Elizabeth Davies ponders on the meaning of life, death, and being able to afford that final party you won't be there to enjoy

I’m only 23 and as of yet have given no real thought to either life insurance or funeral insurance.

However, I am aware that New Zealand has an aging population and such matters are becoming more and more relevant to a lot of people.

Even though I haven’t thought about these things for myself, it seems I can’t spend even one hungover Sunday afternoon in front of the TV without being bombarded by ads that remind me of my ever-impending, inevitable death.

One company’s ad tells me that life insurance is an ‘annoying little niggle’.

I can’t help but feel a little bit annoyed and confused by this.

The ad goes on to tell people that life insurance can be confusing and overwhelming – as if this is the only possible reason anyone has not signed up yet.

Another company’s ad uses emotional blackmail to get through to potential customers.

It shows a little boy talking to his grandfather about his father who has evidently passed away. The boy is reminded that he can be anything he wants to be because his Dad had life insurance to provide for the little boy’s future. I’m not going to lie, the ad is less than 30 seconds long and it had me tearing up. I was reaching for the phone to dial their hotline before I remembered I don’t even have children, or even a pet that will need providing for after I’m gone.

These ads seem to say that there are only two reasons people don’t have life insurance – either they are too silly and/or stupid to understand the process of acquiring it, and need the process to be drastically simplified, or they are simply bad, irresponsible parents.

It seems a little hurtful to not include the obvious third option. Some people simply cannot afford any additional life costs. This does not make them any less intelligent and it sure doesn’t make them bad parents. For some people it’s more important to put food on the table tonight than worry about their, hopefully far in the future, death.

A couple of years ago I’d never heard of funeral insurance, and to be honest it hadn’t even occurred to me how much something like a funeral could cost. Over the last couple of years, however, the ads have come thick and fast

A few years ago a good friend's father passed away unexpectedly. The friend was in his very early twenties and the death not only broke his heart, it left him with a mountain of debt he’d taken on to give his father the funeral he deserved and to purchase a headstone. This was thousands of dollars that he has spent years trying to pay off.

The ultimate sadness here is that even in death you can’t escape your financial circumstances. Either you earn enough in life to afford your final payment, or you pass it on to those you leave behind.

Funeral insurance still seems like a strange concept to me, like paying for a party you won’t be there to enjoy. However it’s also incredibly touching to think that even in death parents are trying to protect and provide for their children.

It only makes it sadder to think of those parents that can’t afford this luxury.

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*Elizabeth Davies is a 23 year old post-graduate journalism student at Auckland University of Technology. She lives with her partner in Epsom and spends her free time refurbishing vintage furniture and attempting to bake while fighting a daily battle against her bank balance. She writes a weekly article for interest.co.nz on money matters and financial struggles from a young person's perspective.