Will your priorities leave your family in need of a spaghetti dinner fundraiser?

Its tragic, yet I hear about it all the time.  A family loses a loved one who has no life insurance.  The spouse is left behind with a mortgage, car payments, children and no money.  The family is then forced to do anything and everything they can to raise money.  They sell the house (if it is not foreclosed), they sell the cars (assuming they are not repossessed) they liquidate any assets that they may have, and in many situations they turn to spaghetti dinners.

In my opinion, if we took the time to properly prepare for our future, there would never be a need for a “spaghetti dinner” to benefit a family after the death of a loved one.  The problem we tend to face is that our priorities are focused on the wrong things.  We tend to live in the moment, only thinking about the present.  Granted this is not true of all people, but in my opinion it is true of most, especially those in my generation.  We want the latest and greatest of everything – new cell phones, new houses, new cars, new clothes and those quickly become our priority leaving little if any thought to our future.   We tend to not focus on the future or tragic situations, because those type of things wont happen to our family.  We will all live till we are 120 right? Thinking about our own mortality, leaving our spouse and kids behind is not easy topic to discuss.  That being said what would happen in that situation?  If you died today what would happen to your family?

I recently came across an article with some disturbing stats – Take a moment as you read these, and relate them to your life.

1.  33% of Americans say they would feel the financial burden of a spouse passing away within the first month – over 50% would feel it within 6 months –

If something happened to your spouse how long could you afford life?  How long could you continue to pay for the mortgage, the cars, the utility bill, feed your kids etc.

2. 50 percent of consumers say that additional living expenses, such as Internet, cable and cell phone costs, prevent them from purchasing life insurance.

If you own a cell phone and do not have life insurance more or less what you are saying is that your cell phone (which IS probably insured) is more important than your families future?

3. 63 percent of consumers, especially younger consumers, said they haven’t purchased more life insurance because it is “too expensive.”

In several situations you can purchase life insurance for less than $20-25 per month.  Think about this “If you can’t afford life insurance while your spouse is living how do you plan to afford life when they are gone?”

At the end of the day you have to ask your self what are your priorities?  Do you place things such as your cell phone, cable or other luxury items ahead of the future of your family.  You have to honestly ask your self, “If something happened to you how would your family be?”