Life Insurance or Compromise in Life – Choice is Yours

The topic of Life Insurance is very close to my heart. Recently, I was watching a new campaign of Birla Sun Life Insurance. The theme of the campaign is #KhudKoKarBuland. I was able to co-relate the campaign with the experiences of the readers of this blog. I will share some of the real-life cases later in the post. Normally, I observed that life insurance campaigns are closer to reality than any other campaign. Over a period of time, there is a sea change in the theme of the life insurance campaigns. In past, I remember the campaigns were themed around fear factor. Now the brands are trying to educate, create awareness and convey the benefits of the life insurance. Gradually, I have observed a change in the mindset of the people. The Life Insurance is now must have financial planning tool.

In my opinion, life is like an orbit similar to the solar system. My life is revolving in an orbit and I always want my kids to take a giant leap and jump to the next orbit. The same dream was in the eyes of my father and grandfather. In other words, each generation would like to see the next generation progressing and prospering. Any unfortunate event has the potential to push your life 10- 15 years back. It is difficult to recover financially from such shocks. For an outsider, it is just an unfortunate event but for a family, it is an emotional, financial and psychological setback.

Unfortunately, financial setback aggravates the emotional and psychological setback. The objective of insurance is to take care of financial setback. If it is taken care then trust me, life will be back on track within few months. To summarize, It’s a universal truth that life is not a straight line. Always it does not move as per our dreams and wishes. If there is any turn in life and we are not ready then everything will go off track. Here I would like to quote a real life example of Mr. Sanjay Malhotra. He shared his experience with me.

Life Insurance or Compromise in Life – Choice is Yours

Sanjay’s family was a middle-class family. His father was working in an automobile company. He was the sole breadwinner of the family. When Sanjay was pursuing his MBBS, his father met with an accident. As there was no one to support the family and bear medical expenses. Sanjay had to leave his studies in between and joined a pathology lab in his hometown. The dreams of his father that his son should jump to next orbit were shattered due to the accident. In short, Sanjay had to compromise. More or less he is in the same orbit as his father. Now he has a dream that his children should take giant leaps to fulfill his dreams. As Sanjay experienced uncertainty in life that completely changed his life, therefore, he has availed both Life Insurance and Health insurance. He doesn’t want his children to be a victim of uncertainty or adverse situations in life.

As I mentioned that when I was watching the Birla Sun Life Insurance Campaign, it reminded me of Sanjay. In the campaign, the father underwent a bypass surgery. The father is the PA of a rich businessman. The businessman offered the same job to his son as his father cannot continue the job. The father told his boss that his son is going abroad for an MBA. In other words, the message of the campaign is that savings and planning help you fight adversities and uncertainties of life in a better way. You need not compromise on your dreams/financial goals in such situations.

The unsaid message of the campaign is that father must have saved money for his son’s MBA. The bypass surgery is a very costly affair and father opted for health insurance to cover the medical expenses. Therefore, the amount saved for education remains intact and son need not compromise by accepting the job of a father. To watch the campaign on YouTube, please click on the following link

Khud Ko Kar Buland

In another case, one of the readers of the blog, Ms. Usha Sawant from Mumbai faced a dilemma whether to utilize lifelong savings to prepay the home loan. Her husband saved this money for their retirement planning. Unfortunately, he died in an accident without life insurance. As she is a housewife in late 40’s, if she prepay home loan then she has to compromise on savings for retirement planning and vice versa. In short, the entire financial planning goes for a toss due to an unfortunate event. She decided to prepay home loan but she wishes if her husband could have opted for life insurance. She joined as an office assistant in one of the company. To protect her teenage children from such uncertainties (higher education), she has bought a life insurance cover. Due to improper planning, the life is thrown out of gear. It is quite a sad situation for any family.

The Biggest Roadblock

Unfortunately, our mind is the biggest roadblock. We always think that nothing can go wrong with us. I always wish and pray that nothing should go wrong with anyone. Have you seen children playing in a park? The parent of a child keeps a protective cover around the child when he is sliding down from the slide. The way, parents are the protective cover of a child. Similarly, Insurance cover is the protective cover of an adult.

Once you secure your future, another advantage is that you live a tension free life. Maybe a young person will not think about uncertainties of life but mid-age people can understand what I am trying to say. In my opinion, two types of insurances are must i.e. Life Insurance and Health Insurance. As I have personally availed these two covers, therefore, I don’t care about uncertainties of life and my family is secured. I know that my insurance coverage will take care of my family’s financial needs.

Words of Wisdom: In the post, Insurance – Top 7 excuses, I shared some of the interesting excuses shared by the readers for not availing the insurance policy. Any financial planning, be it a long term or short term is incomplete without insurance coverage. The insurance companies are trying hard to educate and create awareness among the masses. Even the Govt of India is trying hard to create awareness. Therefore, any insurance coverage should not be considered as a waste of money. If you would like to understand the importance of insurance then you should ask the people who faced unfortunate events in life without any insurance cover.

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