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.
{ 68 comments… read them below or add one }
Next Comments →
I agree that getting life insurance through work is just an extra job perk that shouldn’t be factored in to your life insurance picture. It’s sort of like the free coffee at work, it’s nice to have, but at the end of the day you don’t want to rely on it.
Congrats on getting this all off the ground! It truly is amazing and a topic that many need to think about!
Jeff,
This is an awesome and important project! Congratulations on putting this together. I am proud to be just a small part of it!
Great work, Mr. Rose. I can’t wait to read all of the articles today from the many fantastic writers who are participating.
Life Insurance is absolutely critical for anyone with kids. You can’t just keep believing that you are invincible, as the unexpected can happen to anyone. Just watch the ten o’ clock news any night of the week to see.
I was wondering why there were so many life insurance posts out there today, and I finally tracked down the source… you! lol, it’s a great idea and I’m glad it’s happening. My wife and I both have life insurance and it’s comforting to know that it’s there!
Life insurance is important to our family because it means having peace of mind knowing that even if I pass away unexpectedly, my wife and my son will be covered. They’ll actually be able to grieve, and not have to worry about what they’re going to do next because there will be money to help them through.
Happy to be participating. I guess I’m not in as bad of shape on life insurance as I thought. I have enough to pay everything off.
Woot.. I’m glad I was able to catch this movement
I think what you are doing is of great worth Jeff. I’ve heard too many sad stories of people who have died without enough and the struggles their families face not just with grief but with major financial hurdles added on top.
I was once guilty of relying solely on the life insurance I got through work. Really big mistake as the 2008 recession left me with no job, no income and no insurance. Not a good place to be. Things are much better now, but people owe it to their families to make sure they don’t find themselves in that circumstance. It’s part of loving them well.
It’s a good day to be alive!
I have to say… the video was definitely my favorite part!
Life insurance is so vital. I’ve talked to many readers, and friends who have experienced devastating losses without the small comfort that life insurance brings their families were thrown into not only emotional but financial stress as well.
Jeff,
Thanks for putting this together and including us in the project. This is a VERY important area to discuss since life insurance is not most enjoyable financial planning topic for most!
Jeff, great job “rounding up the troops.” You’ve put a lot of effort into it and I’m happy to be a part of it.
Many people don’t realize the importance of life insurance and the ramifications of not having any. Thank you for bringing the subject into the limelight and making everyone aware!
This was a great idea, Jeff!
I enjoyed offering a Geek’s perspective on Life Insurance. Dying is not a fun subject to talk about- but it’s a necessary one.
I hope the Life Insurance Movement is massively successful!
Jeff, thanks for helping get the word out on this important topic and making it exciting to to talk about! Life insurance is important for my family because I’m the only provider of income for us. I love my wife and two kids and I want to insure their financial needs are taken care of and they don’t have to worry about money if I passed away unexpectedly. This is something we got serious about after I was married and having two young children makes it even more important. I hope the movement helps people take action if they don’t have life insurance!
I think life insurance is important, especially if you have children.
Thanks for putting this movement together. I think you’re spot on in the importance of life insurance.
My post today was about how I wouldn’t have life insurance if I didn’t get it with my benefits at work (I don’t have to pay into it). I’ll definitely start paying into it when I have children to get more, but for now what I’m covered at work (where I will be staying for the forseeable future) is good. It’s crucial for those with kids or a lot of debt!
Love this post. And life insurance has given me peace of mind for my family’s future.
I think I have watched your video 26 times this morning just so I could laugh ONE more time.
Get it babe!
We talk about life insurance almost every week, so this wasn’t exactly a change of topic for us. We are very happy to see everyone who got on board for this. Thanks to everyone for taking a moment to discuss this topic.
Love the moves, Jeff! But love the #LifeAWARE movement even more. Great job bringing awareness to such an important topic that many people ignore.
So happy to be participating in this movement! Thanks for asking us to be a part! You guys are doing an awesome thing today! LOVED the video Jeff!
Once again, you’re rocking the movement! Great job, Jeff!
Another great movement. Keep up the good work helping people!!
Thanks for spear heading this. I’ve been lagging writing about life insurance, so thanks for the kick in the pants! I only hope more families will be spared heartache and hard times by being encouraged to get insurance through this movement.
My family’s history of health problems and my previous inclination towards bad decision making have made life insurance a necessity for me.
As we’ve recently started a family and are quite certain that we’ll be adding to it very soon, life insurance helps us sleep better at night knowing that should something terrible happen to one, or worse, both of us, that our kids’ future will be taken care of.
Jeff, this topic is close to my family. I wrote up my personal story of how not having life insurance almost completely devastated our family. My father died at age 31, and had very minimal coverage. My mom was left without a spouse and 3 young kids.
I appreciate you raising awareness for this topic, and hope it motivates those who don’t have life insurance to get some TODAY!
This is great, Jeff! Also – thanks for waking me up this morning with some Usher.
A nice movement. Good to see your initiative. I can’t promise but shall try to add to it in future.
Please keep it up.
Strength in numbers! With so many people writing about this issue, think how many readers will (perhaps) think about the big picture.
Thanks, Jeff, for raising awareness.
Great post, it’s truly a great thing that you are bringing awareness, it will end up making a difference in several people’s lives. I’ll have to check out the video a bit later but the entire project looks very impressive.
I don’t know what I’d do without life insurance. Because my spouse and I have shared the breadwinner burden, it’s made everything we’ve worked hard to achieve stay alive for our kids.
Fun stuff Jeff. Thanks for coordinating this!
Great job Jeff! From our perspective, term life insurance can be an important part of any retirement plan. It can replace the income you would have saved in your IRA or other retirement plan. Permanent life insurance has its drawbacks. But it can be a way to save while protecting your family. Some policies can switch to annuities in retirement, providing guaranteed income for life.
Congrats again on another successful movement!
I love seeing all of us come together in order to spread awareness about a really great cause!
Love your passion for finances! Thanks for the movement.
This is a very important topic. Thanks for raising awareness. If anyone depends on your income, you need life insurance. You could get hit by a bus today. You just never know.
Thanks for inviting me to be part of this movement, too!
Glad to be a part of the movement! Life insurance is important to my family for my business transfer goals.
Great movement! I am a stay-at-home mom and it is so important for us to be covered. Peace.of.mind.
This is such an awesome idea! I’ve already read multiple blog entries about this today and everyone has really great information to add to what you’ve written here. Well done on starting such an important movement!
For pennies on the dollar you can prevent your family from total disaster if they lost you…you are just irresponsible if you don’t have enough.
A life insurance premium is a small price to pay for peace of mind. I hope this movement enlightens those don’t see it that way.
Life insurance is important to me and my family because I want to make sure my family is taken care of if something happened to me before I am self-insured.
We have life insurance! So important
Life insurance is important to me because I have two little boys and I wife staying home from work to raise them. If something happened to me, I’d want their financial needs covered.
nice blog creation..i take many useful tips from your blog ..so thank you very much…..keep it up.
Next Comments →
{ 48 trackbacks }