Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Are you prepared?

*Yep two posts in one day!*
 
One thing I've talked about in past is how now that we have a child we've been trying to prepare for the future and this preparation includes drawing up wills and buying life insurance. Two topics that most young people don't want to talk or think about. Unfortunately death, like taxes, is one of those unavoidable realities of life. Now that I have a family it's very important to me that they will be taken care of whenever I pass.
 
My father passed away this year and even though he was never good with his finances and had a good amount of debt the one thing he did do right was keeping up with his life insurance payments. He didn't have a large policy but it was enough to pay for his funeral which despite being very small and modest was still over $10,000!  Had he not had that policy we would have had to pay for that out of pocket. It also provided me and my two brothers with some unexpected money that we've been able to put towards paying off some of our own debts.
 
I have purchased a policy on myself which will cover funeral expenses, pay off my student loans, pay off the house and pay for Hunters childcare cost should Kristian need to raise him alone. We are in the process of purchasing a policy for Kristian as well. We've run into some bumps in the road due to his past medical history but we're determined to get a policy even if it's for a lesser amount. The thought of something happening to him terrifies me in general but the thought of having to raise Hunter alone on just my salary puts me into full panic mode.
 
Because I feel so strongly about this I'm joining Jeff Rose's Life Insurance Movement to help spread the word of the importance of life insurance. Go check out his site and link up and possibly win some neat prizes *cough*iPad*cough*

5 comments:

Jillian said...

This is certainly not a topic that people like to discuss, but a very important one indeed. My husband and I both have small life insurance policies but not nearly enough to cover expenses should something happen. I think it may be time to sit and have a serious discussion. thanks for the reminder.

beka said...

I love this post. I think it's really smart that you got a policy to not only cover outstanding debts should something happen, but also childcare costs!

Unknown said...

we each took out a $1m policy on ourselves recently. i need to get on that whole Will business, but if I die suddenly, start pointing fingers at kent. he' stands to make a racket.

princessapr said...

We are horrible about this. We totally need both. Hey, I did get Laura to the dentist finally so baby steps. The idea does terrify me on many levels though.

Thanks for the reminder! Good luck with the iPad. I love mine (though have to share it with the kid). I don't think it's worth the money, but it's worth being free. I won mine. *g*

Venassa said...

That's probably something I should look into, but I'm always a little slow with these things. 7 years of living in different apartments and I'm JUST getting tenants insurance.