Feelings

Word count for this week's article:  351

Approximate time to read:  About 1.4 minutes



What is the most important thing to consider when buying life insurance? Most people will answer “the amount” and while that is critically important, I believe even more important is why you’re buying it.

I’ve talked before about life insurance being a product of love; that is, if you don’t love someone, why would you even consider purchasing life insurance? And if you do love someone, would you really mind erring on the conservative side and buying perhaps a bit more than some sterile formula calls for?

There is no correct amount of life insurance that a fictional individual should buy, for the simple reason that feelings play a huge role in determining the amount to acquire. And that is the primary reason why the life insurance decision is so difficult.

Intellectually, it is not difficult to understand that our time here is limited. We don’t know when it will end, but we know that it will.  However, coming to grips with it emotionally can be very unnerving.

Trying to imagine our spouse and children dealing with their lives without us is not a pleasant task, and even more so if the children are young. It would be immeasurably more difficult to imagine if there was not enough money.

An early death is a traumatic event for the survivors, but especially the children. Many times, as adults, we can’t make sense of an early death, so it is that much more senseless to children.

Life insurance cannot answer the questions surrounding an early death, nor can it deal with the heartache created by it, and it obviously cannot bring back the loved one. The one issue it deals with superbly is the financial uncertainty created by death. If the deceased carried an appropriate amount, it could ensure that survivors will not have to be uprooted and might provide at least a semblance of stability in their forever changed lives.

So while there are myriad calculators and formulae purporting to show the "correct” amount of life insurance one needs, perhaps knowing the reason(s) you’re buying it will provide a more appropriate number.