Just a 47-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). I've heard that it's virtually impossible to get life insurance after a brain tumor. It's not cancer and it's not life threatening (while being watched/treated). But the underwriters just lump all brain tumors basically under the worst category.
Anyway, the standard question is if you have had treatment for a tumor the past 5 years. Since MH's tumor is *finally* shrinking and it's been 5+ years since he has any treatment. We tried...
Just got the denial back. Not particularly surprised.
So thankful we had our ducks in a row so young and we have had more than ample insurance. Like many things, we will survive and work through it. The insurance we do have expires in 3 more years. & we've got probably 5 more years to get kids through college. I was just concerned about that 2-year gap, but wanted to get insurance while things were actually going well.
Considering we lived without MH having an income at all for 13 years, I think we will survive. 😉
The reason we had life insurance in our early 20s? Well I think a lot of it was because we had kids in our early 20s. (Wouldn't have seen the point of life insurance when we both worked full-time and lived on only one of our incomes). But I think probably more to the point my mom was always taking care of her sick friends. So my childhood was skewed where I feel like everyone's parents were always dying. & some of them did not prepare at all and really financially struggled. Between that and crazy cheap term life insurance in our young 20s...
I cringe how much the average person puts this off. But I have the double whammy of the skewed childhood and a spouse who has been uninsureable since early 30s. I just wanted to share the news/update, but now that I type it out, this is also my PSA to go buy some freaking life insurance. (Specifically, if you have kids or people who rely on you financially).
For us personally, we can re-evaluate in another 3 years. When we hit that gap, we can try one more time. I know some with this condition have gotten insurance. I just don't know if it matters enough. We went the easy route and it didn't work. Will have to evaluate if we want to put more time/effort/energy into this. Weighing the cost/benefit, etc.
January 22nd, 2022 at 04:50 pm 1642870248
January 22nd, 2022 at 08:49 pm 1642884574
Have you looked into buying life insurance for your sons? There is a policy type where there is ‘insurance of insurability’ that allows you to increase the amount of insurance you have at regular intervals - say, every five years - and to advance those based on life events like marriage and birth of a child. This might be attached to whole life policies, which many people do not like, but if you start them when you are young, the dividends will eventually pay the premiums and for the amount you need when young - enough for a funeral - they are quite good.
Amber, those ‘guaranteed’ policies are a scam. They are aimed at an age group that most likely doesn’t need life insurance, and the premiums are so high that anyone who can afford them has enough assets and doesn’t need them. If you are not supporting someone else, all you need at death is enough assets to bury you. People who are concerned should check with a local funeral home for costs, perhaps check out cemetery options and purchase a plot, and set aside a ‘funeral expenses’ fund. In fact, your emergency fund can be your funeral fund if you are single. Couples need to look at what each of their income streams would look like if one of them dies, and determine how they will cover funeral costs and living expenses. Perhaps scaling back to save for a funeral, picking up a part time job, or just knowing the consequences is helpful. But the ‘just a few dollars a month’ is not ‘a few dollars’ if you need to buy meaningful amounts of insurance.
Those with children should buy a significant amount of term insurance - enough to raise and educate their children. They should look into what Social Security benefits they would have. They should not count on employer sponsored life insurance because if you lose your job for health reasons, you cannot replace it in the market. Both spouses should have insurance, even if one is a stay at home parent. The services the parent is providing have a value, and there is a built in back up plan if the working parent were to become unable to work. The insurance accounts for that.
January 24th, 2022 at 07:19 pm 1643051972
January 26th, 2022 at 12:55 am 1643158533
I have some on him through work, but not much. It would be enough to basically put the house in good enough shape to sell. If I go first, he’s going to be set. (If I lose my job, the insurance goes with me. Just would have to pay the full premium. )
March 19th, 2022 at 02:10 pm 1647699039
No employer life insurance, which is moot (also not very useful).
@LAL - I expect I won't sweat it, but want to re-evaluate in another few years.
March 19th, 2022 at 03:38 pm 1647704324
I'd personally rather live on $20K per year (current non-mortgage/no-kid spending) rather than *have to* work any longer than age 50. BUT, I'd probably rather just work longer than figure out how to live on less than that. Financial independence is really important to me and always has been. Retirement is not at all important to me in the short term, I love my job. (After financial independence, I expect I may work for decades after that. Just don't want to sweat taking time off when life happens). Working longer probably makes more sense than buying more insurance (for worst case planning). I share the $20K figure to get across how little we spend.
My kids are not in a demographic for life insurance. They already have a lot of money and would not want it spent on a funeral.