The Other Reason to Get Life Insurance

Provide for family and friends

Even if you don’t directly support your loved ones — the way you share responsibilities with a partner or take care of a dependent — that doesn’t mean you can’t get life insurance to help them manage in the worst-case scenario.

As a personal example, I’m an only child, and my mom and I are basically the Gilmore Girls. If I had died young and had life insurance, that money could have given her the space to take time off work and deal with the loss.

Luckily, that didn’t happen, especially because I didn’t have the foresight to think about that in my early 20s. (Please, I didn’t even have renter’s insurance. I was basically living outside of the law.)

But it’s just one example of how term life insurance might have made sense even before I had a partner relying on my income.

How this idea might fit into your life is also personal, but just because it doesn’t fit the cookie-cutter reasons people definitely need insurance doesn’t mean it’s not a good reason to get it.

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Make your wishes known

If you do have grand plans for how any life insurance money will be used after you’re gone, you need more than just a policy — you definitely need a will, too.

We got ours set up in truly less than 15 minutes using Willful, and the entire process was seamless (and heckin’ affordable, too).

While we both have our term life insurance set up to go directly to the beneficiaries in different situations, we used our will to stipulate that if we both pass away, whoever cares for our dog gets a chunk of money to cover his care, even if they’re not specifically a beneficiary of the policy.

Because you know when I sat down to make a will, my dog was top of mind.

Remember, this is term life insurance

Before you dive in and buy a policy because this sounds great, it’s important to read up on exactly how term life insurance works. Don’t freak: It’s very affordable and doesn’t have any complicated weird terms like some other insurance products.

PolicyMe has some great primers, so you’ll understand things like how much coverage you want to buy and how long you want to buy that coverage for.

Then, with a bit of information, PolicyMe can walk you through the whole process and find the best rate available. If you get stuck, you can schedule a call with a licensed, human adviser, free of charge.

Most of the big decisions will impact your monthly premium, so you’ll want to make sure you’re making the right call based on why you’re buying a policy — especially if your reason falls outside of the “typical” reasons to get it.