Insurance: Protection or Unnecessary Expense?

Insurance is one part of life I have never really had to consider. I do not have any insurance policy, not for my health, car, business, or life. Until recently, it was not something I thought deeply about. Now, I understand to some extent what insurance is for, depending on the type, but I still have not taken the step to get things insured.

My first real exposure to the idea of insurance came from a Korean drama I watched a long time ago. The series, "Marry My Husband", opened my eyes to both the risks and the benefits of insurance, though it focused more on the darker side of it as it actually involved the death of one.

In the drama, a woman who was terminally ill with cancer believed she had a loving and supportive husband. One day, she went home unexpectedly to get something for her medication and discovered him having an affair with her best friend. She pretended not to notice until she overheard them talking about owning the world with the money from her life insurance after her death. There was a large payout promised to the surviving family once she passed. They actually killed her but plans failed.

That storyline shaped my early understanding of insurance. Before that, I had heard about policies in passing but never tried to understand how they worked. The drama made me focus on the risk first, it showed how something meant to protect a family could also become a motive for betrayal. I cannot blame myself for being cautious now.

Still, I know insurance itself is not the villain in that story. People save money for different reasons and sometimes call it insurance for emergencies. The difference is that with formal insurance, you may never see the money again if you do not make a claim. With personal savings, the control stays with you. If I should decide to stop, I can. There is no risk of losing my contributions if I ever had chang my mind later.

A few weeks ago, someone sent me a direct message advertising an insurance plan. She even pressured me to check the conditions on their website. I was slightly interested when she mentioned I could start with as little as 10k, but not because I urgently needed coverage. After visiting the site, I realized I was not ready for that commitment, so the conversation ended there.

I believe insurance is a way of preparing for the unknown. The challenge is that it is still unknown, you may keep paying for years and never use it. From one angle, it feels like you're just giving your money away. From another angle, it means nothing bad happened, it's our prayer everyday.

For now, I prefer to focus my energy on building better income sources and creating a stable financial life. If the unexpected happens, I want to have multiple streams of support to fall back on. Insurance is not completely off the table for me as I may consider it in the future. But at this stage of my life, it remains secondary. I understand it's purpose, I respect it but nah.

_{Image used is AI generated.}

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