We live in a time of abundance here in the United States of America, but I worry with abundance we have forgotten necessity. As a father and husband I feel a great responsibility on my shoulders to provide for my family while I am alive and to ensure they are provided for when I die.
Do you know when you will die?
For most the answer is no. Truthfully, I think most people wouldn't want to know either. Death is something that rarely comes at an expected or convenient time. As someone in the life insurance and retirement planning business, I'm conscious of death and the need for money probably more than the general public.
Life has changed over the past 70 years. It used to be that most families could be taken care of by one working spouse. It used to be that families could sit down together and share a meal each day. It used to be that the majority of peoples money was saved with insurance firms that guaranteed the protection and growth of their money.
Now, most people have the money they have saved, parked on Wall Street with no guarantees or protection. Nowadays families are lucky to eat a single meal together each week. Today it is rare to see a family where both parents aren't working long hours to keep their family afloat.
With these changes, our priorities have changed too. Today we complain when we have to spend $100 on groceries, but we will spend $100 a single nice meal without batting an eye. Today the average college class is $1000 so we forego higher education, yet most of us won't live without the newest $1000 smart phone. An after school activity for children is around $100 a month and we complain while wearing our $100 pair of new shoes. We say we wish we had an hour to exercise to improve our health yet we will easily waste an hour on Facebook or other social media. We say we wish we had more time to read and improve our knowledge yet we will binge-watch 10-20 hours of Netflix a week.
Abundance has led to rearranged priorities. I once heard someone say, "don't tell me your priorities, show me where you spend your time and money and I will know your priorities".
Today I read of a father with 7 children that drowned to save 4 of his children. This is a tragedy wrapped around a heroic act. My heart broke for this family as I read the story. This man was an incredible father. He loved his family. He gave his life for his family. However, he had no life insurance to leave his wife or kids. He left 7 kids and a wife in her mid 30's with no money. The family is now using Go Fund Me to cover his funeral expenses.
The story is a total tragedy, but I want to make it clear that Go Fund Me is not a replacement for Life Insurance.
I've had several people over my career tell me that they hate life insurance. I then ask them, do you really hate life insurance or just the idea of paying for it. 9 out of 10 will say they just hate the idea of paying for it. With the remaining 10% of haters, I ask if they were left a million dollars from life insurance would they reject the money? 100% of those tell me they would accept that generous gift in a heart beat.
Life insurance payouts are a blessing to those that receive them. You can get a leveraged amount of death benefit and it isn't taxable. It's like turning dimes into dollars for your family.
You can go on to Go Fund Me and read a thousand stories right now of people asking for help to cover a funeral or to give someone money towards a child that lost a parent or to cover a child's schooling because of no life insurance. It's sad to read, but also sad to acknowledge that we aren't making taking care of our family a priority over having things.
We've put too much priority on material things or too much money in an unprotected stock market. When it comes to investing, the most common warning you hear is always protect your downside. Premature death is the greatest downside blow to a family and yet it isn't being protected.
57% of adults in the US have some form of life insurance coverage. The majority of them, however, are under insured. You may have a group life plan through your employer for $10,000 or maybe up to $50,000 but that doesn't cover a family. On the lower end, it doesn't even cover a funeral.
If the main income earner of your household dies, how long can you go without his or her income? In America, the answer is NOT LONG.
This also means 43% of American adults have ZERO life insurance. No coverage. No help. Nothing to leave behind.
44% of Millennial adults guessed life insurance cost 5 times higher than it really is. So if a plan would give them ample coverage with a $100 monthly cost, they thought it would cost them $500. People are out of touch with a program that protects and blesses families.
Very few people have ever been shown how to use life insurance like a bank or as a tax-free retirement savings program. They don't know how to control their money, protect their family, be their own source of capital on major purchases and how to legally avoid taxes in the future.
Sadly, a large majority of people that work in the life insurance industry don't have any life insurance. They sell it, but don't own it. Not even an affordable term policy.
Why is this?
Do we think we are invincible? Do we think death will never pay us a visit? Why do we avoid owning something that everyone that receives a payout from is grateful for? Why do we risk not having coverage when we are ALL guaranteed to die one day?
I don't have an answer for these questions. I think most people are busy and just procrastinate getting coverage. No one wakes up and says 'today I must get life insurance'. But no one wants their family to wake up the day after their death only to realize they've been left with a tremendous financial burden and no money to get through the grief, cover the bills or live out the dreams they had once planned together.
So go fund some life insurance and let me show you a smart way to control your money and build tax-free wealth that doesn't lose while you make sure your most precious asset, your family, is covered.
