What is Your Love Worth?

Being financially responsible is important to Texas Farm Bureau members Crystal and Dan Tingle, so the newlyweds committed to a life insurance policy that allows them to plan for their future.

For Austin newlyweds Dan and Crystal Tingle, celebrating their first anniversary this year came with an extra special romantic touch, one much sweeter than the typical bouquet of roses and a champagne toast. To really show each other how much they care, these lovebirds took the extra step to ensure that the other person would be taken care of, no matter what, by signing their names on a life insurance policy.

“I feel like for us, since we’re just starting out in our marriage and eventually our family, it’s important to ensure that if something were to ever happen to one of us, the other one would be protected financially,” says Crystal, 30, a staff accountant for KIPP Austin Public Schools and a Texas Farm Bureau member for the past two years.

“I guess being the accountant, I want to be financially responsible when planning for our future. I think that’s the biggest thing, especially if we have kids and especially if something happens to me, I want to make sure that Dan has enough money to take care of our family.”

Tight budgets, smart planning

When you’re young, healthy, and most likely living on a tight budget, securing life insurance doesn’t typically rank high on the priority list. For most young adults, factors like rent, student loans, and food tend to take precedence over planning for what seems like a distant possibility.

Luckily for the Tingles, this young and super-savvy couple got some great guidance from their [literal and proverbial] family at Texas Farm Bureau Insurance. “My husband moved here from Philadelphia, Mississippi, and he was with Farm Bureau Insurance there since his dad works for the Mississippi Farm Bureau office as an auditor,” Crystal explains about her husband, Dan, 34, an employee at Fry’s Electronics in Austin.

“From Dan’s point of view, he grew up in a family that’s full of doctors and insurance adjusters, so as the son of an insurance agent, they were always pressing that it’s better to be safe than sorry. I mean, we’re both pretty healthy, but you never know what’s going to happen. You see people later on in life and they’re trying to get their stuff squared away, and it just seems easier to get everything squared away while you’re a little bit younger than it is as you get into your 40s and 50s. It just makes sense to get the bases covered up front; you can always adjust later.”

Starting young

The Tingles knew exactly where to turn once they started settling into their new life in Texas as a married couple, and they quickly found the man that would help them get their loving plans in writing. Shortly after their wedding, they turned to Ken Leifeste, a Texas Farm Bureau Insurance Agent based in Travis County, to help them get their auto insurance in order. A year later, they turned to him again to finalize their life insurance policy and make sure they were getting everything they needed to provide as much coverage as possible for their beloved.

Like many other young couples, when the Tingles walked in to Leifeste’s office, they knew exactly what they were looking to do in terms of purchasing some sort of protection for each other in the case of unforeseen circumstances; however, they just didn’t know how to go about making it happen.

“Ken helped us get set up,” Crystal recalls of their plan, which includes whole life combined with term life insurance. “Otherwise, Dan and I didn’t know what we needed and we didn’t know how to go about doing this. So he started by helping us walk through and start this process.”

Even without kids in the picture, there’s no time like the present for young couples like the Tingles to start the ball rolling on planning for the future … even if that means planning for unfortunate possibilities in life.

“I feel that life insurance is a necessity for young married couples who have yet to start a family as well as for newly married couples,” says Leifeste, an agent with more than 26 years of experience. “They are now planning everything as a couple rather than individually, therefore forming a shared venture. Being young and enthusiastic about the future gives them a tendency to obscure the fact that bad things can still happen to good people.”

The appeal of life insurance is that it can make it possible for a surviving spouse to maintain his or her standard of living without having to secure a second income. More often than not, savings that have been accumulating over a long period of time can quickly be wiped out, leaving the survivor to become dependent on family, friends, or charities.

Whether you’re just starting out in the career field, newly married, or even getting a head start on planning for the next stage in life of diapers and onesies, there is no time like the present to buy life insurance. As the Tingles would affirm, it can be one of the most loving gifts you can provide for the ones you truly care about in this world.

“Dreams of owning a home, completing an education, starting and raising a family, all are possible because you own a life insurance program,” Leifeste adds. “Life insurance removes the ‘what-if’ thoughts. Life is unpredictable, so plan ahead. The old saying, ‘People don’t plan to fail, they just fail to plan,’ is still true today. No one wants to think about death occurring. It just happens! In our uncertain world, life insurance can provide peace of mind.”

Coverage and discounts are subject to qualifications and policy terms and may vary by situation.