Why Is Life Insurance Important for the Self-Employed?

September 15, 2021 9:21 am

Being self-employed has many benefits; you can work in your own hours, organise your own work, don’t have any boundaries set by a company. Essentially, you are your own boss. This is a dream that millions want and only a few manage to achieve – the flexibility of being self-employed is something that not many get to experience.

The problem with being self-employed is that you lack the benefits that companies offer when you are an employee. These range from free meals to exercise plans, bonuses, and health insurance. One of the most important safety nets a job offers is a sense of security; your income is steady and unchanging, while being self-employed can come with unsteady work and unsteady pay. This means that it might not be easy to save up, as you never know exactly how much you’ll make from month to month and whether it would be enough to cover living expenses. This is worrying, because if something were to happen to you, those who depend on you might not have any funds to keep themselves on their feet. Furthermore, it might kill your business, which could keep your family and loved ones financially safe.

This is why you should invest in life insurance. The main message is protection. You want to have been preparing for certain problems from before they actually happen, and life insurance is a way to think long term on problems that have not yet reached your doorstep.

Why is Life insurance important?

There are various reasons why one may opt to get life insurance. Here are some of these examples:

  • Emergency expenses
  • Unpaid medical bills
  • Final expenses
  • Planning to have a family

Emergency Expenses

You can never know what happens in the future, and you need to be prepared. This is especially important if you have people depending on you. Certain emergency payments need to happen, and your family might not be able to cover them in the event of your death. These include things such as childcare expenses, utilities, property taxes or mortgage/ rent, amongst other emergencies. 

Life insurance will provide a safety net for your family. Knowing that they have  such a safety net will also help you free your mind and be a little bit calmer during turbulent times. It can improve your quality of life by affording you peace of mind. 

Unpaid Medical Bills

Health insurance is usually one of the most common benefits a company will offer its employees. Obviously, a self-employed worker will not have such benefits, so one should plan ahead for any health issues that may come up. No one knows when any medical problems will come up, but they usually happen suddenly and out of nowhere. One of the worst experiences in life is for your or the loved ones that depend on your income to be caught surprised with no safety net or solutions.

Life insurance can help your family and loved ones cover such expenses in the event of your demise. Medical expenses can be quite tiring to pay because certain problems might require more funding to solve, funding that your life insurance can provide for your loved ones. 

Final Expenses

At some point, one of your family members will have to pay for certain final expenses. Though the time might be one filled with mourning and sadness, the added cost will put a burden on everyone. Burial and funeral costs can be quite heavy on anyone, especially someone who either might not have expected such a situation, or simply is not financially stable to initiate such expenses.

Life insurance will appease this worry for your family. You can rest at night knowing that in a time of suffering, your family doesn’t need to be worried about money. 

This is also important if you are a business owner. If something were to unexpectedly happen to you, life insurance can help keep your business running for a small amount of time while your family members iron out the details. This could either be if they want to sell the business, want to hire some people to run it, take part-ownership, and more. Such decisions could be the difference between your business continuing to thrive after your death or your business failing. 

It is unfair on your family to keep funding a business they may know little or nothing about. Having life insurance will give them enough income to have time to think about future decisions in a more calm state.

You Are Planning To Have A Family

When you’re single, you probably do not have anyone depending on you; but that generally changes when you enter a serious relationship, especially marriage. Marriage will require dependency from both parties. Your partner may depend on your income to support both your lives, or you both may need the other person’s income to pay off a loan, to pay for your child’s education, and more. If you are planning to have a baby, getting life insurance is an important step. Protection for your family should be at the forefront of any parent’s mind, and life insurance will ensure that if anything happens, you have the funds to support and protect your family, and pay off any debt.

Final Words

There are many other reasons why life insurance is important. The take-home message would be that life insurance is a safety net, ready to protect your family and loved if things were to go south. Being financially unstable is a scary situation to be in, so it is always important to be ready for anything. This is especially important if you have people depending on you. By taking the precautions to think long-term, you can have better peace of mind knowing that your family is financially secure should a traumatic event occur. 

With IVALIFE, we have made it as easy as possible for you to buy a life insurance plan with only a few clicks. We have two life insurance plans available: IVAprotect and IVAsecure. The IVAprotect policy is a decreasing term one, where the cover decreases annually throughout the period of insurance, and is therefore cheaper. On the other hand, the IVAsecure policy is a level term one, which means that the cover is fixed throughout the period of insurance. This means that it tends to be more costly. You can find out more about our plans here.