How much is your life worth right now? If, God forbid, an accident were to happen today and you lose your life, how much could that be potentially costing your family?
Sure, if your car were involved in an accident, you know exactly how much you would be getting from your insurance company, depending on which parts of the car need to be repaired and the type of insurance you have on the car.
But what about you, do you know how much your own life is worth? According to some studies, 54% of Americans have some type of life insurance. If you are among those who have life insurance (which you should be), a question you must ask is, is your life valued correctly?
Life insurance value should be thought of through a factor almost forgotten – ‘Human life Value’.
For example, life insurance is affected by many factors, and it is important that your life is valued correctly, or you could be cheating your family out of money that could help them in the event of your demise.
In this post, we are going to explain what human life value means, and why it is important for you to know your life value.
Table of Contents
What is Human Life Value Approach?
First of all, what exactly is the meaning of the human life value approach to insurance?
The concept was originated by Dr. Solomon Heubner, and he defined human life value as:
“…the monetary worth of the economic forces that are incorporated within our being, namely, our character and health, our training and experience, our personality and industry, our judgment and power of initiative, and our driving force to put across in tangible form the economic images of the mind.”
An individual’s human life value is equal to the present value of all their future income. It represents the full economic value of an individual over their entire life, but may also adjust for already-existing assets. The concept is about the productive value of an individual, in contrast to “needs analysis” which focuses on other people’s need for money once the insured dies.
It is also important to note that your human life value may change at different stages of your life.
For example, say your current income is forty thousand dollars a year, and then in the next two years, you got a raise and you are now earning sixty thousand dollars, this means your life value will also change.
The Economic Value Of Human Life
Even though we are constantly trying to preach that all human beings are equal, we all know that there are many areas in which we are not, and can never be equal.
One of such areas is in terms of economic value. Each person has different economic values, based on a number of different factors. Some of those factors include:
- Your current age.
- Planned retirement age (if retiring).
- Annual wages and benefits.
- Current accumulated assets.
- Your present lifestyle and overall health.
- Your occupation (since different jobs come with different levels of risk).
- etc.
How To Know Your Human Life Value
The next thing now is to know how to calculate your life value.
To calculate it, follow these steps:
- Calculate the “present value” of your net income.
- Adjust for inflation.
But to make it easier for you, there are a number of human life value tools that help to automate the process.
What Are the Benefits of Knowing Your Human Life Value?
Now that you know how to calculate your human life value, you may want to ask, of what use is the information to me? Why should I trouble myself with such things?
Well, here’s why:
1. Helps You to Determine if Your Current Life Insurance is Sufficient
Imagine a young man, let’s say 24 years, and he’s just signed up for life insurance.
Because he is young and single, he believes $250,000 of life insurance coverage is enough.
Three years later, he’s married and ten years later, he already has three children.
Now, considering how much it’s costing him now to maintain a family (with everything that entails), he goes back to calculate his insurance and sees that the amount is no longer nearly enough to take care of his family in the event of his death.
What does he do? Get a higher insurance plan!
Human life value approach, on the other hand, determines how much your whole life is worth from the get go. And after determining that amount, nothing’s going to change it – not even if an unfortunate event occurs and you are no longer able to work.
So, with the human life value approach, you can be rest assured that you are not being cheated out of money that could be yours or your family’s.
2. Helps You to Determine if You Need Another Life Insurance Policy
As discussed above, knowing your human life value helps you to determine if your current life value is sufficient. And if you see that it is not sufficient, perhaps it is time to sign up for another one.
3. Helps You Determine How Much More You Need if You Do Need Another Insurance
That goes without saying.
Now you know you need another life insurance, but how much more?
Should you go for the $250,000 or the $500,000? Having an exact value as a target allows you to get more value for your money.
Conclusion
Now, you understand what human life value means, and you know how to calculate it.
There’s only one way to go from here – go and calculate your human life value right now, and make use of that information to insure a safe future for yourself and your family!
About the Author
Josip Mlinaric
Josip is a digital marketer and an editor of content at Monegenix – a site that offers a different outlook on insurance. He likes to say he has a simple and calm mindset in his approach towards life in general and likes to relax experimenting in the kitchen or just chill out listening to music.
About Carson Derrow
