Crunch the Numbers: Life Insurance Can Help You Add It Up

Balancing your budget each month can be an exercise in frustration with your past self. Even if you set some spending money aside, it’s easy to feel a sense of regret over those impulse purchases. 


“Did I really need to buy those new shirts for work? My closet is full enough as it is.”

“Yikes, maybe I should have taken my friend up on splitting the bill at dinner last week.” 

“I can’t believe I let the kids talk me into buying each of them those new toys. They’ve already moved on to the next thing, and one of the toys looks broken.”

“Five bucks for a bottle of water at the movies? I better have been really thirsty.”


It’s human nature, and the physical act of paying for something is more convenient than ever. The quick mental math that comes from paying in cash is diminishing as more and more retailers accept credit cards. The checkbook is collecting dust – maybe you still write one occasionally, but you know you’re missing out on those valuable credit card travel rewards points!

Credit cards themselves have gone from a swipe to an insert or even a tap – and smartphones offer ways to pay that don’t even require breaking out your wallet. Monthly subscriptions add up, too. Maybe you thought you’d be watching that new TV streaming service – it’s only a few bucks a month, after all – but now it’s been three months since you’ve watched anything and they’re happily pulling money out of your account automatically until you get around to canceling it.

 

How Life Insurance Fits In

It takes a lot of money to live your life. These unplanned expenses add up quickly alongside the big-ticket items: a mortgage, car payment, monthly bills, future college tuition(s), and much more. Your paycheck, and potentially your partner’s paycheck, go to a lot of places. When you have life insurance coverage, you have added protection so, should something ever happen to you, your family receives some financial assistance to cover these expenses. It’s a way to help them land on their feet in challenging circumstances.

Consider some of these statistics: 

• $310,605. This is the average amount spent by middle-income parents to raise a child, according to statistics from the Brookings Institute¹. This primarily covers food, housing and childcare – and doesn't even include higher education costs.
   
• $10,662. A college-bound student can expect to pay around this amount of tuition and fees annually at a public, in-state college. The price more than doubles for a public, out-of-state college ($23,630) and quadruples for private colleges ($42,162), based on a survey by U.S. News².
   
• $21,800. The average American carries at least this much personal debt, which is down from a few years ago, per Money.com³. But this is a category that can vary wildly between person-to-person between credit card debt, car loans, student loans, mortgages and medical expenses.
   
• $2,495,976. This number represents the total amount of (pre-tax) money you would make with the average American salary ($59,428) over 42 years – the average number of years an American works before retiring, according to Forbes^{4 5}. This can also vary quite a bit as you advance through your career, if you were to take out 42 years of your regular expenses, it might start to dwindle fast.

These numbers are just averages, but they can be eye-opening when you think about your family’s future. Having a better understanding of your financial obligations is a key step to determining whether you have enough life insurance coverage. 

 

Protect the Unexpected to Enjoy the Unexpected

Impulse expenses are a reminder that life can be very unexpected. When you have a family, these unexpected moments can create the memories that you’ll treasure for the rest of your life. For most people, an occasional impulse purchase is not going to prevent you from reaching your financial goals. It’s important to keep the big picture in mind, and regularly account for all the ways in which your family depends on you.

AAA Life Insurance Company works every day to make sure people have enough life insurance coverage, so they can enjoy more peace of mind when they’re spending that quality time with their family. Take a few minutes today to reevaluate your needs or call an experienced agent today at (888) 422-7020 to review the options available to you.





¹Parker, Tim. How Much Does It Cost to Raise a Child in the U.S.? Investopedia. May 3, 2023.
²Kerr, Emma and Wood, Sarah. See the Average College Tuition in 2023-2024. U.S. News & World Report. Sept. 20, 2023.
³Cagnassola, Mary Ellen. Here’s How Much Debt the Average American Has in 2023. Money.com. Aug. 28, 2023. 
⁴Wong, Belle. Average Salary by State In (2023). Forbes. Aug, 23, 2023.
⁵Ghilarducci, Teresa. How Many Years Do You Have to Work Before You Retire? Forbes. May 28, 2021.