I let my term life insurance lapse last year. The premium was due, and after going through a big rate increase, we just let it slip. I had been carrying the policy for quite some time.

As I was looking into a new term life insurance policy, I began to dwell upon the subject of life expectancy, and the concept that someone could estimate how much time the average person had to live.

How the life insurance actuaries calculate their statistics is a mystery to me. There are so many variables about how one chooses to go about one’s life, that it boggles the mind: what you eat, how you drive, where you live, and how you live each day.

So here I am, looking through tables and tables of term life policy rates. And all the while, two quotes are running through my head …

One from Jimi Hendrix:

I’m the one that’s got to die when it’s time for me to die.
So let me live my life the way I want to …

… and one from Warren Zevon:

Enjoy every sandwich.

I kinda doubt that Jimi ever worried about term life insurance, but I’ll bet that Warren did.

Of course, the government has their opinion.