Mother's Day May Be Coming, but This Is One Gift You Should Give Your Kids

Mother's Day will be here before we know it, and if you're a mom, you may be eagerly anticipating it. After all, you've given everything to your kids. And now, you deserve a day of gifts and pampering. 

Hopefully, your kids will come through and surprise you with something special. But this Mother's Day, you may want to take the opportunity to give your children a gift that's not only extremely meaningful, but downright essential.

Get ready to apply for life insurance

Around 50% of Americans did not have life insurance coverage as of 2022, according to Annuity.org. If you fall into that statistic, then now's the time to look at putting a policy in place. In fact, you may even want to make your life insurance application your Mother's Day gift to your kids.

Without life insurance, your children and family might struggle financially in your absence. And to be clear, this holds true whether or not you work. 

If you have a job, your income no doubt helps your family financially. So it's important to have a way to replace it if you're gone. 

But even if you don't earn an income, if you stay home with your kids, you're contributing to your family in another meaningful way. You're caring for your children and, most likely, doing the shopping, cooking, and cleaning while your partner works. 

If you were to pass away, your family would most likely need to pay for childcare, not to mention the many other things you do. So even if you don't bring home a paycheck, it's still important to get a life insurance policy.

How to choose the right life insurance

When it comes to buying life insurance, you have choices. You could get a whole life policy to cover you permanently, or you could buy term life insurance, which only gives you coverage for a preset term, or period of time. 

The idea of permanent coverage might give you more peace of mind. But you should know that term life insurance can be far less expensive than whole life insurance. So for that reason alone, term life insurance may be a better choice. Plus, if you want to put coverage in place so your kids are protected through adulthood, you could opt for a 20-, 25-, or 30-year term, depending on the age of your children. 

Now, when it comes to the amount of life insurance you buy, that can be tricky if you're not working. Usually a good rule of thumb is to replace 10 times your income or more. 

It's a little harder to calculate a life insurance benefit when you don't earn an income. So in that case, imagine the expenses your family might incur in your absence and do your best to come up with a solid number. You may, for example, want to calculate the cost of full-time childcare until your kids are school-aged, and then the cost of after-school care until they're old enough to be home by themselves.

You absolutely deserve your share of special things on Mother's Day. But if you don't have life insurance, that's one gift you should strongly consider giving your children and family. And you may find that the simple act of putting a life insurance policy in place allows you to sleep easier at night, too.