In Sure Ants Paul Icy

This week, I met with our financial advisor (aka Mike Lallana) and submitted an application for life insurance, among other things. Life insurance has always been a bit of a strange concept for me, a bit creepy somehow. It's like you're betting a company $20 a month at 5000-to-1 odds that you'll die that month. And even if you do happen to "win," you can't exactly go on a spending spree and enjoy your winnings. So you play the "it's for piece of mind while you're alive" card, which I guess justifies spending $20 a month. I guess. I don't really like to think about it too much.

Even stranger is "whole" life insurance, which is some kind of weird life insurance/retirement plan crossbreed. Basically, it's way more expensive than regular old term life insurance, but it also carries with it a tax-exempt savings account that grows in value over time. And instead of ending after a specific term (like term life insurance), you keep it until it pays out (i.e., you die), or you pull all of the cash out. So, it's kind of like life insurance you can actually use while you're alive. So it's got that going for it. Plus, it starts paying you after you retire. Which is hella weird. Except you gotta figure that they've been investing your premiums all this time, and by the time they have to pay out anything, that money will be worth a whole lot less due to inflation. One million dollars ain't looking so hot in the year 2080. So, it's kind of a crapshoot.

Here endeth the lesson for today.