Stay At Home Mom Life Insurance Is A Necessity!

Every SAHM needs a Life Insurance policy!

It's easy to lose sight of your worth when you’re (fruitlessly) scrubbing at the banana stains on Junior’s bib – but worth you have!

Let me show you…

You are the cook, you are the housekeeper, you are the personal shopper, you are the personal assistant, you are the events planner, you are the travel agent, you are the financial controller, you are the teacher, you are the general maintenance labourer, you are the taxi, you are the nanny, you are the personal stylist for each member in your family (under the age of 10 plus your husband! ;-D), you are the on-call medic, and finally but certainly not least, you are the cake decorator.

You wear many hats – you are the stay at home mom!

You are worth more than anyone can tally, although Salary.com has tried. Based on a 100-hour workweek, salary.com has come up with an annual figure of $134,000+. I ask, ‘That’s it?!’

I guess it makes sense to a certain degree because you only wear said hats for a certain amount each. However, just being on-call 24/7 should be worth (at least as far as I’m concerned) $200,000 extra.

The amount you are ‘officially’ worth may bring a smile or a frown to your face, but it should also bring a thought to your mind. That thought is, ‘What would my family do without me?’ (Something I say at least once a week to remind my husband just how good he’s got it! ;-D)

Usually we don’t think about ‘worth’ unless there is money involved, but we have to take ‘what its worth to you’ into consideration. The fact is, if something were to happen to you and you’re lucky enough to live close to family and friends who can help out, they’d only help out for so long – lets face it: they have lives of their own that they have to get on with, as would your family. So in light of that, set up a plan that will allow your family to get on with their lives, as best as they can amid their terrible loss – you.

Regarding how much you’re worth, you must think realistically. If you weren’t around who would do all that you do?

Depending on how old your children are there might be a need for a nanny, a daycare provider or before and after school care; a tutor; a housekeeper; a personal assistant; and probably a mirriad of others. It all depends on the situation. But lets for demonstration sake go with the aforementioned example of a nanny, a housekeeper, a personal assistant and a tutor.

A nanny can run you as high as $36,000+ per year. Some nannies only take responsibility for the children, that is, no housekeeping or errands. In that case, you might require a housekeeper, which, depending on the size of your house (and how dirty you are ;-D) can run you from $2,000 to $5,000 per year, as well as a personal assistant who would pay bills, buy groceries, take clothes to the cleaners, etc. Personal Assistants usually charge approximately $80 per hour for essential tasks like the ones above. So lets go with $5,000 per year.

Already your replacements are costing your family $46,000 per year and now junior and juniorette need tutors which will run you anywhere from $10 to $35 per hour. You can see that $50,000 per year is not a far off figure and depending on how many children you have in which age groups, how much debt you have and other obligations, it could become much more.

In the event of your death or incapacitation you do not want to saddle your husband and family with worry on top of grief. In order not to do that it is imperative that every stay at home mom has a life insurance policy.

How much would your family need? The answer to that question depends on the situation. Again, lets go with the aforementioned scenario; based on $50,000 per year for 20 years you would need approximately $1,000,000 coverage. (That’s a lot and I’m being generous just to prove a point.) For $1,000,000 coverage you would have to pay approximately $55.45 per month or $616.05 per year for a 20-year term. That is not a lot. For the piece of mind it will give to those left behind it is certainly worth it!

Life insurance policies come in all different shapes and sizes. Its important to know the differences so that you know what you’re getting and also what you’re not getting. There are two basic categories of life insurance and they are: term life and permanent life. There are, of course, different packages you can purchase for each, but allow me to explain the basic differences between the two categories.

Term Life is a life insurance policy for so many. That is, you purchase a plan for $1,000,000 for a 20-year term. If you perish within those 20 years, your beneficiary will receive $1,000,000. If you die 20 years and one day after the plan was purchased your beneficiary gets nothing. The big pro of term life insurance is that is it AFFORDABLE! The big con of term life insurance is that it doesn’t build up a cash value. That is, once the term is up, you have nothing. Also, the premiums increase as your age does, because there is a greater risk of you dying, and once your term is up you have to renew and pay whatever premium is assigned to you or maybe, not qualify.

Permanent Life is a life insurance policy that lasts for the life of the insured, as long as the premiums are a paid. There are lots of pros to a permanent life insurance: cash value is accumulated and you can borrow from it; premium costs can be fixed or flexible; you can terminate the policy for its cash value; and you can add provisions and buy more coverage without giving evidence of insurability. However, premiums can be quite high and if a permanent life policy isn’t kept long enough it can be a lot more expensive that a term life insurance policy.

Whether you choose Term Life or Permanent Life is for you to decide based on your personal situation and requirements. Personally I chose a term life insurance policy for a 20-year term. Of course things are going to change from year to year and that’s fine with me. I wanted to be sure my children would be looked after in terms of childcare and other needs if I were to parish. (Of course, I’m sure Troy’d eventually find someone new to love – a better, updated, younger version of me – but that’s a whole other website! ;-D)

If you do not have life insurance as of yet, and you have people depending on you, I urge you to purchase a policy that fits your needs. Remember, it is not for you, but for the people you love most in the world!

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