Before my daughter was born, my husband and I never discussed the need or desire for a life insurance policy – oddly enough, it was one of the first topics of discussion we shared during a long night in her first week of life while we were sitting together, the baby sleeping soundly in my arms. Life is so very precious and a life that young and that tiny seems infinitely more precious – because the thoughts that go through your head are what happens if you’re not there? What happens if tomorrow never comes? What will happen to your children and how can you secure their future, even in your absence?
Life Insurance Policies
I’m not an insurance specialist, for that, go see Anna over in our Insurance blog, she has a lot of brilliant insights into the different insurance policies from health to car to house and life insurance coverage. But what I wanted to talk about here was the need you have as a parent to care for your children, from the moment they are born and that includes looking to a possible future where you are not present.
We had small life insurance policies when our daughter was born. Those policies would cover burial expenses and leave something left over that might clear away the bills for a month or two for the surviving partner –but that’s hardly enough to take care of an infant or a child for any great length of child.
You may receive the notification from the Social Security Administration that gives you the figures your spouse or your child would receive as a survivor. My husband’s father died when he was 13 and his mother received a social security check for him until he was 18. It was never very much, but it was enough to help her out. Still, if either myself, my husband or both of us died – we didn’t want our child and the person caring for them to rely solely on those survivor benefits.
What Were Our Goals?
Our goals have shifted over time, but even then in those first few precious weeks of life, we were looking forward to the next 20 years and thinking about what our daughter would need and what our surviving partner would need or what our child’s guardian would need. We made a list of these needs and we looked for the life insurance that would meet those needs.
Our insurance needed to:
- Cover the cost of our home and clear away any standing debts so that our daughter could remain in the home we have made for her and that our surviving spouse was not overwhelmed with the financial burden of paying for it
- Extra-curricular, school and college costs all needed to be met – whether it was classes that our daughter wanted to take or a private school or more
- Slush money to help her take vacations and see the world around her
Those were our goals and our priorities. Our current life insurance has evolved since the days we first set it up. Individually, our policies will pay off all of our outstanding debts and cover the payoff on our home. It would leave the surviving partner in a solid financial position from which to take care of our daughter. For more information on insurance policies to help you and your family – including your precious new arrival, check out the Insurance blog or Ask Anna – she’s got a lot of great information there.
Do you have life insurance to protect your family and your daughter?
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