There is no shortage of surveys querying Americans top financial concerns. After Googling that and skimming about a dozen articles, the recurring themes were retirement, unexpected medical bills and daily living expenses. Let’s look at them one at a time.
I would think that most people reading this have their daily living expenses under control. Emergency expenditures and/or a period of unemployment are the major culprits that can derail things. Both are best addressed by SAVING. While entire books are written about saving, let’s just say it should be started early and continued at some (probably erratic) level throughout our working lives.
If non-covered/unreimbursed medical bills are the result of an accident, there’s not much that can be done. But it is certainly within our power to eat and exercise in a manner that will drastically reduce the chances of non-accidental medical expenses.
Concern about retirement was number one or two in almost all of the surveys. That could be because people are retiring earlier and living longer than in the past. People used to retire at 65 and die a few years later. Now, many retire in their 50s and live well into their 80s. It takes a lot of income to fund that long a period of not working.
Cash value life insurance can help with this in many ways. First, a portion of the cash value can be used each year to supplement income. Second, at the first death, the survivor usually experiences a loss of income. At the very least, the smaller of the two social security checks will disappear.
There’s also a possibility that expenses will increase. How? Married couples are taxed at the more favorable married joint rates while the survivor will have to file at the higher single rates after two years.
Life insurance on each retiree can help insure that the survivor will have enough income for the rest of his/her life. I find it surprising that more females don’t insist on life insurance on their husbands as in most cases they will, statistically, be widows for several years.
This is why the pundits who preach that life insurance won’t be needed in retirement are so short-sighted. It may not be needed, but then again it may. And even if it isn’t needed in the traditional sense, it can provide numerous options that would otherwise be unavailable.