The Price of Responsibility: Life Insurance Without a Beneficiary

Sometimes being responsible opens your eyes in ways you didn’t expect.

I sat down this week and went through my insurance policies, health, life, accidental, all of it and I realized something. I’ve built a life where I can afford to protect myself. I have health insurance, I have life insurance, I even have accidental death coverage. I’m proud of that. It’s not a burden for me to pay those premiums. I’m proud that if something ever happened to me, I could be buried respectfully without leaving a bill behind for someone else.

But as I looked closer at the paperwork, something hit me: I have these policies, and some of them don’t even have a beneficiary listed. The one small policy I do have a beneficiary for, I listed my little cousin and that’s it.

It’s not sadness I feel, it’s clarity. It’s the reality of not having someone in my life that I genuinely trust with my legacy. That’s one of the biggest reasons I don’t have children yet. Because as much as I love the idea of a daughter who looks just like me, the thought of not being here to raise her terrifies me. The thought of leaving a child behind, even with money and not knowing if she’d be cared for the way I would care for her, scares me to my core.

Maybe that’s why I live the way I live now. Maybe that’s why I take care of myself, why I build my brand, why I do things on my terms. Because I know once I’m gone, I’m gone. And as much as money and policies matter, what matters even more is who you can truly trust with what you’ve built.

This isn’t a sad post. This is an honest one. I’m proud of myself. I’m proud of my discipline, my foresight, my independence. I’m proud that even without a traditional safety net, I’ve built one for myself. But it’s also eye-opening to see where my life still has room to grow in trust, in relationships, in legacy.

We don’t talk about this enough. We talk about making money, traveling, hustling, but not about what happens if we’re gone tomorrow. Not about who we leave behind or what they’ll do with what we’ve built.

If you’re reading this and you have insurance, take a moment to check your beneficiary. Make sure it’s someone you trust. Make sure your plans line up with your reality. And if you don’t have someone yet, that’s okay. It’s better to know the truth than to pretend.

I’m sharing this because being responsible isn’t just about having policies, it’s about facing what they reveal about your life.

And today, even with all my mixed feelings, I’m still proud of me.

There’s so much peace in finally facing things we used to avoid.

Not out of fear but out of growth.

I’m learning that being independent doesn’t mean I have to harden my heart; it means I have to honor it.

I’ve protected my health, my money, and my future now it’s time to start protecting my peace, too.

And maybe that’s the next chapter for me.

Learning how to build trust again.

Learning that responsibility doesn’t just mean paying bills or having insurance, it means taking care of the emotional side of adulthood, too.

Because when you’ve fought to create a life you love, the real goal isn’t just to live long,

it’s to live fully, and to leave something behind that still speaks for you when you’re gone.