Here’s a list of all the #LifeAWARE participants. Over 155 and growing!
How do you top a Roth IRA movement that gets tons of the top personal finance bloggers all to write about the same topic on the exact same day?
Duh! You pick a different topic and you do it again. 
Or known on Twitter as #LifeAWARE.
For an explanation that includes me breaking it down to Usher, watch the video below.
Can’t see video? Click here to watch it.
What Inspired #LifeAWARE?
I’ve always been passionate in making sure that families have the right amount of life insurance coverage. Between school plays, soccer games and that little thing called “life”, many families neglect to get the right amount of coverage. Or worse – have no coverage at all!
In fact, it’s estimated that 35 million households don’t have any life insurance. Did you catch that?
They ain’t got nothing!
35 million households are batting .000 on their life insurance.
For those that do have life insurance, it’s estimated that 58 million households feel they don’t have enough.
Now do you see the point of #LifeAWARE?
I’ve Seen the Pain of Not Having Enough Life Insurance
In my announcement post of the life insurance movement, I shared the story of two widows.
Both were emotionally drained with losing their life partner prematurely. Life insurance doesn’t bring them back. What life insurance does is help make life more manageable after they are gone.
For one of the ladies, she’ll never have to worry about money ever again. She’s financially stable and her finances will be the last thing she’ll stress about.
Unfortunately, the other is left scrambling to figure out how she’s going to pay the bills, manage her debt, and if she’ll ever really be able to retire. Why the difference?
Her husband was part of the 58 million that did NOT have enough life insurance.
What makes the above story so sad is that it could have and should have been avoided.
2 Common Mistakes to Avoid
There are going to be plenty of awesome posts joining the #LifeAWARE movement that share their personal reasons why life insurance is important to them. I don’t need to inundate you with more of the same. I did want to leave you with the 2 common mistakes I see when people do buy life insurance.
1. Don’t Buy Enough
Face it. $100k of life insurance is probably not going to be enough life insurance coverage to take care of the house, the cars, the kids, and the debt if something happens to the breadwinner of the family. I’ve talked to so many young couples that only have a $50k whole life policy and think they are good. News flash: you are not.
If you’re not sure how much insurance you need to buy, use this nifty calculator to help you figure it out:
2. Buy Insurance Through Work.
This one might be a surprise to many. Why is this a mistake?
Think about it. The average person changes jobs 5-7 times in their career. What happens to your life insurance when you change jobs?
Hint: Just like your old boss, it does not come with you.
That’s right. When you change jobs you’re at the mercy of your new employer to offer insurance. If they don’t, then you’ll have to go buy through a third party like an independent insurance agent. Which, you should do from the beginning to avoid this type of situation.
Do you know how many people I’ve talked to that can’t leave their job because they now have some medical condition that prevents them from getting life insurance anywhere else? Too many.
Go out and buy a 30 year term policy and you’ve locked in coverage for 3 decades. You can change jobs 15 times in your career and you’ll never have to worry about applying for life insurance again. Not to mention the fact that term life insurance is super cheap!
Review Time
If you haven’t reviewed your life insurance in a while, it’s time. No more putting off waiting for the “right time”.
Now is the right time. Your family will thank you for it.
Life Quotes by Wholesale Ins.
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We lost my father when I was just 18 and my mother is disabled. If we hadn’t had life insurance we would have lost everything. It has definitely colored my impression of life insurance as a need, both for the income replacement, and to give you necessary time to grieve.
We recently published a story that’s a stark reminder of why people with dependents should seriously consider life insurance.
http://www.insurancequotes.com/life_insurance-financial_planning/
Thank you for this movement! I lost my dad when I was 15 and he was only 38, so I always knew that once my husband and I had kids we would get life insurance right away. Things happen, and it is good to be protected.
With a husband in the life insurance industry, we live and breath life insurance and financial planning! I can’t imagine a more important topic to discuss as a family.
Since my husband and I have paid off our house, we both have life insurance to ensure that the other one will have a comfortable retirement.
Life insurance is important because you never know where death is and if you are going to have the financial means to care for your family after the death of a loved one.
I want to make certain that we don’t have to think about money at a time when we really won’t want to think about anything other than our loss.
Debts paid for and wife can take year off if needed.
I don’t want my family to be burdened by my debt in the even that something were to happen to me.
Family can continue to live lifestyle if I am not around
It will really be a great advantage if you will be able to prepare for the uncertainties in life and make sure that the interests of your loved-ones will be protected even when you are already gone. Awareness matters and even if it will mean added amount of money to use, the benefits that it can serve can help in making the best decisions.
I’m pretty young so I haven’t though of life insurance yet. No kids, single. It’s definitely something I need to look into as I get older! Thank for posting this!
Life insurance is something people put off and they really shouldn’t. No one knows when something can happen that will affect their family forever. I lost my Dad when I was very young and had it not been for the insurance my Mom could not have made it financially.
M family is my life. If I knew that I caused them any extra heartache (evn in the financial form) it would be horrible.
Hey Jeff, sorry I’m late to the party. But here’s my two cents: if families don’t think they can afford a sizable life insurance policy, would they at least give serious thought to getting small policy that would pay for the funeral and burial expenses? I have actually typed up benefit dinner notices for the newspapers I’ve worked at where the intent is to help a family pay for funeral expenses. That’s an incredible amount of stress at a time when the family deserves the time to mourn.
Great movement Jeff! Once we had kids we knew we needed to set up insurance to make sure they were protected should anything happen. I really don’t think enough people have life insurance even though it’s so important.
life insurance is important to my family because it will take away worrying about the financial aspect of a loved one dying.
Life insurance is super important to me as I’ve had a couple of unique situations in my family and so security is a big deal for me.
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