What is Life Insurance?

I hated paying death insurance benefits when the children were young. It was a necessary evil. Now that they are older, I only need to cover their education, and a few years of living expenses.

I thought.

I recently read a press release that explained how much death or life insurance I needed.

Here are things I overlooked:

Repaying all my debts, not just my mortgage (including credit cards)

Cost of bereavement - 6 months off work, counseling, cost of living, etc.

Death tax

lawyer fees

living on only 1 paycheck

This easily added another $100 000 to the insurance I needed. I was stunned. If I hadn't read this - and I died - my family would have ended up impoverished...even though I have sunk about $1200 a year into insurance for the last 15 years.

If you don't believe so, then add up all the expenses your family must pay when you die. You can literally send them into bankruptcy.