Stay at Home Moms Need Life Insurance Too

A few years ago I used to think that the fact of whether I needed life insurance or not was based solely on earnings. It was before we decided to have children, and before I realised the contribution that being a stay-at-home-mom would make to our family.

Let’s face it. Though you’re not paid when you make the choice to be a stay-at-home-mom, you’re still contributing. If something were to happen to you, there would be an influx of costs for the things that you normally manage – something as simple as child care would cost upwards of $2,000/month for two young children. My husband would have to hire a housekeeper, find a daycare for our young children and learn to cook, or find another solution.

Stay-at-home parents may not earn a salary but the financial contribution to the family is huge: child care, transportation, cleaning, cooking and other household activities have a severely underestimated replacement value. Having adequate life insurance means securing the quality of the life the family has become accustomed to.

Term Life Insurance

How much life insurance do you need? For how long? At first we weren’t sure where to start. We were helped along in the process with online life insurance calculators to determine the value of the policy.

All said and done, our total was just under $750,000 – and our monthly out of pocket cost is under the cost of a monthly meal out with the family, or a new pair of shoes.

As with a lot of young families living in the suburbs, housing costs eat up a good chunk of our money earned every month. When we chose life insurance, we factored in the full cost of our home, vehicles, and contributions to the kids’ college education fund, ensuring that each of us would be able to maintain our quality of life.

Term life insurance made sense for our young family. Twenty years with a locked in rate, after which point our mortgage would be paid, our kids would be grown and the costs of day to day living would be much less.

At that point, we can revisit the policy to assess how our needs have changed – but right now? We’re covered. You can be covered too. Until November 13, if you call TD Insurance at 1-888-756-5666 for a free life insurance needs analysis you will also be entered to win one of 300 Fitbit FlexTM activity trackers . Or you can get a quote online.

This post is brought to you by TD Insurance, but the opinions and images are my own. For more information please visit www.tdinsurance.com/termlife .