What push me to be Insured?

As I started working years ago, I never thought of anything that will help my money grows in the future or any plans to make me or my family secured. I'm contented with the fact that I am earning and can buy the food that I was not able to eat when I was young. I started with a minimum salary, which is enough for my daily transpo allowance, food and not so luxurious stuffs that can still satisfy me.

As years goes by, we will meet new people. Will resign from a job and look for a better opportunity to improve our well being, or in order to find a career growth and development. We will be sorrounded by people that have a better financial mindset in life, that will eventually influence us to be the same. We will encounter some event that will convince us to decide and finally take a risk.

Death of a Colleague

Last 2018, beginning of the year when the Accounting Manager of our Company died. It's an unexpected since she was known for having a healthy lifestyle. I am only less than a year employee that time, so I did not know her personally but she's the sister of my officemate from the prior company I worked for.

With the current situation, One of my teammates decided that he will get a life insurance. Afraid that the same thing will happened to him so he wanted to be insured. Life Insurance has been an ongoing topic of my officemates even before we received the death news. I am not really interested about it because for me it's just another expenses (coz I have an ongoing monthly downpayment for condo and rent expense) and I don't have much knowledge about it also. Most of them are already insured and some are planning to get an insurance plan.

Deciding Factor

It's between January and February of the same year when I learned about my Uncle's condition. I was just informed by my brother that our Uncle (Tito Willie is my Mom's cousin) have a brain tumor. We are close to them when we were a kid, Our Tito Willie is one of the nicest person. He is the oldest among his siblings and the breadwinner of the family. He doesn't have his own family, so he dedicated his life in giving everything he can to his parents and siblings.

His condition is getting worst, the tumor is deteriorating and distorting his memory. When we visited him in the hospital, he barely remember us at first. Then, as my other Uncle reminded him about who we are, he was able to recognized us again. Seeing his condition made me think of what will happen if i'll be in the same situation as my Uncle. It made me decide to finally get an Insurance.

I'm Insured!

Before getting an insurance, I asked my officemate about it. Though, I am 100% sure on applying for an insurance plan. I only asked about their insights. They advised me to meet with their financial advisor, so I will have a more deeper understanding of how life Insurance works.

I was immediately contacted by a financial advisor.

We set a meeting. He asked me first some personal details so he can make a proposed estimated computation. He asked for my age, existing health conditions if there's any and if am a smoker.

The younger you are the lower the amount of the premiums that you have to pay. As for the existing health condition they need to know whether you are still qualified to be insured, because there are certain illnesses that were no longer insurable (one example is Cancer). If you are a smoker there is a high probability of getting an illness in the future, so they will also take account of that and there will be additional increase in your premium payments. Another thing is, the amount of premium payments of a man his higher than a woman even if they have the same age. Because, woman has lesser vices, therefore has a much longer life span compare to a man (that's what had been explained to me).

Disclaimer: I will not go much into details, since I don't still have broad knowledge about it. I will only state what my experiences are or what had been explained to me.

The insurance policy that he discussed was VUL (Variable Universal Life). It's a combination of investment and life insurance. The monthly (quarterly or annual depending on the terms you prefer) payments that you will be paying will be alloted for your life insurance premiums and the remaining portions will be alloted to your invesment (mutual funds or bonds), the fund manager will handle your investment based on what kind of fund or bond you've chosen.

There are readily available site about what are mutual funds are, you may research about it for proper understanding.

He showed me the computation and the amount of I am going to pay which is P26,500 annual (P6,625 quarterly) for 10 years. I am 25y/o that time and will be turning 26y/o that year, he advised me to get an insurance before my birthday so there will be no changes with the amount I have to pay. My intention is to get an insurance, but as he present the computation I got tempted to change my option of alloting more of my payment into investment than the insurance premiums. Regardless, I will be insured and my beneficiary will receive money both from my insurance and investment.

In case you'll ask. You can withdraw money from your fund value anytime, but make sure to leave some amount for the monthly surcharge payment.

Finally, my application was approved! I am now insured!

I've been paying for almost 4 years now (out of 10years premium period). And so far, my current fund value is half of what I've already pay.

Few months after being insured, my Uncle died.

A/N: The annual payments are what holding us back to get an insurance and I completely relate to that. How can we pay if we can't even save from our salary? Not everyone has a privilege to do that, we have different responsibilities and expenses to pay. But,If the time comes that you'll have the resources or opportunity to avail for an insurance, please do it as early as possible. It's not just for your benefit but for your family.

Thank you for reading!

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