Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
When I was a little girl, one of my favorite activities was to complete the “connect the dots” pictures. You remember those. There was an image hidden on the page and to make it pop out you had to draw a line connecting point A to B to C, etc.
It’s funny that something that was so easy and fun to do as a child is something we avoid as an adult. I don’t mean connecting dots on a piece of paper. I mean connecting the dots in our lives. Knowing we are moving from point A to point B but not planning for it. In life’s normal progression, perhaps with some variation, we receive an education, go out into the working world, fall in love, marry, have children, put them through college, retire and then die. People may plan for some of those life events, but we have a reluctance to think about the end of our lives. That’s not unusual. We want to enjoy our life, not think about what happens when we’re gone. But no one gets out of life alive. (Unless you plan to be cryogenically frozen, which is a discussion for another day.) So we need to prepare for that, even though we will no longer be here. We need to think about those we love, who will be left to continue on without us. Will they be able to continue on with their lives, and keep connecting the dots?
It is very common for people to say they don’t have life insurance because they cannot afford it right now. They are too busy connecting other dots in their life; buying a home, new baby, kids in college. The list goes on and on. But to all of the financial excuses I would say this: life insurance is only expensive when you don’t need it. It is priceless when you do. And by the time someone realize this, it may be too late to finish connecting the dots.
Still haven’t convinced you? It won’t happen to you? You’re going to live a long, long time. I hope that’s true. But how do you know? Life blindsides us every day. My own mother died when I was 15. She went to bed one night, a healthy 43 year old mother of four and never woke up.
The difference between my situation and so many other people is that my parents had life insurance on each other. And while it doesn’t mend a broken heart, it can help ease the financial burden and give loved ones the time to grieve without having to worry about how they will pay the bills.
So I encourage you to get in touch with your inner child and connect the dots in your life so that a complete picture emerges.
To learn more about the types of life insurance, click here.
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