Most people don’t spend too much of their waking hours wondering about this question. The fact is, the great majority of us simply don’t want to think about whether or not we’re ready to…die. I mean, who’s ready to die, right? The most we can do is prepare for the great inevitable and do the very best we can to make sure that those people we care about are going to be taken care of after we’re gone. Death-proofing your life can be as simple as making sure you’ve got the right amount of life insurance in place.

How Easy is Purchasing Protection with Life Insurance?

Protecting your family financially after you’re gone isn’t as hard as you might think. It’s simply a matter of making sure that your financial life is in order and ready to handle the needs of your family when you pass on. Because most of us don’t go through our days with a ‘what if…’ plan going through our minds, we probably don’t have the faintest idea what will happen after… you know.

Taking the Time to do the Right Thing

Take the time to get all your affairs in order as soon as you can to get it off your mind. Then you’ll know that your family will be protected. It may surprise you to know that the cost of buying life insurance has never been lower, even though fewer people are buying it these days. Some don’t see the need for it or are simply too busy to take the time to answer the questions required to set a policy up. Take the time. It’ll be the best hour or so you’ll ever spend for your family.

Fixed Premiums for Level Term Policies?

Paying a fixed premium for a level-term policy is probably the cheapest and best policy if you only want to cover your life until your children are grown and on their own. A ten year policy can be as low as $50 per month compared to nearly double that for a whole-life policy. The money you save can be put into investment portfolio for that time and earn more money for your eventual estate.

Keep a “Doomsday” Notebook

One of the best, no-cost things you can do is to make sure you have a ‘doomsday’ notebook, that you can write down all your personal information such as ATM pin numbers, the tax files, bank account numbers and passwords, social security cards and passports, phone numbers of professional or other important people your spouse can contact and email addresses and passwords.

Important documents such as trusts, wills, powers of attorney and living wills can also be identified in this notebook. Keep this in a safe place and in hard copy form rather than on your computer. Having a lawyer keep it in his office safe may be a good idea.

photo credit: Daniel Leininger