As a goal-oriented person, I write about my goals very often; and over the summer, I shared that I wanted to get financially secure--to save up an emergency fund, for my family in particular, so that I can protect them and be prepared for unexpected events. Several of my readers mentioned that I really should look into getting life insurance as well, because we truly never know what is around the corner.
Life insurance was always one of those tasks that I would "get around to later". I've shared this story before, in other instances, but when it comes to "preparing for the unexpected", this story is the perfect example of a real-life situation that actually happened to me.
In November 2010, I watched a movie with my kids one evening; and when Noah fell asleep, I carried him to his bedroom and tucked him into bed. I started feeling extremely nauseous, and I got tunnel vision. I thought for sure that I was going to vomit, so I started making my way to the bathroom, and within a couple of steps, I actually fainted.
I fell flat on my face to the floor, which broke my jaw completely through in five places. My mom took me to the emergency room (Jerry was at work at the time), and I wound up in the hospital for six days, enduring two surgeries to repair my jaw. Thankfully, we had health insurance (otherwise, we'd have hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay out-of-pocket!), but we still ended up with a few thousand dollars of out-of-pocket expenses. Also, Jerry had to take some time off of work to help take care of me, which was unpaid leave.
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| Eli stayed with my sister while I was in the hospital, and I was so happy to see him! |
Over the summer, I worked a little with Prudential to get motivated to set some financial goals. When I shared one of those posts, several of you mentioned that I should add "getting life insurance" to the list. It was something that had completely slipped my mind when I was writing, but I started thinking about all the unexpected things that could happen, and what the consequences could be.
Life insurance is one of those things that I always said, "Yes, it's important, we should get it! I'll get around to it next week." And before I knew it, I was 33 years old, with a husband and two children, without an emergency fund OR life insurance! That's pretty scary when you think about the unexpected things that can happen, such as the day I broke my jaw (the reason I fainted still remains a mystery, despite a ton of tests at the hospital).
Jerry and I talked about our financial goals over the summer, and about life insurance. I mentioned that he could probably get along just fine without me (financially); my income is minimal compared to his, and other than needing someone to watch the kids while he's at work, I'm not really "worth" much (as awful as that sounds).
He disagreed of course... and it was interesting when Prudential sent me a link to this tool called "The Value of All You Do". You fill out a questionnaire about how much time you spend doing all sorts of tasks, and then it totals up how much you're "worth". I realized that I really am more of an asset than I thought! Haha ;)
It would take $62,660 per year to replace the things I do for my family (and I was being modest in the amount of time I spend on things). It was a fun little tool, so if you want to check the value of all you do, here is the link to that.
Anyway, this summer has been really great as far as getting our priorities straight and finally getting around to doing those tasks I used to put off until another day: start an emergency fund, write a last will and testament, and purchase life insurance. It feels good to get that stuff done, and have one less thing to worry about! (Here is a video also of how you can prepare for the unexpected.)
Have you ever learned an important lesson from an unexpected life event, like I did with my broken jaw? Feel free to share your story on social media with #PlanRealistically or #WontHappenToMe.
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