Read before you sign

I’ve come to believe that important life lessons are learned through either advice or hands-on experience.

The latter, more often than not, is the best and most painful teacher. It’s also the teacher whose classes I keep attending with or without intention. ?

This week’s lesson I had to (re)learn is to read before you sign.

Read what you’re signing up for before putting your signature on the dotted line. Read, else you’ll realize three years later that you just spent a good portion of your life savings into something you’ll probably never get back.

That something was my life insurance plan.

P185,736.96. Imagine that big an amount going to something that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy until I was dead. That could’ve been for my kids’ tuition, my future Europe backpacking trip, pagerie, etc. ?

There’s really no one else to blame but myself. It took me three years and a talk with another life insurance agent to realize what I’ve been paying for all this time. It’s why I’m trying my hardest not to let 186K send me to the dark place again.

I’ve contacted my agent to ask if I could change the policy to the 5-year program. This is so I can stop paying after 2019, and just let the money sit there until it’s ready to be used. If the insurance company won’t change my policy’s payment scheme, I intend to stop all together even if it means paying the damn surrender charge.

It aches to imagine losing all that money. Strangely enough, my father’s rather privileged advice keeps my head up and eyes looking forward:

It’s just money. You can earn it back.

And he’s right about that last bit. I know deep down I’m driven to work my hardest to regain what I lose. I mean, it’s happened twice already—I lost the savings my grandmother saved for me to a T-shirt business that didn’t work out, and I lost the capital for my goldfish business last year.

Yet here I am still striving and making the most out of what I have.

It’s embarrassing to admit that at 27 I’m still screwing up like this. I deserve every conk in the head for it.

But rather than wallowing in regret, I’m glad I can be a living example of what happens when you don’t read what you sign. I want others to see that THIS *hand gestures up and down* is what happens when you don’t read and consider your options and priorities before you sign the contract.

?that my insurance company won’t give me the worst news for 2017. Christmas is fucking coming, for crying out loud.