so everything, the house, the credit cards, everything is in my name with insurance to pay it off when I die. Plus another $100,000 in life insurance, and a second $15,000 policy through my employer. This was to provide for my mother being able to afford help when I was gone so she could continue living at home and not be sent to a nursing home.

What is they say about "The best laid plans"...

Needless to say, I've cancelled everything, the credit cards are gone, the house is going soon, and I have no one left to inherit it anyways, at least no one I give a shit about. The rest of my family has their own money,, and none of them stepped up to help me, so fuck'em...

For now, I do still have the $15,000 policy through work that I'll be naming a friend as beneficiary on. I think I can trust him to bury me, at least I hope...

But just to be on the safe side, there is a lawsuit pending over my mothers death, and if I win, the first thing I'll do is buy a pre-planed, pre-paid funeral for myself. Hopefully, what's left over will be enough to retire on and spend my days traveling in the van I call home. When I do die, all that will be left is my van and it's contents and maybe a little cash in the bank. After all I have no one to leave it to so why own anything...

P.S. I do have excellent health insurance I get through work that is very affordable at $15.00 a week, OK, make that dirt cheap. My job pays a shit wage, but the benefits make up for it...

 

[dargelos]

Sorry to hear that life has given you such a bum deal, b69, that's too much bad luck for anyone. Yet you still hang on to your sense of humour and your will to survive, that's impressive. Hope you get something back from the legal action and it dosen't get eaten up by fees.
I have no idea what thoughts my boyfriend has about his funeral, it's too soon after his mother's passing to talk about that unhappy subject. For myself I have not one penny to pay for my own service. If cremation without funeral was good enough for David Bowie, with all his money, it's good enough for me.
Idealy I would like to donate myself to the medical school, then there are no expenses at all, but they don't take as many donors as want to apply.
Certainly I will never get insurance, life is short and then you're dead for an awfuly long time, so what little cash I can get my hands on is for living right now, it's the only life I will ever have.

 

[Shelter]

Puuuuhhh - oh my dear God, I'm really shocked what I read here and how "life" is elswhere. Honestly, with all the things we have to lament here in Germany - I can see we are living in a paradise.

 

[brmstn69]

Puuuuhhh - oh my dear God, I'm really shocked what I read here and how "life" is elswhere. Honestly, with all the things we have to lament here in Germany - I can see we are living in a paradise.

Is it really so shocking that things in the United States are so fucked up that a blue-collar employee working full-time cannot afford a place to live while Amazon makes $11.2 billion in profits and not only pays no federal taxes, but also gets a $129 million tax refund?

 

[NeverCD]

Is it really so shocking that things in the United States are so fucked up that a blue-collar employee working full-time cannot afford a place to live while Amazon makes $11.2 billion in profits and not only pays no federal taxes, but also gets a $129 million tax refund?

And yet its the 'progressives' that loooooove these monopolistic, globalistic companies, and retch at the thought of all those 'deplorables'. As you say, fucked up.