Stay-at-home Parent Needs Life Insurance, Too
Shortly after our daughter was born, my wife and I decided she would quit her job and become a stay-at-home mom. It was tight, but we made the budget work and my wife really wanted to be there those first couple years. We had a lot of changes to make, among them was life insurance.
Like a lot of people, both of us get a good bit of our life insurance coverage through our respective employers. We also have life insurance through USAA, where we do almost all of our financial business. When my wife quit, she obviously lost the benefit of life insurance.
Having adequate life insurance for a stay-at-home parent is critical. We realized that, though unpaid, raising our daughter was not ‘free.’ If something were to happen to my wife, I would have to provide alternate arrangements and be able to pay for them. We evaluated this need for adequate life insurance and decided to add spouse coverage through my employer (which is one way to get more life insurance if it seems too costly).
So if your family is considering or already has a stay-at-home parent, please take a look at your life insurance coverage and get more for the stay-at-home spouse.
insurance
July 25th, 2007 at 9:09 am
What considerations were made to determine the amount of coverage?
July 25th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
The primary consideration was for full-time childcare for our daughter. Should my wife die, I’d need to hire a nanny. Since we were saving for college already, we didn’t need to account for that.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:31 am
My personal finance prof’s wife just died one morning. She was stay-at-home. He said it cost a lot to replace her functions, from being with the kids to shopping to cooking to everything she did. He’d known the expense, but it was surprising. I think he had life insurance for her, he’s a big believer in it.