The Importance Of Life Insurance: Keeping Your Family Protected

3 October 2014
 Categories: Business, Articles

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Have you been thinking about obtaining a life insurance policy? After spending some time thinking about the future and how you never know what could happen, you may have decided that getting a policy would be the best thing for your family, especially if you have any children. If an unfortunate event were to cause your death, you wouldn't want your family to suffer financially without you there. Even if you plan on living a long life, the life insurance policy is an extra means of protection for a worst-case scenario situation.

Why Is Life Insurance Worth Having?

In the United States, a whopping 30% of people have not purchased life insurance yet, although there are many reasons why having a life insurance policy is worth it. If you have children, the money that they'll receive from the life insurance policy can help them with certain future expenses. Those primary expenses may include:

  • College
  • Bills
  • Down payment on a home

Your children will still receive financial support from you, even if you're not physically there to offer that support. Aside from the support for the children, the life insurance policy can also help your spouse. For example, if your spouse was a stay-at-home parent to your children while you worked, he or she may not have any source of income to live on. The money received from the life insurance policy would allow your spouse to continue living in the home without the immediate stress of wondering how the bills will get paid.

How Do I Determine How Much Life Insurance to Get?

Life insurance policies differ from one another, and so does their monthly cost. If you want to make sure you're not wasting your money, you'll want to consider these factors before deciding how much life insurance you should buy from an insurance broker:

  • How much money are you bringing home each year?
  • Does your spouse work a part-time or full-time job?
  • How many children do you have?
  • Are your children under the age of 18 years old?

You'll need to start by figuring out your annual earnings. Once you know how much you make each year, you should also think about whether your spouse is able to work or is working a job right now. If your spouse isn't disabled and is employed, you may not need as much life insurance as someone whose spouse is unable to work. Your spouse will still have an income coming in from their job that would combine with the life insurance policy, which should prevent them from dealing with a financial struggle.

The number of children you have is just as important. You'll likely want to leave the same amount of money to each child to make sure that things are fair between them all. An insurance broker can help you with the final calculations based on your personal situation and how long you would like the money to last for your spouse and each of your children. You can also find out more about the full details of the policy when you're talking with the insurance broker.

Having an insurance policy means offering support and stability to your loved ones if you were to pass away. While you may not want to think about dying, even the healthiest of people cannot predict the exact date of their death, which is why it is better to be ready for anything that could happen. If you know that your family would struggle financially if you weren't around to help them out, you might want to start looking at the different life insurance policies before deciding which one will benefit your family the most. Click here to read more about buying the right life insurance policy for your situation.