Calculate the Costs

Calculations are a part of our daily lives, whether it is figuring out how long it’ll take you to get home from work or what time you need to wake up to make sure that everyone gets out of the house on time in the morning. But have you ever stopped to think about the calculations that you don’t want to make: how will your family get by without you if you should pass? Can they afford to continue living the lifestyle that they currently do? Can they afford for you not to think of these calculations?

Here are some examples of the why you should calculate how much life insurance you and your family actually need:

The Cost of Living

Time is money, but so is breathing. Every molecule of oxygen processed by your lungs burns calories. The average person takes 16 breaths and burns about 1.39 calories a minute just to exist and those calories need to be replaced. Calories cost money: so just existing costs you, and if you want to live in a healthy way it will cost you more.

In a recent survey in the US, foods that are high in calories and low in nutrition cost about $1.76 per 1,000 calories while foods with a similar calorie count with much more nutrition cost about $18.16 per 1,000 calories, 10 times more expensive.

Living well costs more, your life insurance doesn't need to. Use our life insurance calculator below to work out what you need and save money without compromising the health and financial security of your family.

The Rule of 72

There is a little rule I like to use for compound interest calculations, it is called the rule of 72. You might be wondering what that has to do with the cost of education and I promise I will get back to that. But first, the rule of 72.

The rule works as such, when the multiple of the interest rate and the period i.e (the number of years) is 72 then the initial amount would have doubled. Let’s look at an example and let us look at this in relation to inflation rather than an investment or loan repayment.

If we have an item with a cost of say R50 000 per annum and it is increasing at 6% per year (an inflationary increase) then through compounding the amount will double every 12 years.

Now what has that got to do with education?

Well, all things being equal a child will spend 12 years at school and the inflation rate is 6%. So when your child begins school it is important to consider that if you are estimating the cost of a matric year as R50 000 per annum, you would be halfway to what it will actually cost when your child gets to matric because the rule of 72 indicates that at a 6% inflationary increase your child’s matric will in fact cost R100 000.

If you are interested in some more calculations, here is a great Life Insurance Needs calculator from Different Life.

Everyone makes mistakes - Mars Orbiter

Statistics tell us that the average driver will have a car accident every 17.4 years. And, yes, the chances are you are average. Every minute you drive you make thousands of instantaneous calculations which determine your driving decisions. In the US alone, 10 million people make bad calculations each year resulting in scratches, bashes and worse. And while you think you are getting better, your aging body results in decreased reaction time, hence more bad calculations.

Thankfully, your recent fender bender will never cost $327m. In 1999 NASA made some bad driving calculations with their weather satellite intended to orbit Mars. Despite state-of-the-art computer technology they still managed to miscalculate the conversion of English units into metric units sending the satellite hurtling into the red planet.

Even the smallest miscalculations can be costly. Don’t miscalculate your life insurance. Use our calculator below to see if you are adequately insured and put your mind at ease.

Everyone makes mistakes – Robert Scott

If you are looking to lose weight, history will favour a trek to the South Pole. But be warned, we suggest packing that extra husky, sled and penguin fat. Polar explorer Robert Scott, attempting to be the first man to the reach the bottom of the planet, made a severe miscalculation in the amount of food he needed for his team.

Working with almost no previous nutritional data Scott packed some 3,000 calories too little per day for his men. By the time they planted their flag at earth’s southernmost point they would have lost about 25kg of body weight. Starved, Scott and his team perished on their return journey just a few kilometers short of their destination.

Even the smallest miscalculations can be costly. Get the data you need by using our calculator below and see if you are adequately insured to put your mind at ease.

Everyone makes mistake – Vasa Warship

Everyday, you make calculations - some you get right and some you don’t. Everybody makes mistakes and, hopefully, gets the chance to learn from them.

A disastrous lesson that still acts as a great teacher is the Vasa Warship, which sank after its maiden voyage that travelled 1300 meters before sinking. Her instability was caused by some simple miscalculations - from her design to the use of different units of measurements, the Vasa was doomed from the beginning of her construction. The wreck has served as a legacy of the Swedish “Great Power period” and has been examined countless times to determine the errors that lead to her “final” resting place.

Don’t let your miscalculations be a hard lesson for your loved ones to learn. Let us help you calculate the life insurance that you need, ensuring that they are covered for when the worse happens, with our Life Insurance Calculator.


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Posted in Insurance 101 on 02 Nov, 2016