Preparing our Family for Tomorrow

Protecting our family is an all encompassing job.  The reaches of security cross beyond tucking our children in at night and extend in to the days when our hair is gray and our grandchildren play at our feet.  We can prepare for tomorrow right now.  Protecting our family nest encompasses many areas of our family and is a very big priority.

Since having our first daughter my husband and I discussed getting private life insurance.  He is insured through his work, but we did not feel that was enough.  As a a stay-at-home parent my job does not offer life insurance (but wouldn’t that be nice?).  Salary.com estimates the average stay-at-home mom would earn $117,867 per year if she were paid for all the work she does.  Ladies – we are worth a lot more than we give ourselves credit for!

Fast forward to this spring.  We attempted to get life insurance but were under-impressed with the insurance agents we worked with.  Then this summer one of my husband’s coworkers tragically died in a sky diving accident.  This man was incredibly experienced in sky diving.  This accident came as a shock to everyone.  It spurred my husband to look in to life insurance once again.  Less than a month later we are now both covered with pretty high limits.

Death is not something we want to think about, but it is inevitable.  Having life insurance is one of the ways we are protecting ourselves in the future should the worst happen.

There are other ways we have  ensured that our family nest will be kept safe in the years to come.  The smartest thing we did was to get rid of our debt.  We used the wisdom of Dave Ramsey and created an emergency fund first.  We tucked money aside in a special account that is for emergencies only.  This money is not to be used on vacations, new clothes, or dinners out.  Emergencies happen.  I recently crashed my car in to a curb and we have to pay our $500 auto insurance deductible.  There is no worrying about where that money will come from since we have an emergency fund.

By having no debt we are able to focus on our future.  Each year my husband maximizes his contribution to his retirement plan.  We live on less money now so we have more money later.  On our agenda is to set up private retirement as well.

Next on our list is to set up college accounts for the girl.  By tucking money away today for tomorrow we will not worry about where that money is coming from.

My husband and I realize that we are far from experts in the field of money.  Soon we will sit down with a financial advisor and really plan our future.  There are experts in the field who went to college and have many more years of experience to us.  By talking about our future with an advisor we will be protecting our future.

Are you thinking about what you need to do to keep your next egg safe?  Life insurance is a good step.  Experts say a good rule of thumb is to insure 5 to 10 times your income. It sounds like a lot, but it’s really not. Think about what you’re really worth.  Life insurance will help cover the cost of your mortgage, medical & funeral expenses, continuing childcare, living expense and college tuition.

Most people feel overwhelmed when they think about this stuff. Your local Allstate agent can talk you through your situation and help you plan for the future today. Allstate and their agents have been helping customers protect their families for over 50 years.

Disclosure:  I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Allstate blogging program, for a gift card worth $50. For more information on how you can participate, click here.