By Sholom, a Crown Heights resident
The first finance book I’ve read was the classic – “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. A central theme in his extraordinary book is “pay yourself first.” In a nutshell, that means whenever someone receives his income, he ought to set aside some of the money for his savings and investments, and only afterwards he should pay his bills and expenses. The premise is that a person will spend without discipline unless he first sets aside money for [future] essentials. I’d like to modify the [above] phrase to “pay your children first!”
One wishes to live until 120, and then die debt free. Bad news: that doesn’t happen often. Life insurance helps alleviate burdens of families that have to confront this reality. (Life insurance is a product that one buys that pays his family a pre-stipulated amount in the event that he dies, in order to compensate for the lost income due to the death.) If Heaven forbid you leave behind family too early, do you want to leave them with your liabilities, or do you want to pass on to them the peace of mind knowing that they will have financial means at their disposal to help them navigate life minus the/a breadwinner? Too many times I’ve seen Ysomim v’Almanos funds established to try to restore the financial stability of some of these families, but unfortunately the funds barely make a dent.
Man’s nature is to procrastinate and confront problems as they arise. At times, this luxury may be possible. In regards to life insurance, however, often when one realizes it’s needed, it is too late. You can’t insure your home once the reports come in that the hurricane is coming! Can one plan the afterlife comfortably knowing that when he (or she) is no longer with us, the family’s woes will no longer be his problem? I suppose you can, but if your family’s welfare is of concern to you, the sooner you take action, the better. Windows of opportunity don’t last forever. As pointed out earlier, when one “takes initiative” once the damage is already done, it’s already too late. But that is water under the bridge. Now, let’s focus on our abilities to take control of our [families’] futures, for this IS still within our hands.
The first step is educating yourself about life insurance:
-Life insurance often costs less than 1% of the household annual income.
-One parent raising a family alone (i.e. after a spouse has R”L passed on) stunts the effective pursuit of a viable parnosso which life insurance [of the late spouse] helps to supplement.
-Insurance is a necessary purchase, not only for men, but for women as well.
-Insurance can only be purchased at reasonable rates when one is healthy! Don’t wait until your doctor alerts you that your blood pressure is too high! If one is diagnosed with a serious disease, getting approved at that time becomes nearly impossible.
-Once the price of insurance is locked in while one is healthy, it is guaranteed that the annual cost be maintained at the original price, even if the insured individual’s health later deteriorates, providing that it is still within the coverage term of the policy.
-Ideally, singles should lock in a rate while they are healthy, for what their future health holds remains unknown. Will they qualify for a policy later on, after marriage? Even more so, the engagement period- or shortly after the wedding- is a ripe time for chassanim and kallas to sign a policy. RESPONSIBILITY! Im loi achshav, aimosai? (If not now, when?)
-A payment missed invalidates the policy. A competent and caring life insurance agent is necessary to ensure this doesn’t happen to you. (Once invalidated, it may no longer be possible to reinitiate a new one, depending, of course, on the individual’s health.)
There are many more intricacies to life insurance as well as different types of policies, but I’ve never met a life insurance agent that charges to take time to explain them. Please reach out to your local life insurance agent!
I’ll conclude with the Talmudic dictum, “aser bishvil shetisasher” (tithe in order that you shall become rich). I’ll take the liberty of slightly twisting the meaning of this dictum as teaching us to “set aside money for others in order that your life becomes enriched.” Is a life inundated with selfish pursuits meaningful? No! Rather, when one utilizes portions of their material wealth to designate for others- that is life worth living! You become a member of society that is appreciated. There is no selflessness like ensuring the gashmius of others once you’re no longer alive to witness its benefit.
Charity begins at home. Don’t leave your family hanging!
Since when is chesed and helping a fellow Jew “a burden?” I am not opposed to life insurance. However, the tone of the article and many of the posts are troubling. Do you think insurance, any kind, is a way of outsmarting G-d? If G-d wants people to be supported by the community, you won’t get around it. If it’s not by supporting orphans, it might be to help defray the enormous costs of infertility treatments. Do you consider childless couples a “burden” on the community? Hashem takes everything into account. The fact that a family will be well provided… Read more »
I suppose ‘if I have money to burn’ I should buy health insurance because tzedoko tatzil mimoves so I really don’t need the health insurance. Brilliant.
Hope isn’t a strategy, and you must plan your demise and pray that your plans be for naught.
100 yeas ago people built their own homes without morgages and rent, and no one paid $3K – $18K for tuition. If a parent croaks, how will the surviving wife (or husband) support the family? will hey be a burden on the communiy? Or Sand on line for hours each month a th food stamp and welfare offices? That’s he exent of your ahavas yisroel for your own family? Shame on you. for $40-$50/month both parents can get insurance. You don’t have $40? There are hundrends of kids in CH who need a tutor, mothers who need a frum woman… Read more »
B”H my son is a chasson and I made sure he got life insurane before the chasuneh. Everytime R”L someone dies, the whole communiy is made to carry the burden. And even with all the tzedakah we give for them, the widow/widower and childen are left feeling like paupers. Not a month goes by that I don’t get an urgent letter from one Rabbi or another about the need to help an almanah or pay for the chasuneh of a yosom. And MANY of these unfortunate souls were NOT on food samps and Section 8 before the breadwinner died. Just… Read more »
I agree with your point but not your quote from robert kiyosaki, I think you missed the point, you need to read it again.
From the beginning of time, it was common for people to have more than 10 children per family and the lifespan a few hundred year ago was FAR shorter than it is today yet no frum yid (nor secular person) ever had any kind of insurance!!!!!! If someone can easily afford it, no one is telling anyone not to purchase insurance and if you can afford $10,000 to $20,000 to $30,000 to burn on a large Bungalow every year no one is telling anyone not to burn their money as long as they can easily afford to. But don’t let… Read more »
What’s better? To die and get some relatively minuscule financial benefit? Or To be guaranteed a Long Life by G-d and to prevent premature death, period? Tzedaka guarantees against premature death. Life insurance, no matter how high your premium does not guarantee that you will not die a premature death. No one is saying that people should not purchase Life insurance, as long as they, have money to burn and can easily afford it. But the ones who can afford it most easily are precisely the ones who need it the least, because they are currently at the lowest risk… Read more »
You are equating supporting your family with buying an insurance policy. Thus far, there is no posek who has paskened that life insurance must be bought as a halachic chiyuv. There is no mesader kiddushin who insists on the purchase of a life insurance policy being written into the kesuba. Find us a Torah source that says, “being responsible is more important than tzedaka.” This is not to say that buying a life insurance policy is not important. Just don’t make things up and say things that are not halachically true. If you can’t make your case honestly, maybe there… Read more »
Michael Frolich or Elchanan Kasnett (212) 768-2130 I’m a CH resident who called these guys on a recommendation & they worked with me patiently to get a very reasonable policy in place for both me & my wife inside a tight budget. They are the ultimate professionals.
Thank you for writing and sharing this article. We need more people like your self to spread the importance of this topic.
It would be my pleasure to further assist. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
Shmuly Wachtel
954-628-3752
[email protected]
looks like you are not a parent yet, let me tell you that feeding your wife and kids comes BEFORE giving tzedakah, the fact is that rabonim say today that it should be added in to the ksubah as a CHEYUV on the chasan together with all the other responsibilities he has, the community is alway giving money to yesomim and i myself included, it would be a lot easier if everyone had life insurance and ppl that need help while there at it.. should then turn to tzedaka to help pay there life insurance (basic policy) the community would… Read more »
and david farkash is the best agent
And which mutual fund is that?
During our first few weeks of marriage when i was 19 and my hubby 22 we did this. 18 years and many kids ka’h later we are locked in at a cheap rate and were able to raise the insurance significantly to cover Home, weddings, and all aspects in case f something terrible. Should we ever be in “dire straits” we are able to take out this money and use some of it, while still retaining the policy…. best advice that someone gave us while engaged and we are forever grateful… trust me it has added up over the years…… Read more »
I also should mention, when I bought insurance for myself, I bought it online. Then I bought for my wife from Guardian (several Lubavitchers in CH sell that company) and had a more pleasant experience and same rate that my original broker offered, but I looked up Guardian (company my wife is with) and they had higher [credit] ratings than my policy (with Transamerica)
Why not? You are not there to enjoy the money because you are dead! If you die c”v, the money is going to yesomim vealmanos, just because it’s your relatives, it’s not tzedoko? I guess it’s not really tzedoko if you don’t die during the coverage span, but that should be your curse: you wasted money on insurance because you never died and it could have went to tzedoko instead!
Buying an insurance policy is not “shakul l’tzedaka.”
People don’t realize how inexpensive a 20 or 30 year term policy is for someone in their mid 20’s. Beofrre one gets caught up in al the fancy whole live/universal policies, just make sure you have a basic term policy that will care for your family if Ch’V the unexpexted happens.
My dear friends, its just a phone call away and your on the road to peace of mind, due the recent events in our community, I finally realized that I need to call a life insurance agent, I picked up the phone and called Duddi Farkash one of the most popular guys in our comunity and within a week, I had insurance on my self and on my wife, I am in my late 30’s and I am paying $70 for me and for my wife for a total of 2 million dollars. Don’t waste a minute do it now… Read more »
I love that the author wrote to buy on your wife as well because I over insured myself and thought that was prudent to do, yet had no policy on my wife. Recently a young shlucha tragically passed away leaving a half dozen children behind so I immediately insured my wife as well. Until all children are independent, BOTH parents should be insured IMHO.
sorry, I meant # 2
ch families need to realize that spending money in restaurants is by far the biggest waste of money. families are spending $150-$300 a month eating out–thats $2,000 to $4000 a year times 10 years (not so long 10 years ago was 2001) is $40,000 CASH! 20 years (the time we need to make weddings) would be $80,000 if that money was in average mutual fund that does 12% annual (almost all do over 10 year period) your total would be $271,035.09 STOP WASTING MONEY!
As the author wrote: “Charity begins at home.”
put it this way, if a man doesn’t insure that his family will be taken care of after his demise, his family WILL be the ones collecting tzedakah
It is refreshing to see posted such practical and insightful information. Thank You!
This is a proactive ( positive and practical) approach.. that we should all take to heart.
The alternative is to have your picture and face in every frum newspaper and website raising money for your family ch”v.
I thought the first thing to allocate is money for tzedaka.
A man who does not purchase a life insurance policy for his family (can be as low as $20 per month) does not meet his responsibilities as a husband and father. There is no excuse for not having this. Plain and simple.