By Kristy Parker, CISR
Georgetown Insurance Service, Inc.
Silver Spring, MD
Fact: 100% of us will die, yet only 50% of us carry life insurance. This statement is a scary one, and not because it says that 100% of us will die. That’s a fact that deep down we all know (we just hope our deaths are many, many years away). The scary part is that the national average is that only 50% of people have life insurance. And those that do carry life insurance don’t have enough to take care of all final expenses. Here’s another scary fact, the average person spends $936 annually indulging in lunch or stopping by their favorite coffee stop, but won’t spend $7 per week ($365 annually) on a life policy. My question is, what matters more: The hamburgers and coffees, or protecting your family from financial ruin?
How many of you have seen the following in your Facebook newsfeed or other social media sites? Someone in your feed posts a link to a “Go Fund Me” or like fundraising site because a friend or family member has died and the family can’t fund a simple funeral. The friend or family member asks for the page to be shared because the family has no other resources to pay for the final expense. These situations can easily be avoided if people would skip one lunch out a week and instead spend that money on a life insurance policy for themselves to protect their family from the embarrassment of having to ask others to contribute to paying for a funeral.
But I get it, I get it. People would rather buy lunch than life insurance. Lunch is more fun. Lunch is social. Lunch offers instant gratification. Life insurance, on the other hand, is morbid. Life Insurance isn’t a topic people love to discuss. Life Insurance is intangible and people don’t realize the future benefits it provides. So I pose these questions to you, are the hamburgers worth the tears in a family members eyes when they realize they don’t have the funds to cover your funeral? Are the French fries worth the years of worry to come because your funeral wreaked financial disaster for years to come on a loved one? Is the Caramel Macchiato better than protecting your family from being made to leave their home because the rent or mortgage can’t be paid?
So really it boils down to one question: lunch or life insurance? Which one is really more valuable?