I don’t know if I can accurately describe the many emotions that ran through my brain when I found out my husband and I were going to have our first child, though I can safely say that incredible joy and a surprisingly boundless amount of love tied for number one. We were heading into the most exciting time of our lives – and were determined to live it to the fullest and make it fun in the process.

Closely on the heels of all that happiness and excitement, terror set in. How would we pay for it? What if my husband lost his job? What about some vague Monopoly-like roll of the dice that could cost us our house (as if the current economic market weren’t enough)? What if when I was ready to go back to work, I was no longer employable because new media had passed me by in favor of some sort of artificial intelligence-controlled social network?

Okay – perhaps some of those fears were slightly overblown, or even totally unfounded.

But what if something happened? What if my husband or I died? Who would raise our child? How would they provide for them? The only significantly wealthy person in our family was my evil Great Aunt Mary – and I shuddered to think of what would happen if our baby threw up on her Chanel.

Granted, hormones might have played a role in my erratic end-of-the world fantasies. But I had a great need to DO something – to take care of this in some way. There were still six months until baby, and there was NOTHING I could do about that. To my pregnant self, the future seemed like a bigger unknown than ever before.

I decided to look into life insurance! And oddly enough, some of that fear and anxiety was immediately lessened.

 What is Life Insurance Good For?

A well-planned life insurance policy can take care of both short-term expenses (funerals, medical bills) as well as long-term expenses (mortgages, car payments, student loans). Child care is an enormous expense, and life insurance could provide the financial security to ensure your child will be taken care of.

But I Don’t Work!

Just because you’re a stay-at-home-mom doesn’t mean that you don’t contribute to the household. Salary.com equates stay-at-home-moms to janitors, psychologists, drivers and day-care teachers (among other things) all at once. Life insurance benefits can help pay for all of that.

How Am I Going to Pay for Life Insurance?

Think about how you spend your money and where there are opportunities to save a couple of dollars every month. We often don’t realize how much the little things add up. Making one cup of coffee at home per week instead of buying that cappuccino could save up to $16.00 a month. Making your own lunch once a week rather than eating out could save about $40.00 a month. That’s $56.00 a month that could go to life insurance coverage. Genworth Financial offers a free budget calculator to help you cut down expenses and cover the costs of life insurance. Then work with a professional who can help you understand the different types of policies out there and how much you might actually need.

Another benefit is that my husband no longer thinks I’m a raging pregnant lunatic. He has even looked into a policy of his own.

 Post by Sasha