An unalterable fact of life is that we cannot change the past. Given that everyone knows this, I find it amazing that so many people lament some of their past decisions. While reminiscing about good past decisions may bring feelings of contentment and satisfaction, the only reason to contemplate past mistakes is to learn from them.
John Galsworthy, the English novelist, playwright, and Nobel laureate, had a character in his play Justice say “Believe me gentlemen, there is nothing more tragic in life than the utter impossibility of changing what you have done.”
Of course it is equally tragic and impossible to change what we have failed to do. None of us have perfect pasts. We all have things that we did or didn’t do that, if given the opportunity, we would change. But we know we can’t, so there’s no sense dwelling on it unless we can learn from it.
Learning from our mistakes is the mark of a mature individual; only a fool makes the same mistake repeatedly. However, it is much easier and more efficient to learn from the mistakes of others, but we don’t do that as much as we could/should.
I am reminded of this as yet again, a person in his 60’s getting ready to retire was referred to me for life insurance, as he will be losing his group term when he retires and he has no personally owned life insurance. I didn’t know this person when he was in his 20’s or 30’s, but I would suspect that he was contacted at least once by someone offering to sell him life insurance. And he didn’t buy, for whatever reason.
Again, for whatever reason, he feels his wife needs, or at least he wants her to have, more money than he has accumulated to this point. The irony is that for the premium required on his new term policy, he could have procured a similar size whole life policy when he was in his 20’s that would require no outlay now.
Talk to anyone in their 60’s or 70’s and ask them if they wish they had more life insurance. I believe a majority would answer in the affirmative. Sure, some will have investment programs that have done well and are fine with their previous decisions, but they are the minority.
Although Galsworthy’s character correctly says we can’t change the past, life insurance comes closest in allowing us to do so. What I mean by that is that if you own cash value life insurance but didn’t accumulate quite the estate that you intended to, the life insurance will create an instant estate the day you die. It can be the financial equivalent of immortality.