Her Two Cents

Okay, so. Let’s play a game.

• Do you have a child under age 18?
• Do you have a partner or spouse who’s dependent on your income? (Or anyone, for that matter?)
• Do you have a mortgage or other significant debt?

If you answered “Yes” to any of those questions, you need life insurance. I know, I know—it’s boring and tedious and who wants to think about death? But, as my husband says, they call them “accidents,” not “on-purposes.” No one plans to die young.

Evidently, according to a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, almost a third of U.S. households are going without life insurance coverage. And among households with kids under 18, some 40 percent said they’d immediately have problems paying for basic needs if a breadwinner died, and another 30 percent said they’d have issues after a few months. In other words, a lot of families would be in a world of hurt.

And, guys, life insurance is cheap. I promise you. It is. A healthy 35-year-old man can get $250,000 worth of coverage for as little as $13.50 a month, according to Accuquote.com.

My husband and I both got life insurance policies after our daughter was born, and we have a substantial amount of coverage for an unsubstantial amount of money.

The process isn’t scary. We both called Accuquote (I know the company and I like them) to get pricing from a variety of life insurance companies, and we just had to provide some basic information about ourselves and our hobbies. A couple of weeks later, we both had a medical exam. The examiner came to our apartment. Super easy. A couple of weeks after that, we were approved and had active 20-year policies. Done.

So why are you waiting?

(Cartoon from thomastoons on Flickr.)