Do you carry Life Insurance?

[tinkmom2]

My husband has a policy through his work and I have a policy for myself to cover funeral expenses and some bills. I also have Gerber policies for both of my kids that will have cash value and they can continue with when they are older if they wish.

 

[bluedoggy]

As the Mother of a 32 yr old daughter who just passed away leaving a husband and 8 yr old- all I can say is Yes YOU DO need Life Insurance!

My daughter was a healthy woman- when suddenly she was diagnosed with Leukemia in Sept 09- she and her husband had taken out term life policies a few years ago. While it was an expense- it was a life-saver for him now.

He has the money to pay the medical bills, and have funds for future expenses with their daughter. She also had something that was awesome. She had taken long-term disability insurance through her employer. That provided income for her while she was off work (for well over a year)

So- get what you can when you have the chance. If a serious illness occurs, you can become uninsurable.

 

[platanito]

I have life insurance and disability insurance through work and a separate term life with my home insurance which they gave us a discount. I would agree with most, that insurance is a must.

 

[TnTWalter]

When we calculated what we needed years ago we decided on enough on DH so I could keep the house and stay home until youngest goes to college.

Enough on me so DH could stay in house and hire sitter until kids old enough.

Term is affordable and easy to get when young and healthy. Whole life is only good for insurance agents. Period. Most terms also have riders for your children in case the unthinkable happens.

Ideally once your term is up, you are in your 60s and if you're following a plan of sorts, you should have retirement invested, kids college done and a pile of cash so no need for life insurance unless you just want it, thus being 'self insured'.


DH's best friend kept meaning to get around to it, we had been advising that and wills.....then he got cancer....he died within a year and a half. They had to short sale their house and had to move while dealing with the cancer...his wife is now a widow with a 4 year old, a 2 year old and a baby

seriously...if you have small children and less than $1M in the bank you need life insurance.

Also, please pleaes please don't forget to get a will. Simple and cheap and protection in case you and your spouse die.

Trish

 

[hulagirl87]

As the Mother of a 32 yr old daughter who just passed away leaving a husband and 8 yr old- all I can say is Yes YOU DO need Life Insurance!

My daughter was a healthy woman- when suddenly she was diagnosed with Leukemia in Sept 09- she and her husband had taken out term life policies a few years ago. While it was an expense- it was a life-saver for him now.

I am so sorry for your loss

DH just brought this topic up to me today, that we should have life insurance. He was laid off in November and is hoping to start working again soon (we think it will be in January as we have a friend that works where he recently interviewed). We can't get extra insurance for him as he has had heart surgery. I guess it makes me sad to get it as it makes me think that something might happen to me and I wouldn't be here for DD. I don't know. definitely something to think about.

 

[walkdmc]

Heaven knows, I hope it's an unnecessary expense, but one worth incurring, IMO. I hope it's a big waste of money, LOL . We have term life.

 

[C.Ann]

Yes, I do..

 

[snowywhite89]

We have term life insurance. Like others have said STD and LTD are needed too. STD can be dropped if you have a well funded EF. LTC is one to also consider.

 

[scrappinmom]

Yes - we have whole life on all 4 of us. DH & I bought ours when we got married and each of the girls got a policy the week they were born. We have much more insurance on my husband than me, but it's still a substansial amount.

We also have the term policy that comes with work for both of us.

that being said, neither one of my parents have any at all - they see it that when they die they will have enough is savings to cover their funerals, and once I sell the house I can have whatever is left.

 

[EKW]

Do you have $15,000 cash handy? If yes, you probably don't need to worry about insurance. I think it's irresponsible to not carry at least enough insurance to pay for a funeral.

It's been three years, but two of my aunts passed away at about the same time. Both had a plot waiting for them, so there wasn't that expense.

One had $5000 life insurance. That wasn't enough to pay for the minimum...and I mean MINIMUM costs of dieing. Cremation, urn, small vault, opening and closing the grave, and the headstone (basic, flat to the ground) were over $6000.

I was able to use money from the second aunt's insurance to cover that extra $1000+.

If I'd had to purchase plots for them their combined insurances wouldn't haven't been enough to cover the costs.

Mind you, we're talking cremation, no funeral home services, BASIC urns and headstones.

To consider a casket and the costs involved with that, transporting bodies from where they died to where their plots are, etc, it would have cost over $20,000 each.

Prepaid plans sound nice, but there is a lot of controversy about them as they often don't come through with what they promised.

It's nice if you can carry enough insurance to pay off your mortgage and bills...that's a nice little perk for your family...but it's necessary to cover enough to pay for the expenses they'll incur after your death.

 

[Purseval]

One had $5000 life insurance. That wasn't enough to pay for the minimum...and I mean MINIMUM costs of dieing. Cremation, urn, small vault, opening and closing the grave, and the headstone (basic, flat to the ground) were over $6000.

That's nowhere near the minimum. You don't need anything other than an urn and if you plan on scattering the ashes you don't even need that. Most states have a cremation society (around here ours is Cremation Society of the South) and you can get everything done for less than $1000.

http://www.southcarecremation.com/cremation/pricing.php

I have life insurance, term, that ends at the time I expect to retire. It will be enough to provide for my wife until the end of her life. My kids are grown so they can worry about their own lives now. When they were younger I had everything in percentages to each child and my wife and as they grew older the percentage to them went down and to my wife went up. Now it is almost all to my wife and as soon as my son graduates from college (1 semester to go) it will be 100% hers. If I make it to retirement we have no life insurance and we live off of what we saved when I was working.

 

[dreamin_disney]

dh and I both have it through work. But i'm not sure if it's term or whole. Whats the difference???

If something happened to dh I would have a hardtime making the bills. If i died dh would have no problem making it on his own. But we do have insurance and it will help.

I have dh as 1st beneficery and dd12 as 2nd

dh has me as 1st benif. and his mom as 2nd

should we change it?

How does it work if kids are under age? I know MIL will take dd in if something happened to me and dh but I want the life insurance protect until dd becomes of age 18 or 21. My problem is if MIL remarries(been married twice and she would love to marry again) i dont want her mate getting my dd's money!

 

[bdcp]

dh and I both have it through work. But i'm not sure if it's term or whole. Whats the difference???

If something happened to dh I would have a hardtime making the bills. If i died dh would have no problem making it on his own. But we do have insurance and it will help.

I have dh as 1st beneficery and dd12 as 2nd

dh has me as 1st benif. and his mom as 2nd

should we change it?

How does it work if kids are under age? I know MIL will take dd in if something happened to me and dh but I want the life insurance protect until dd becomes of age 18 or 21. My problem is if MIL remarries(been married twice and she would love to marry again) i dont want her mate getting my dd's money!

Set up a revocable trust.

 

[TheRatPack]

We both have Term and then a rider on each of our children. We also have our burial plots paid for and a rider on each of our children until 21 through that plan. I pray we never need any of the insurance or riders, but it's nice to know it's there in case something tragic did happen. My husband also had disability through work and a smaller extra policy through work as well. He's a smoker so it isn't cheap...I can afford a lot more on me because I'm not a smoker but still we got as much as we could afford for him and quite a bit for me so he could bury me and afford child care/college...etc.

Speaking of life insurance, does everyone go through their insurance agent? Is there a better place/price for insurance? We just got ours through our regular insurance agent, one we use for our cars, house...etc.

 

[dreamin_disney]

We both have Term and then a rider on each of our children. We also have our burial plots paid for and a rider on each of our children until 21 through that plan. I pray we never need any of the insurance or riders, but it's nice to know it's there in case something tragic did happen. My husband also had disability through work and a smaller extra policy through work as well. He's a smoker so it isn't cheap...I can afford a lot more on me because I'm not a smoker but still we got as much as we could afford for him and quite a bit for me so he could bury me and afford child care/college...etc.

Speaking of life insurance, does everyone go through their insurance agent? Is there a better place/price for insurance? We just got ours through our regular insurance agent, one we use for our cars, house...etc.

Dh and I are both 37 and I would eventually like to buy plots. Maybe when budget gets better.

I get my insurance through my work and dh also get his through his job.

 

[sk!mom]

We have term insurance on both of us. It will expire the year DD turns 25. At that point, we do not plan to carry any life insurance other than what we have through our Company benefit plans. We are debt free so once we no longer have child or college expenses we would both be fine.

We've carried term since we were expecting our first child 26 years ago. We also have disability.

 

[sk!mom]

Dh and I are both 37 and I would eventually like to buy plots. Maybe when budget gets better.

QUOTE]

I don't plan to ever buy a plot because in recent years all of my grandparents and now our parents no longer live or would choose to be buried in the place that they would have chosen in their 40's, 50's, or even 80's in the case of my 90 year old grandpa.

I would prefer to be cremated but will have money set aside for whatever my survivors choose.