Where do you get your Life Insurance? (1 Viewer)

[Randy Tennison]

I can't recommend enough that you read the following information from Dave Ramsey (the consumer advocate). He has great advise on what to buy, what not to buy, and how much you need.

The Truth About Life Insurance

He recommends 8-10 times the income you need to replace. Sounds like a lot, but for term insurance, it can be fairly reasonable.

Big thing: Don't buy insurance as an investment. The numbers just don't add up. And the salespeople will tell you all these things about how much money you get, etc.

Insurance is simply income replacement. Get 20-30 year term life. No whole life. No cash value.

 

[DaveF]

Thanks again for all the useful tips, on all matters Work's too busy to chase this stuff right now, but I need to get on it this summer. I've been putting it all off too long.

 

[Marc_Sulinski]

I agree that 8-10 times your salary is probably what you need.

One thing to keep in mind regarding the insurance from work is that you might not always have that job. If you are able to buy the policy from them when you leave, then that is something you should look into. Make sure to find out what YOUR premiums would be, not what the company pays for the insurance, as they will most likely be higher once the policy becomes an individual one.

Anyway, I would purchase term life at 8-10 times your salary without taking your insurance provided from work into account (I am assuming that you either cannot take it over or that the price would make it not worthwile to purchase if you wereto leave). You will probably want the term of the policy to last when your youngest child is out of college.

 

[Eric_L]

Actually - buying life insurance on my own was about half the price my employer was paying.

 

[andrew markworthy]

At the risk of being morbid, I would also consider getting your wife to insure her life as well. In my case, my job carries a very generous death in service and index-linked pension provision to which I add a top up contribution, so my wife would be reasonably well off if I kicked the bucket. My wife earns rather less than me (and works at least twice as hard) but when we sat down and did the financial planning, it turned out that minus her salary and the things she in effect does for free (e.g. doing the school run to and from her run to work), I would experience if not financial hardship, then at least a heavy drain on resources. Thus, a modest enough premium means that she is insured for a respectable lump sum.

 

[Mike Frezon]

From this guy:



Bing!

 

[Ockeghem]

We follow Ramsay's advice. We currently have around nine times my income. In the event I passed away, our home would be paid off automatically, and my wife would just about be a millionaire. (No, she hasn't thought of knocking me off yet. )

 

[ThomasC]

My MetLife agent tried to sell me on Variable Universal Life. I sunk under the pressure and bought it, but I backed out during the grace period. I'm glad I did.

 

[Stan]

I was sold a similar policy from Farmers, they just call it Universal Life. Kind of wish I had backed out, but young and stupid, didn't know what I was doing. Had it probably 20 years now, but it has come in handy.

Borrowed against it once. Also since it builds up value, when I had a period of unemployment, it was able to pay its own premiums.

Now that I'm a little older, diagnosed with diabetes two years ago, it would be pretty tough if not impossible to get a policy now. But my premiums can't change and I can't be cancelled unless I somehow let it lapse and drop in value.

Don't know enough about different types of policies to really offer an opinion, but definitely start when young and healthy, before something unexpected could happen, causing a policy to cost more if you could get coverage at all.