Do you carry Life Insurance?

[arminnie]

No - never have except what came from work - maybe $10,000.

I have no dependents and have more than enough money to bury me. Why would I need it?

 

[mikamah]

I am a single mom to a 9 yo and have 400,000 in 20 year term, so it will be gone when he is 20. I also have about 240,000 through work, but am not sure how that would work if I was sick for a while and unable to work, so I've been thinking I need to get another 20 year term policy soon to bring him into his late 20s.

My brother will be his guardian if anything should happen to me, and he knows a yearly disney trip should be budgeted in that money.

 

[rangermom]

We have 5 years salary trem policies for DH and I and we both get 2 years through work. We have 3 kiddos so it is a must. We only spend $47/ month total.

 

[MSSANDRA]

We just had this conversation with our financial planner. We believe insurance is important but you need to adjust the amount as your needs change. We are debt free so that lowers our needs somewhat. college is secure, but DH makes much more than I do so we also consider that. We also have insurance on DS that assures that he is insurable for life. We spend much more on investments than on term life insurance.

 

[mommy2mrb]

yes we had 5x DH salary and a smaller amount on me....please learn from my experience, insurance is a MUST if you have kids.

my DH died in January during the Haiti earthquake, having the insurance was a blessing to me and my DD, was able to pay off all pers and business debt, bought our new home and car with cash after we moved back up to WA from CA. I don't have to go back to work yet which would be so tough in finding a job in this economy and DD college will be covered. Have put away the bulk of the money for my DD since we also get SSA benefits, it has taken off the financial stress that I would of had so I can focus on our healing and dealing with our grief.

Of course would give it all back to have one more moment with him, but knowing he planned for us to be taken care of was one of the best gifts he gave us.

 

[3goofyboys]

Even though I'm a SAHM, both DH and I have term life insurance. DH has more insurance than I do because if something were to happen to him, we'd loose our only income. I have a considerable policy because if something were to happen to me, the family income would remain the same but all the tasks that I do for the family would need to be taken care of by someone. My insurance is enough to cover child care and live in help for a few years until my kiddos are older. I know people CAN make it without life insurance, but it's not a gamble I'm willing to take when it costs such a small amount every month.

 

[bridget]

I am a single mom to a 9 yo and have 400,000 in 20 year term, so it will be gone when he is 20. I also have about 240,000 through work, but am not sure how that would work if I was sick for a while and unable to work, so I've been thinking I need to get another 20 year term policy soon to bring him into his late 20s.

My brother will be his guardian if anything should happen to me, and he knows a yearly disney trip should be budgeted in that money.

I have my own policy and a policy through work. The problem with the work policy is that it is only good while I'm employed. I have had cancer so it is hard for me to get "new" life insurance. I suppose I should be grateful for what I've got.

 

[Sadie22]

When I left my office job I was able to continue paying the premiums on the term life insurance policies that I had through that job. The premiums adjust at 10 year intervals and will be increasing soon so I will be dropping those policies. We had had other policies throughout the time our sons were in school. Now that they are self-supporting, we do not need as much insurance. Once I give up the term policies I started while working, we will still have other term policies for a while longer to meet our needs until we begin drawing retirement funds.

 

[sookie]

OP-Husband and I just worked this out in our house last month.

My husband and I owe no one money (house is paid for), except for our monthly bills: taxes, electricity, food, stuff we buy, etc.

We also have a good amount of money in savings, probably 10 years living expenses.

Husband is our "big" money maker. Through his job we buy 5 times his salary--it is crazy cheap like $5 a pay period. That is the maximum we can buy.

I am pregnant with our first (due in April), and am looking to buy more life insurance on him. I am looking for an amount to completely cover the cost of college for a child and also to help cover expenses should something happen to him. I am looking at buying two policies. One a 20 year term and one a 10 year term; so as he lives longer and our savings grow we can have less insurance. I am looking at a 10 year policy of $250,000 and a 20 year $750,000. I have quotes from three large consolidator groups and all are less than $1000 per year (and he does not qualify for preferred rates); we just need to pick the policy.

I added up all our monthly expenses, and figure Social Security survivor benefits will cover most of those costs. I then took into account the growth on our savings, the payout from his office, and came up with $1 million dollars as my cushion number. This will allow me to retire, pay for college, take vacations, and not be obligated to work more than part-time (not saying I would not work full time--just want options). It will also give him life insurance redundancy should he lose his work policy.

Since we are planning for me to stay home, he felt no need to have any insurance on me. He understands he will have increased costs if I die, but is not concerned about covering the costs. His words were essentially that day care for the kid, cannot cost more than my shopping. Also since I have worked a full time, plus part time jobs for more than 15 years I am fully vested with Social Security--so he'd get a few peanuts a month for the kid. (He also pointed out the decreased costs of my living expenses: not needing a second car, food and healthcare for me, etc).

I have no interest in buying whole life. I prefer to invest in investments. I am only buying term as "income protection" if my husband has an untimely demise. Since the costs are so low, to me it is worth it for the peace of mind. Could I put the $1000 a year in savings instead, sure; but what happens if he dies in 5 years--I have $5000 instead of $1 million. Of course at the same time, he could live to be 100 and I could throw away 20 years of policy costs.

if you have TEN YEARS of living expenses saved - you don't need life insurance, and further, you DO need to be investing the money or its just wasted.

 

[akcire]

if you have TEN YEARS of living expenses saved - you don't need life insurance, and further, you DO need to be investing the money or its just wasted.

First the money, representing our 10 years of living expenses is invested. Not sitting in a savings account. Thank you for your concern.

Second. The 10 years of living expenses would not cover college for my unborn child. Nor would it fund a retirement for me. So in your opinion, I do not need any life insurance. I however would prefer to not have to live like a pauper or work 2 jobs if something happens to my husband, and am quite happy with my decision to add an extra $1 million dollars in term insurance. We have an idea on how we want our child to be raised, and that includes having me at home. If I had to go back to work full time (especially before our child is school aged), that ideal would be compromised. If purchasing insurance for less than $1000 per year can keep the dream alive--it is money well spent.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

Yes, through dh's job. It's whole life. It's a basic family policy, we carry the maximum on him, then less on me and a small $10,000 policy on each child.

 

[Swimalie]

yes we had 5x DH salary and a smaller amount on me....please learn from my experience, insurance is a MUST if you have kids.

my DH died in January during the Haiti earthquake, having the insurance was a blessing to me and my DD, was able to pay off all pers and business debt, bought our new home and car with cash after we moved back up to WA from CA. I don't have to go back to work yet which would be so tough in finding a job in this economy and DD college will be covered. Have put away the bulk of the money for my DD since we also get SSA benefits, it has taken off the financial stress that I would of had so I can focus on our healing and dealing with our grief.

Of course would give it all back to have one more moment with him, but knowing he planned for us to be taken care of was one of the best gifts he gave us.

I'm very sorry for your loss. It sounds like you had a great plan in place and it's sad that you had to use it. We have a similar plan and learned the hard way that you have to have one when my husband's father passed suddenly. His mom didn't have enough but the life insurance helped quite a bit.

We have a term policy on me and my husband has whole life through his work for 5x his salary. He's about to get term as well. Sadly, due to his dad's early death (heart attack), his policy will be expensive.

 

[need2cruise]

I keep $400k plus accidental death on myself through my employer and dh has $150k term with 100% return of premium after the term is up that we will roll into an annuity at that time (plus what he has through his employer). If we didn't have kids, we could lower these amounts.

 

[mom2val]

Dh and I both have term insurance. We pay @ $60 a month for $500,000 coverage on each of us. The security it offers is well worth what we pay.

 

[hipchickie]

the poll would not let me choose more than one option, but we have some term and some whole.
My husband, while fairly young, has some health issues that are going to make term become expensive, so we wanted to get into whole life while we could get a decent rate.
Once the house is paid off and the kids are older, we will probably just dump the term and keep a small whole policy

If you have children, I feel life insurance is an absolute necessity.

 

[angierae]

I have a policy equal to one year's salary through my employer, but I am not eligible in Michigan for life insurance on my own because I have a genetic kidney disease.

This makes me feel so horrible because I am afraid if I get hit by a bus or something completely unrelated to my kidneys I will not be able to provide for my family. But it's totally legal to deny me coverage, and there's nothing I can do about it.

 

[unlimiteddisney]

Questions to consider?????
What if you lost your job and that policy is gone?
What if you or your husband get sick and are not elgible for life ins one day?
What if you lost your job and then got sick? you would have had no income coming in and no ins. policy.
What if something happened to you and your husband is now left with the kids. He may need more money for childcare,cleaning exspenses etc.... Wouldn't it be easier on him if he had a small ins. policy.
Accidents happen trust me. My dad was 35 healthy when he drowned. There was a small ins. policy thank god. We would have lost everything if not.
It would be very smart to do it now while you are young and healthy. You could probably get a good rate and it wouldn't be much more a month. There are a lot of options out there that are insurance but also savings plans as well. There are a lot of things people do not think about. Just because you are healthy doesn't mean other things can't happen.

 

[kimkoz]

No doubt about it - Yes we have life insurance. Started it when we first got married. We are still semi young - hitting 30 soon. We have student loans, working off debt and still owe many years on our house. When we had kids we increased the amounts. We wanted to make sure that if anything would to happen to one of us that the other could pay off everything and start off fresh raising the kids. Our coverage is more then enough to cover the house, debt we have now, funeral expenses, and more to keep thier heads up while the other can settle in to the fact that one of us is gone. Then of course there's the other bad side, if it happens to both of us we know we have chosen the best people to control our children's money until they are capable to do so themself.

So yes, of course we do. Honestly its such a little amount paid monthly but it gives us great peace of mind.

 

[pearlieq]

The only people that really don't need life insurance are the independently wealthy.

That's not the case at all. Either that or the definition of independently wealthy has really changed.

Plenty of singles and couples without kids have no real need for life insurance. DH sure doesn't need a policy for me. He doesn't need to replace my income--his is more than adequate. He won't incur any expenses with my death other than 2-3k for a direct cremation and simple memorial, which can easily be covered by our savings. What exactly would he need insurance for?

Most parents need insurance while the children are small, but some can get by just fine without. If the children are older or if one parent makes a generous income, they may be able to adjust to the loss of one spouse simply by rearranging the budget. I'm not saying that a big insurance payout would be unwelcome, but if insurance is unavailable or cost prohibitive, things may still work out OK.

 

[DVC-Don]

Have both whole and term. Heck I sell the stuff and have had to deliver the payout upon several deaths. It is really appreaciated by those left behind, believe me.