The greats are telling us something and we're all ears! Our favorite music generally has an infectious beat or maybe a killer guitar riff, but there’s nothing better than when it speaks to us and tells our story.
Some of the best songwriters, like Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney, highlight interesting parts of their lives that we all can connect to. And some of those songs are actually teaching us a thing or two. Most of the time it's about love but other times it's big topics we need some lessons on: wisdom and personal finance. From saving up money to investing in responsible endeavors, you can learn a lot of great lessons about insurance from these musicians.
Yes, you read that last part right. What songs out there really talk about insurance? Well, let's take a look at these five songs about insurance that will make you want to dance.
1. No Body No Crime - Taylor Swift ft. Haim
Taylor Swift's super power is her songwriting. She writes about her own experiences in a way that makes you feel like she is in your head and you're both feeling the same way. She also has the catchiest lyrics in the world, some of her biggest songs being "Love Story", "Bad Blood" and "You Belong With Me". That said, she's got a back catalog of some edgier material that gets less time in the limelight. One of these tracks is "No Body, No Crime", which tells the tale of Taylor doing some good old-fashioned vengeance killing against a man who murdered his wife (and her friend) when she found out he was cheating on her.
The insurance angle comes in when Taylor points out that the man's mistress "took out a big insurance policy" on him. This leaves the mistress the perfect suspect to frame for the murder. After all, Taylor can make it look like the mistress killed the husband to collect on the insurance payout.
This seems like as good a time as any to point out that trying to commit insurance fraud is a serious crime. While the exact numbers vary by province, it's a good rule of thumb to assume fraud covering any amount greater than $2500 gets classified as a state felony and will land you behind bars for a long time. That's not even covering the fines you'll have to pay out, which can go as high as $10,000 (if not higher).
2. Gold Digger - Kanye West ft. Jamie Foxx
Next on the list comes Kanye West's 2005 hit "Gold Digger", which tells the story of a man left broke by a titular gold digger, a woman who only married him for his money. But how does that tie in with insurance? Well, at one point West raps the line that the narrator "should have gotten that insurance, Geico, for your money," in reference to how the narrator should have kept his money safe instead of letting his gold-digging wife go on extravagant spending sprees.
This is, of course, followed by a call to get a prenuptial stat (a document that determines how finances divide in the event of a divorce, signed before the couple gets married). While you can't insure your money against a bad choice in marital partners, you can insure big investments like your home or vehicle to make sure that they get protected against accidents. This includes everything from people breaking into your house to stealing things to damage inflicted by natural disasters like tornadoes.
You can even get liability coverage as an extra safeguard. This works to alleviate any legal penalties you'd incur by causing accidental damage to other people and their property. What's more, you can even customize the level of homeowner's insurance you get to ensure you're not paying for protection you don't need. To paraphrase the words of Kanye West, now we ain't saying you should buy it all, but rather that you need a customer level of insurance protection that's right for you.
3. I've Got Five Dollars - Ella Fitzgerald
Miss Fitzgerald was a smart woman. In the song, Ella croons that she has "debts beyond endurance on my life insurance that belongs to you," professing that everything she owns belongs to the one she loves. Ella did the smart thing letting her loved one know they were a beneficiary of her life insurance policy, but have you done the same?
If your loved ones know their beneficiary status, they could miss the fact that they're eligible and skip over the money altogether without knowing in the tragic event that you were to pass away. Let them know about your plans with insurance and who you've filed the plan with. This way, everyone can get their money with minimal hassle.
4. Take Out Some Insurance On Me - The Beatles
The track "Take Out Some Insurance On Me, Baby" was recorded by the Beatles in 1961, two years after the original (performed by hitmaker Jimmy Reed) first debuted. The track is notable among Beatles fans for featuring Tony Sheridan on vocals, a stint that didn't last long before the band gained the lineup we know and love today.
In the song, Sheridan sings that his lover should "take out some insurance" on him because if they "...ever, ever say goodbye, I'm gonna haul right off and die". While the Beatles in the song are exaggerating their plight for dramatic effect, they're onto something when it comes to getting life insurance.
Getting life insurance for yourself comes with a whole host of benefits. One such benefit is compensating your family for the income lost if you passed away unexpectedly. They also provide additional funds to do things like support your kids through college or pay off the last remnants of your mortgage or bank loan. Getting this extra layer of security helps ease the burden on your loved ones and provide them a little comfort as they endure such a tragic event.
5. High Risk Insurance - The Ramones
In between desperate pleas to get sedated and bopping around to blitzkriegs, hit punk band The Ramones also made sure to write a song about the need to grab some good high-risk insurance. As the crash of cymbals and strums of guitar fill the air, Joey Ramone sings about "the time is right" for high-risk insurance and how "everybody wants an explanation, I got no love for the enemy nation".
Of course, we don't advise taking his words to heart. If insurance companies consider you a high-risk customer, they'll raise their premiums, making it much more expensive for you to get insurance. Continued incidents or trying to pull stunts like driving without auto insurance will only exacerbate the issue.
Instead, take steps to demonstrate that you're a low-risk client. Demonstrate that you've taken steps to prevent prior accidents from repeating. In the case of auto insurance, you can take defensive driving courses and show your insurance company the certification to lower your rates. Worst comes to worst, have us shop your policy around for one that can offer you lower rates with a solid policy. Having us do so can save you some serious cash in the long run.