Life Insurance Myth: Stay at Home Parents do not Need Life Insurance
Posted on Mon, Jan 30, 2012
Did you know that it’s just as important for stay at home parents to have life insurance coverage as it is for the family’s breadwinner? Here’s why:
A stay at home parent makes a considerable contribution to the household. If they were gone, significant costs would go into compensating for their responsibilities at home.
Figures vary but, if something happened to the stay at home parent, it would cost approximately $ 60,000.00 a year to compensate for the work they did at home. Between cooking, providing childcare, keeping up the house, tutoring and driving kids around and a host of other duties, the stay at home parent is a valuable asset to the entire family.
If the stay at home parent contributes to a family business extra help may need to be brought in.
Assume that both parents have a home-based business. If something happens to one parent, the other is left with a business of which he or she may only know parts of. While the remaining parent takes care of his or her children, he or she may have to hire an attorney to keep the business legally continuing, a consultant and/or an additional employee to keep the business afloat. In order to pay for these additional resources, he or she will likely need a supplementary income.
Children will require additional attention following a loss of a parent.
The loss of a parent can have devastating consequences for a child. Their emotional and psychological health can be severely tested at such a time. There must be a grief and recovery period. Children need the time, reassurance, stability and comfort that only the remaining parent can supply. This is not a time for the parent to push aside child care responsibilities to a nanny, daycare or other family member. Life insurance coverage can provide a financial cushion for that valuable and necessary time children need to deal with their loss. It can alleviate daily worries and concerns and allow the healing process to go forward with the surviving parent through healing time spent together.
Given the affordability of standard life insurance coverage, it makes sense to invest a few dollars per month to protect the financial continuation of the family. Your goal now is to make sure you have healthy children, and that nothing stands in the way of their future college education and financial security. The loss of a parent is difficult enough for children to endure; they certainly don’t need the added complication of a financial hardship.
Life insurance is an important part of financial planning, and while it can appear intimidating, purchasing life insurance isn’t as difficult as it looks. Whether you are thinking about life insurance for the first time, or looking to supplement your current coverage, speaking to a life insurance agent and discussing your individual needs and options is the first step.