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Apr 5, 2020, 11:25 AM
The author is not pictured.
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I hope to live a long and healthy life. But I've seen too many friends and acquaintances die before their time — from cancer, accidents, or unexpected health problems — to take longevity for granted.
All I know about the future is that it's unpredictable. So, just in case I don't live to 103 as an Ouija board told me when I was a kid, I bought term life insurance a few years ago.
My biggest fear is that, if something happened to me, my wife wouldn't be able to afford the mortgage on the condo we own together. I worry that she would have to find a new place to live and pack up and move in the middle of dealing with grief and loss. That's why I bought extra insurance coverage through my employer when I could. After I left that job to become a freelancer, I bought a $100,000 life insurance policy so she would be protected.
My concerns about what happens after one spouse dies are based on an unhappy experience. A few years ago, a friend's spouse was diagnosed with a terminal disease. She struggled to pay the bills on her own during the first year after her partner passed away. She has since gotten back on her feet, but she needed extra financial support for a time. I hope my life insurance would provide that support for my spouse if something were to happen to me.
I don't expect my $100,000 in coverage to set my wife up forever. But it would be enough to pay down the mortgage to the point where she could afford the payments on a single salary. There might be enough left over to pay her expenses if she needs to take unpaid leave from her job. (I am, of course, imagining that she will be inconsolable if something happens to me. I know I would be if anything happened to her.)
Before I bought my policy, I had life insurance through an employer. Getting life insurance through my employer was fairly easy. The basic policy, which was for $10,000, was a benefit that my employer paid for. All employees automatically got that.
To get additional coverage, I needed to provide some health information to the insurer and pay the additional premiums. It was a good deal. If you can get extra life insurance coverage through your employer to protect the people you love, I encourage you to do it.
Buying my life insurance policy through my insurance agent was a bit more of a process. The insurance company sent a nurse to do a health check before it would issue the policy. I wasn't charged for the nurse's visit — the insurer paid for that. This was to confirm that I wasn't taking out life insurance after finding out that I had a life-threatening health condition and determine if I was healthy enough to qualify for the policy. Fortunately, I passed the inspection.
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