Disclaimer: Before reading, you should know that I’m definitely not a “Yeah, Vegas, baby!” kinda person.
I think one-armed bandits are aptly named. The last time (and the only time) I was in Vegas, someone actually gave me money to put into a slot machine, and I wouldn’t do it. I put it in my pocket. My philosophy is that hard-earned cash—mine or someone else’s—has no place in the belly of a machine (or on a blackjack table) where the odds are definitely not in my favor. I just can’t do it.
That said, I actually do get it—the whole Vegas thing, or friends hanging around a poker table having a good time. The adrenaline rush of winning; the excitement of the game. To each his own, right? But, there is one area of your life where you should never, ever gamble, as our poker-playing fruit fly Frank discovers in the video.
Jokes aside. Feel free to keep what happens in Vegas in Vegas. But what happens at home is a different matter. Make sure your family’s future is protected. Don’t gamble with that. Get life insurance.
We do a lot of great things to show our families and loved ones how much we appreciate and love them, from planning great family vacations to taking our significant other out for a romantic night.
All these gestures show our love, but there is one thing that you can do to cement that love into the future, even after you are gone, and that is to buy life insurance.
At the LIFE Foundation, we’re celebrating those who’ve taken that extra step and gotten life insurance coverage, with our online Insure Your Love Mosaic. More than a thousand people have already uploaded photos to the mosaic of those they’ve protected. It’s so interesting to see how each story is different, yet at its essence the same: taking good care of the ones you love. Take a look at these:
And, of course I added my own:
And how about you? It takes only a couple minutes and by doing so, you can help spread the word about the importance of protecting the ones you love with life insurance.
For each photo that gets uploaded to the mosaic, LIFE will donate $1 to the LIFE Lessons Scholarship Fund, which gives tuition assistance to college-age students who have lost a parent.
And if you post a photo and caption by Feb. 29, you’ll be entered into LIFE’s photo contest, with a chance to win one of five $100 gift certificates so you can take your loved one(s!) out for a nice evening.
When has procrastination served you well? If you reflect back, you may be able to dredge up a time or two when you put off an onerous task only to find your sloth (can I just call a spade a spade?) rewarded. You watched the game instead of shoveling the walk, and lo and behold it snowed again so you got a two-for-one shovel in afterwards. Nice, right? While that may work with insignificant things, when it comes to important areas of our lives, like protecting the financial future of our family, should we really tempt fate by putting off important decisions?
It’s a lesson many of us need to learn. Our friends Fran and Frida make a good case.
OK, jokes aside. Getting life insurance may seem like a daunting task—something to put off until later (But I’m health!). The fact is, none of us know for sure if we have 20,000 more days to live or 20. What are you going to do about your life insurance needs?
People say that 50 is the new 40, but delivered along with your birthday cards when you turn 50 will be your membership card to AARP. Yes that’s right, your official “pass go” into the American Association of Retired People. Quite ironic, given that retiring at 50 isn’t plausible or realistic for 99.9% of us.
So, after you’ve shredded your AARP card (no early-bird dinner specials needed), it’s time to get realistic about what you need to do to get your insurance and financial life in order. Here is a quick checklist to help you do just that.
Make sure your retirement planning is on track. Hiding your head in the sand because your 401(k) took a hit over the past several years is not a retirement plan. While it may be painful to dissect what you currently have and what you need to save (probably much more than you are), it’s better than the alternative: living in poverty in retirement.
Review your life insurance coverage. Rates for life insurance have come down recently and it is often less expensive now than it was 10 years ago. Sit down with an agent to make sure you’re not overpaying for your coverage and that you have appropriate coverage for your risks.
Explore long-term care insurance. It’s important to understand that this isn’t “nursing home insurance”—80% of people who need long-term care services are receiving them in community settings, which for many of us will be our home. Long-term care insurance protects against the significant financial risk (aka draining your retirement funds) of potentially needing extended care services, at home or in a facility, due to a chronic illness or disability.
Examine your estate plan (or get one if you don’t have one). I know this is daunting, because it is for me, too, and I’m in this business. Keep in mind that the plan you had in place 20 years ago (when choosing a guardian for your children was key) needs to be reexamined. Now it’s about more about managing your assets, mitigating estate taxes and debt. Your advisor may be able to help you with this, or can refer you to someone who can.
Get your legal documents in order. Make sure you have durable power of attorney, which is a legal document that gives someone you trust the ability to act on your behalf if you were to become disabled or incapacitated. In addition, make sure you draft a health-care directive, which gives instructions about medical treatment if you were terminally ill or permanently unconscious.
You don’t have to go this alone. If you don’t have an advisor, you can find one in your community here.
I often marvel at how fast my kids (ages 13, 12, 10 and 10) are growing up. When I sort though photos of their early years, it sometimes feels like it was just yesterday that they began to crawl or utter their first words. Of course that’s not the case – but what if it was. What if everything we experienced in our lifetime, from our own childhood, to marriage, kids, retirement and even death was condensed from years into only a few short days?
It may be hard to imagine, but such is the life of a fruit fly. They’re known for their famously short lives. The average life span of a fruit fly is a mere 30 days. So why am I educating you about fruit-fly mortality on a blog intended to shed light about issues related to human mortality? Well…because we at the LIFE Foundation believe there’s a lot that we humans can learn from fruit flies when it comes to protecting the ones you love with life insurance. Fruit flies are born knowing that life is short. So when it comes to life insurance, they act right away. By contrast, we humans love to procrastinate, especially when it comes to things like life insurance.
Ok, so I know what you’re probably thinking. Do fruit flies really need life insurance? Well I’m glad you asked. Yes, they do. In fact, they need it more than most humans. I bet you didn’t realize that female fruit flies can lay up to 400 eggs at a time. That’s a lot of fruit-fly mouths to feed. Human families may not be quite that large, but it only takes one – one person who depends on you financially or otherwise – for you to need life insurance.
For a fuller glimpse into the world of fruit flies, go to www.insureyourlove.org. There you’ll find a series of funny videos featuring LIFE’s newest life-insurance power couple, fruit flies Frank and Fran. In addition to learning a thing or two about life insurance, you’ll find answers to the most frequently asked fruit-fly questions. Let us know what you think here on the blog or on our Facebook wall.
As our fruit-fly friends illustrate, time really does (eh-hem) fly. If there are people in your life who would suffer financially if you were to die in the next 30 days, don’t procrastinate. Speak with a life insurance professional who can help determine if you need life insurance to protect the ones you love.
And how about you? It takes only a couple minutes and by doing so, you can help spread the word about the importance of protecting the ones you love with life insurance.
For each photo that gets uploaded to the mosaic, LIFE will donate $1 to the 
