Renew your faith in life

27-May-2011

Source : Max Newyork Life

Recently I attended a function commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Kargil War. Every speaker talked eloquently about the need to celebrate such occasions - to reaffirm our faith in the Indian Army and to acknowledge the contribution and difference they have made to our lives.
Anniversary – it triggered a thought in my mind – When I started thinking and spoke with people about the various anniversaries one celebrates the first one I heard was Marriage Anniversary to reaffirm our vows for each other, Birthdays to reaffirm our faith in life, and so on. But strangely enough none ever mentioned insurance anniversary, the date on which we should reaffirm our love and care for our families by paying renewal premiums and ensuring protection for our loved ones.
So, why is it that we remember all the other so called important dates but fail to remember a single date which may cost us so dearly. Is it because we do not perceive it to be as important as other anniversaries or do we perhaps not realize the degree of importance of this anniversary?
An eventual thought provoking session with myself helped me pen down a couple of questions and may be their answers:
What is the real importance of life insurance anniversary or the renewal premium payment date? Well, lets us approach it this way – Half hearted love. I may be a little cynical here but I guess I like to take the bull by its horns. If you do not pay your renewal premiums, you are saying to your loved ones that you love them today but not enough for years to come. And that is because you have left their dreams unprotected because you are not serious about those goals for which you had bought the policy in the first place. Be it your son’s deram of becoming a doctor or your daughter’s to be an investment manager or your wife to walk with you happily into twilight of your life, we must realize that it requires time, effort and most importantly planning.Let us now look at the more financial or monetary aspect of things.
By not renewing our policies we invite financial losses. The next new policy, which you may end up buying, will come at cost, which is higher than the one you are holding currently. This is because we are trying to reinvent the wheel when we do not have age on our side. We all grow old with the passage of time our health may not also remain as great as earlier and therefore it is only obvious that we would pay a heftier sum for the same amount of protection. Seldom do we realize that the risks we so wisely passed on to our life insurer has now fallen right back into our lap, just because we did not find it important to pay our renewal premium?
As a matter of fact, any discontinuation in regular savings plans has its cost. We may not realize, but every discontinuation may pull us back several years and failing to take advantage of the most powerful financial application of compounding. This mistake may just be the reason ones wife handing over the lunch box every morning instead of an early morning walk together.
I have decided from now,the day I pay my renewal premiums , I will celebrate the occasion as my marriage anniversary because if marriage was the start of a happy family, life insurance policy anniversary is the start of a commitment, which ensures that my family remains happy with or without me.