“When you die, how much money am I getting?”

April: I’ve been wondering something.

Robert: What’s that, April?

April: When you die… how much money am I getting?

Robert: Well, you better wait until I die first.

Zach: You’re assuming he’s going to die first.

April: I know. After this conversation, I might be the first to go.

Robert: How much are you expecting?

April: I really don’t know.  Mama will give me some.

Robert: Bless your heart.

Zach: Well, you know, if the Gamecocks just did better, his sports betting would really be good.

Robert: So, you started that. Let’s lead into a couple things.

Life insurance: what not to do

Robert: A lot of people ask me, “What do I do about life insurance?” There are so many products out there.

So I’m going to come at it from a backwards point of view — I’m going to tell you what not to do.

Number one: Do not buy life insurance to invest money.

Robert’s example (the “savings life insurance” trap)

Robert: Back in 1984, when you were born, life changed. We had a baby, you came into the world, and the world stopped for 30 seconds… then it kept going.

I told your mom, “Rhonda, we need life insurance in case something happens to us — to pay the bills.”

A friend came to me and said, “I’ve got this product. You pay $32 a month for 30 years, and it’s going to grow and grow, and you’ll have a bunch of money at the end.”

Since I knew him — and I wasn’t too smart on life insurance — I said, “That sounds great.” So I bought a $50,000 policy for about $30 a month, and I said, “By the way, give my wife a $25,000 policy too.”

But here’s what happened over time: as I got older, the cost of the insurance increased.

April: So it wasn’t $32 a month anymore?

Robert: I kept paying $32, but the policy had savings and interest. For a while, the interest covered the premium. After the first 15 years, I thought, “Man, this is great. Look at all this money built up.”

But about 10 years later, I looked at the statement and realized the premium had increased so much that the savings no longer covered the cost. It hit the break-even point.

If I kept going — and lived to 80 or 85 — I would have been in a negative position, because insurance gets more expensive with age.

So I sold it and cashed it out for about $12,000.

After 25 years, that’s what I walked away with. I had coverage during that time — but if you add up the money I paid in, I would have been better off investing it elsewhere.

So if anybody wants to sell you a life insurance policy with “savings” built in, I would not advise it. It may be right for some people — but you’ve got to be very careful.

Term life insurance: the simple, affordable option

Robert: Later in life, as I got into business ventures and took more risks, and as you kids got older, I started thinking: “If I were to die today, how would my family make it?”

By then, I’d learned more about life insurance. I found a product that suited me — a level term policy.

April: What does “level term” mean?

Robert: It means I got a certain amount of life insurance, for a set number of years, and I paid one rate the entire time.

So, unfortunately for y’all… if I live past March 14th of this year, y’all lose out on a million dollars.

April: Actually, I hope I lose out on that.

Robert: I appreciate that. That’s when my term policy terminates.

Zach: You beat the term.

Robert: Hopefully. Almost. We’re not quite there yet — but a couple more weeks, I hope to beat the term.

April: That would be a terrible twist ending to this podcast.

Zach: A very abrupt ending.

April: Not really… but that million would console me.

Robert: How much of your million would you split with Zach?

April: Depends what you need.

Robert: You need to get the million first.

Zach: I need to check my brakes before I go home tonight.

Robert: We have a morbid sense of humor, so we can get through it.

What term cost Robert (and why it changes with age)

Robert: I was paying about $2,300–$2,400 a year for a $1,000,000 term policy when I started — around age 54. For that amount of coverage, that was a good price.

But term means when those years are up, it’s over.

And during those years, if you’ve been investing and building your life the way we’ve talked about on previous episodes, you can get to a point where your family doesn’t need that big policy anymore.

Now, they sent me a letter saying they’d like to extend it for another 15 years. At age 68 and a half, how much do you think that costs?

April: Probably double… maybe more.

Zach: Three and a half times?

Robert: $40,000 a year. Because of my age.

April: Wow. The likelihood that you’ll die within that term is exponentially higher.

Robert: Exactly.

The main point: you probably need life insurance — but buy it wisely

Robert: You do need life insurance if you have people depending on you. If something happens, you do not want to leave your family in a hardship situation.

But as we talk about budgeting, sometimes we can’t afford what we want — so we choose the most affordable way to protect our family.

And the cheapest, most cost-effective way to do that for most people is term life insurance.

Whole life, universal life — if you’re young, be very careful. I’m not saying it’s never right for anyone, but most folks don’t need complicated insurance products.

How much life insurance should you buy?

Robert: People ask, “How much life insurance do I need?”

You don’t just buy a million dollars because it sounds good. You want a rhyme and reason.

Think about it like a budget — but instead of monthly spending, you list the things your family would need if you died:

• Paying off the house

• Replacing income for a period of time

• Covering debts

• Helping kids with college

• Covering final expenses

• Anything else your family would need to stabilize

Add those up, then add a cushion. That way, you can have peace knowing your family will be okay.

And don’t be scared to talk to your family about it.

Planning for death (without being weird about it)

Robert: This leads into a higher-level topic: estate planning. We’re not going deep on it today, but we do need to talk about planning for death — not just through life insurance.

People say, “We’re too young to talk about that.”

No, you’re not. Things happen.

April: I think the reason we can talk about it now — and even joke — is because you started talking with us early. At first I didn’t want to talk about it, but over time… it helped.

Robert: That was intentional. I wanted you to understand that one day, if the normal cycle happens, older people pass first — and eventually, everyone passes.

It’s not easy, but somebody has to be strong enough to move things forward when it happens.

That’s why even today I’ll tell you: here are my passwords, here are my logins, here are the things I’m involved in — because I worked hard, and if God takes me earlier than expected, I want someone to know where everything is.

April: The last thing we want is the government taking it.

Robert: That’s another three episodes right there.

April: Or 200 Bitcoin sitting on a hard drive at the bottom of a landfill.

Robert: Exactly.

So talk to your kids when they’re old enough — not when they’re six — but when they’re teenagers. Not in a scary way, but in a practical way: “If something happens, here’s the plan.”

Don’t assume your stuff will matter to everyone else

Robert: People think they’ll save all their money and take it with them. That’s not happening.

And what mattered deeply to you may mean nothing to the people left behind.

Example: your aunt’s husband passed away at 40. He loved tools — had tons of them, some never opened. When he passed, we had to go through a storage building full of tools.

We asked your aunt, “What do you want to do with this?”

She said, “The only thing we can do is sell it.”

So we laid everything out, people came through and bought what they wanted, and we gave the money to her and the kids.

My point is this: what meant everything to him meant nothing to her.

Don’t assume your family will want to carry forward your collections, your hobbies, your stuff — or even your business — just because you loved it.

April: And don’t hold people hostage with that stuff. I’ve seen that happen.

Robert: I’ve seen it in business too.

Don’t force your kids to carry on your legacy

Robert: I worked for a man once who had two sons. The company had the family name.

One son wanted to be a doctor — the father supported that. But the father planned for the other son to take over the company. The problem was: the son had no desire or mentality for construction.

He was great at sales — could sell ice to an Eskimo — but he couldn’t run projects or manage a company.

His father pushed him into it anyway. He failed — and on his first job, he lost $1.2 million.

That father set his son up for failure because he wanted the name carried on so badly.

So don’t do that. Your kids may not want what you want. They may have completely different skills — and they should excel in their own lane.

And don’t try to live through your children.

If you have assets and kids, you need a will

Robert: Now, shifting back: if you have assets — a house, a car, children — you need a will.

Even when y’all were young, your mom and I had a will that said: if something happened to both of us and you were under 18, where you’d live.

April: When I found out where you were putting me, I wasn’t very happy.

Robert: I forgot — where was it?

April: I’m not saying it on this podcast. It might offend some people.

Zach: He didn’t want you getting ideas if you were going to too good of a place.

Probate (and how to keep things simpler)

Robert: Let me keep this at a 100-foot view.

You want to keep as much out of probate as possible.

Probate is the court process where, after someone dies, you go to the courthouse, list out assets, and go through a legal process that can take months.

Here’s a quick review:

• For bank accounts, retirement accounts, and investment accounts, you should name beneficiaries and use payable-on-death (POD) where appropriate.

• If those are set up correctly, many of those assets can pass directly to the beneficiary and avoid probate.

But things like houses and cars still need to be handled properly.

One thing to consider — talk to an attorney — is something called a revocable trust, especially for your home. It can help the house avoid probate, depending on your situation.

A story about Robert’s father and the house

Robert: My father built his house years ago — cost him about $7,500. Toward the end of his life, it might have been worth $60,000.

If he had transferred it to me early, I could have ended up paying taxes based on the old value versus the new value. But if I inherited it after his death and sold it for what it was worth, that tax situation could be different.

We talked about it. We made a decision. Then he went into assisted living.

The first day he went, he looked at me and said, “Well, I guess we messed up on the house thing. They’re probably going to come get the house.”

I told him, “Pop, that’s what you built it for. We gambled. If they come get it, they come get it.”

But by the grace of God, he got help from the VA for his service. The VA contributed, and I helped too. He stayed there 12 months.

And the morning he passed away, I walked in and thought, “I bet he’s smiling now.” Because he wanted things to be right.

Even though he didn’t have much, he still tried to prepare the best he could to take care of his family.

Closing message: plan, communicate, and don’t be afraid of the topic

Robert: So to everybody listening: do the best you can to prepare for your family.

It’s not just about how much you make — it’s what you do with what you have.

And consider the people you leave behind:

• What state of mind will they be in?

• Can they handle a lot?

• Will they manage what you leave responsibly?

We’ll talk another day about dealing with family members who seem like they “need help,” but really need boundaries — not enabling.

For now: don’t be scared to talk about death. It’s going to happen. Plan for it. Talk with your family. Don’t force your kids to carry your preferences, your stuff, or your legacy. And if you own a home, ask an attorney about tools like a revocable trust.

I’ve kept this at a 100-foot view — just food for thought. Dig into it. Send questions in, and we’ll go deeper later.