Some people are skeptical, or just plain don't take into account, the importance of having life insurance on every member of the family and not just the breadwinner. This type of thinking really makes no sense and, unfortunately, many people have had to learn the hard way by paying for their loved one's funeral expenses out of their pocket, when they least expect it.

You may think that I'm being a bit "dramatic" or morbid, but you know what? These things are a bitter piece of reality that you must prepare for or else you WILL suffer the consequences when it happens. Could you come up with an extra ten thousand dollars in cash right now, if you needed to and without hurting yourself financially? May be you could and, if so, congratulations, but the fact is that most people can't. Let's take a look at each family member and break down the importance of their having life insurance coverage.

#1. The Breadwinner - This is (no offense ladies) usually the father. We've already established the fact that dad needs to have life insurance. The question here is "how much?" Well, you need to actually sit down with your spouse and add up every bill that you have from car payments to confetti and determine how much the family would need to maintain their current lifestyle over a specific period of time. Make certain to allow for funeral expenses and always estimate a bit higher rather than lower. It's understandable that you may want to keep your premium payments down, but it's better that your family have extra money in the event of your death than not enough.

Take into consideration that some of the items that you are currently financing may already be covered in the event of the death of the breadwinner. An example of this might be a "mortgage life" policy in place to pay off the house. You can also figure paying off other items that are financed.

#2. Mom - A lot of guys may be angry with me for saying this, but the truth is that mom is often the most under appreciated person in the household, if she happens to be a homemaker and not work out of the house. Think about what all she actually does for the family for a moment and then ask yourself "would I want to have to do that AND maintain my full time job?"

Mom handles the cooking, grocery shopping, cleaning, and we're not talking about just "Mrs. Cleaver" stuff like vacuuming and dusting, but deep cleaning, like scrubbing toilets and tubs, stripping, mopping and waxing floors, cleaning dirty ovens, doing laundry (this includes folding, hanging, ironing, starching, ect.). I could go on, but I think you get the picture. I really believe that my mother would cry right now if she knew that I "got it" and that I really did appreciate finding clean clothes in my closet and hot, nutritious meals on the table every night.

That stuff takes work and someone has to either do it or pay to have it done. The bad thing about this is that most of these things must be done daily. Make some calls and see how much it would cost to hire a trustworthy cleaning person and make certain to get references. Keep in mind that this person is going to be in your house and have access to many of your valuables. Don't figure cheap or you may regret it later. You may want to check on the cost of a live in nanny, especially if you have young children.

#3. The Kids - This is never a pleasant thing to think about, but it is very important that you plan for it, just in case. Unfortunately, I know this from personal experience. Needless to say, we don't need to do a lot of math here. A standard life policy of a small amount, like $10-$15,000.00 should suffice. Even something like the Gerber plan is better than nothing. They're also fairly inexpensive with most plans costing around $10-$15.00 a month. Some of these policies are transferable and will actually increase in face value coverage over the years. This means that your child can choose to keep it after reaching a certain age and change it over to a policy with a higher face value by making additional payments. Most of these become guaranteed after a certain period of time also. This means that no matter what your child's health condition, they can still keep the policy, providing that they maintain the premium payments.

Hopefully you'll have learned the importance of getting life insurance for every family member. Don't put it off until you regret it.