If you have ever bought term life insurance, which I have, it's insurance you buy for the unlikely case that you die when you are young and healthy. It's usually pretty inexpensive. You can buy like a million dollars of coverage for only $50 a month or so if you are young and healthy.If you die, well, your family gets a huge payout and you can rest in peace knowing that they are being taken care of.If you don't die, oh well, you lose your investment but that's just the gamble you are taking.I'm 55 years old. Overweight. Have high blood pressure. My days of getting inexpensive term life insurance are largely over.My focus these days is planning for my retirement. I know enough to realize that there's a whole lot that I don't know, so I engaged a professional financial planner to assist me. A financial planner acts as an expert who works with you to help plan for your retirement. They analyze what your goals are, and figure out how best to achieve them.Part of that planning is to take into account the catastrophic possibility that you might end up needing long-term care (say a nursing home). It's kind of like life insurance, well, it's really almost just exactly like life insurance, but it pays off if you end up having to go into a nursing home. Pretty depressing stuff, but it's a scenario you have to deal with. Everyone has heard the horror stories of a friend or family member ending up in a nursing home and watched their entire retirement nest-egg being completely consumed for long term care; leaving nothing at all behind for their children.You can buy a long-term care insurance policy to protect against that; and that's a good idea, spreading the risk out like that.When you begin working with a financial planner, you will tell them how much annual income you think you need to live a comfortable retirement. However, when you come up with that number there is something you need to consider.What if, during your retirement, you experience a period of high inflation, if not hyper-inflation? What is to protect you in that case? Suddenly your retirement income cannot come even close to keeping up with the rate of inflation and you could end up eating cat food instead of filet mignon.I now think the answer is bitcoin. Like term life insurance, it might not ever pay off. I guess the biggest concern still remains, that bitcoin itself just might not stick around long enough. That is certainly a significant risk.However, if bitcoin does stick around, I cannot think of a better 'insurance policy' against inflation or a major market correction.This is the reason I feel comfortable holding a certain amount of my portfolio in bitcoin. Maybe, in the end, it won't amount to anything. Just like I might never need long-term care either. However, just in case, it does provide a sense of comfort that I have a hedge against currency devaluation should it ever occur. via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/2kO5exE
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