News // You are Worth a Million!

When I graduated from Lafayette College in 1961, the total tuition for the four undergraduate years was $4200. That number seems hard to believe when current annual tuition for Lafayette and other highly selective colleges is $30,000 and upward. Add room and board, travel and miscellaneous expenses and one is close to $50,000.

Are you personally worth a million? If you are a typical American family with two young children, consider your financial needs. By the time your children are ready for college, the total four-year undergraduate expense could well be $250,000 - for each. And we aren't even considering post-graduate education. You might have a $250,000 mortgage. And what would you like to leave your spouse should you die prematurely? $250,000? That's not much when the rule-of-thumb is to not take more than 5% of a capital sum in order that you do not dissipate the principal.

Have we made the case for a minimum of a $1 million life insurance policy? I would like to think so. But isn't a policy of that size terribly expensive? Well, depending on the insured's age, sex and health, the daily premium might be $2-3. Even if a life insurance policy of that size cost $4-5 daily, wouldn't you consider that a bargain. With that expenditure, you are ensuring that your family will remain in their world. I know personally what it is like to be in the "other" world. My father died at age 49 with no life insurance.

Life insurance says to your family that you love them. It says that, although you are no longer with them for evening dinners, vacations or college football games, you have cared enough to ensure that they remain in their financial world.

My father didn't think that he would die so young. But death comes, young or old, but always. If you think that you are worth a million, insure yourself while you are yong and healthy.