Do You Know Your Graduation Date?

We all have two dates that live with us forever. The birth date and the “graduation” date. This article has some pretty straightforward thoughts about the latter date.

Let’s be honest, before I was a life insurance agent I could have cared less about death benefit and agents and financial advisors tried pushing that stuff down my throat. Yet, here I sit as of those very people I would try to avoid!

Remember the movie Groundhogs Day and the part where Ned Ryerson runs over from the middle of the street to sell Phil some life insurance? That is what we feel like when agents talk to us. We would rather step in a pothole filled ankle deep with runoff water then talk to those pushy people who just won’t shut up. After all, why should we think about anything else but living?

For old time’s sake, watch the scene again:

Well, I am not like “Ned-The-Bull” and boy am I happy about that! However, these days I do care more than just “living.” I care about the death benefit. What changed my mind? It is NOT that I am an agent because you know how much I love cash value, heck, I wrote a book on it! What did change my mind was seeing how important the death benefit truly is and how we as humans are NOT indestructible. I may not have fully understood that last part when I was younger.

The questions that Google can’t answer:

What day are you going to die?

What day are you going to be diagnosed with cancer? 

What day are you going to develop MS?

What day will you end up in a bad car accident putting you into a comma?

I’m not asking these questions to be arrogant. I am asking tough questions because I have seen or heard stories when the answers to the questions came too soon. Time and time again there was NOT enough life insurance to cover what needed to be covered. The worst stories ended with “it was too late to get life insurance because they were uninsurable.” In the case of death, there could have been zero to $500,000. Zero is terrible, but $500,000 is not much better when you have $2 million of debt or more.

People I know (and proudly work with) are full of pride and they are hard workers so accepting a “hand out” wasn’t on their top things to do list. NO one and I mean no one is happy to have a Go Fund Me campaign set up for them.  I even know people who get mad when the fund is set up, yet these are the same people that thought they were indestructible and nothing could touch them. They didn’t need any stinkin’ life insurance….they won’t die much less get sick.

Sorry to burst your bubble but you are NOT indestructible against anything nor are you in charge. Only one man is in charge and he is not telling you when your “graduation” date is. If you are too prideful to take “handouts” then I would hope you love your family enough to take the time to be sure they will be taken care of upon your graduation. After all, peace and mourning comes at a price.

When I see clients with large amounts of death benefit and multiple life insurance policies I know they have dealt with an immediate loved one’s passing. They know what it was like to not have enough and are sure be insured to the max themselves. They would never allow their loved ones to experience the shortfall that they once experience or someone close to them experienced. This is where I was like the typical person, I didn’t see the value until I heard the stories and seen the deaths myself. I guess that is part of getting old….and I’m not that old!

Please take the time to look at yourself and what you have. Pushing things off only means you are one day closer to being ready to “graduate” and you’re not prepared.

Life insurance is not just an expense! And, there is really no excuse for not having it, the only excuse you may have is you didn’t care enough to take the time to learn.
If you want to learn how to use cash value and prepare for the graduation date at the same time, please get a copy of my book. In somewhat of a farmer language, I cover why, when, how and what in 99 pages.

If you’ve got a family, an operation to maintain or want to leave a legacy your next step is to  Order Farming Without the Bank.

May you have a long healthy life and enjoy it today as we don’t know what tomorrow holds.

Mary Jo

PS. Want to see what the book is all about before ordering? See How It Works.