One thing that made the pandemic especially hard was constantly feeling the anxiety of death. It’s one thing to worry about your own health and safety. It’s another thing to also have to worry about the health and safety of your little ones and elderly parents.

This winter has been especially difficult for little children due to the tridemic: flu, RSV, and COVID. My entire family has been sick off and on for two months. If I could donate my health points to my 5-year-old and 2-year-old so they could feel better, I would.

Alas, all my wife and I can do is protect them as much as possible. We feel like we’re always making risk-reward health calculations such as whether to go somewhere public or send them to school. At least we are lucky enough to be able to keep them home when they aren’t feeling 100%.

I got my parents to successfully visit us during Thanksgiving. However, with all the viruses going around, we’ve also had to throttle the time spent with them. I pray they don’t get sick as well.

Deciding whether or not to have life insurance is an individual decision. Whatever you decide to do or not do, it’s important to make an informed decision that’s best suited to your family’s needs.

To help you learn more about life insurance, let’s debunk some of the biggest life insurance myths. This post is brought to you by PolicyGenius, a leading life insurance marketplace that helps you compare real quotes in one place.

If you ever get disabled, your active income generating abilities may be in jeopardy. As a result, it’s wise to have disability insurance to cover you when you can no longer work. Bad things happen all the time.

During the pandemic, my myopia got worse. Further, if I spend longer than an hour on my laptop or phone at a time, I experience eye fatigue, dryness, and pressure. As a result, I can no longer pound out a post in two hours straight. I need to take breaks.

If my eyesight continues to worsen, I may have to evolve to just recording mostly podcasts. Or I might hire someone to transcribe and edit all my posts. If things get really bad, I might step away altogether and hire freelance writers and invite guest posters on Financial Samurai.

For those of you who are still 100% healthy, cherish your ability to work! Sooner or later, your health will fade. You may encounter bad luck as well. It will become harder to maintain your same work intensity as you age. Pre-mortem planning is a must.

I understood this sad reality after experiencing so many physical ailments during my banking career before age 25. As a result, I saved and invested as aggressively as possible to build passive income. I needed a financial safety net. At the time, I didn’t understand the benefits of disability insurance.

Recently, I got an upsell from my life insurance carrier offering $500,000 in accidental death insurance for $33 a month. This is on top of my existing 20-year term life insurance policy coverage of $750,000 I found through PolicyGenius, a free life insurance marketplace.

The accidental death insurance offer sounded like repetitive coverage. But I was interested in learning more since I actually wanted to get at least a $1 million term life insurance policy until my kids are adults, but couldn’t. $750,000 was the most SBLI was willing to cover without a medical exam. And I didn’t want to draw blood.

If I got an accidental death insurance policy, I would then have $1,250,000 in total coverage for accidental death. This is different from receiving $1,250,000 in total life insurance coverage.

Is accidental death insurance necessary on top of regular life insurance coverage? I had to investigate further and understand the difference.

So you’re wondering whether to get whole life insurance even though it costs much more than term life insurance. Our partner Policygenius shares the main reasons to get whole life insurance. You can get real insurance quotes all in one place with Policygenius.

Whole life insurance is permanent coverage that lasts your entire life. If you have strong disposable income and are looking for extra ways to invest, it can double as financial protection for your family and a low-risk savings or investing vehicle throughout your life.

Here’s how whole life insurance works. In exchange for premiums, your insurance company pays out a tax-free death benefit to your loved ones when you die. Most whole life insurance policies also include a cash value savings component. This comes with added financial benefits you can use throughout your life. 

Whole life insurance is not the most popular type of life insurance. Term life insurance is usually the better choice for most people due to its simplicity and affordability. However, it’s helpful to learn about the circumstances that can make whole life insurance a better choice.

Whole Life Insurance Quick Facts

At last! After more than three years of deliberating what to do about life insurance, I finally got myself an affordable life insurance policy with no medical exam with Policygenius! If you’re looking to get the same, here’s how I did it. Let me share a bit of background first.

Back in January 2012, at the age of 34, I decided to get a 10-year, $1 million term life insurance policy. Because I had about $1 million in mortgage debt at the time, I thought getting a $1 million term policy was the responsible thing to do.

In case I passed prematurely, I didn’t want to saddle my wife with so much debt. She made about $120,000, which was not enough to comfortably afford a $1 million mortgage based on my 30/30/3 rule. Further, at the time I was determined to negotiate a severance and cut my overall income by ~80%. We were in a precarious financial position and I wanted financial assurances.

Back then, we also weren’t certain whether we wanted kids either. When you light your earnings on fire, starting a family is generally not top of mind. Adapting to a new financial normal is. Therefore, I got a 10-year term policy, which I thought was long enough to pay off the mortgage or sell the house.

With open enrollment season in full swing, it’s a good idea to go through the many health insurance plans to choose from. The options can quickly get overwhelming. However, understanding the fundamentals will help simplify your decision.

By the end of this article you’ll understand the four main types of health insurance and know how to quickly compare HMO, EPO, POS, and PPO plans. Knowing the details of each plan is particular helpful if you have to pay for your own health insurance as a freelancer or entrepreneur.

We’ll also cover other important aspects of health insurance plans such as metal tiers, deductibles, copays, coinsurance, HSAs, and Flex Spending accounts. The more you understand about how health insurance plans are structured, the easier it is to compare plans and make a suitable selection for your needs.

With the continual rise of insurance costs, it’s helpful to know the fundamentals of various types of health insurance plan structures available today. Let’s look at POS vs PPO health insurance, as these are the two plans we’re deciding between for the new year.

One of the things I dread every fall is our health insurance plan renewal. Our existing plan is never available for renewal with the exact same terms. Something is always changing whether it be the premium, deductible, out-of-pocket max amount, service terms, etc.

Since insurance is continually evolving, the positive of open enrollment season is it’s a learning experience. Thus, I’ve put together a simple guide below on what I’ve learned about POS plans, how they differ from PPO plans and a real side-by-side example of a POS vs PPO plan comparison.