Life Insurance

[jerrybob]

I am going to assume that the house, land, animals and bank accounts are joint owned. If the bank accounts are joint accounts then the wife would have no problem getting the money. Insurance companies do NOT pay out as quick as they claim.

We're covered in that regard.....in fact....everything is FDIC insured as well. Hope the government doesn't fail!

 

[murphy1244]

I kept my insurance policy from work when I left and a good thing I did. When I got sick I found out I could no longer get another policy as no one would cover me. So I am glad I stayed with this one through the years. So you might want to keep that in mind cause you never know whats around the bend.

 

[k0ua]

I kept my insurance policy from work when I left and a good thing I did. When I got sick I found out I could no longer get another policy as no one would cover me. So I am glad I stayed with this one through the years. So you might want to keep that in mind cause you never know whats around the bend.

Yep. To my point, if you are sick is not the time to be trying to buy insurance. All you can get is "guaranteed issue". Small amounts of coverage for large money. When you are well, you can get large amounts of coverage for small money. The time to buy insurance is NOW not later. Later is too late. No one told me that, but I am telling you now.

 

[ustmd]

The wife and I have term insurance. We started 3 or 4 years ago (I am 48 now) and have fix rates until 65 or 67--which is pretty typical.

We based our amount on total debt load plus costs for our daughter if one of us had to go it alone. Both my wife and I work, so the idea was to be able to pay all debt, have 2 years of the deceased spouses salary and then have money for the kid's expenses and college (if that is what she wants).

I can't say what is right for you, but my one piece of advice is if you are going to do it, do it soon. Life insurance will only get more expensive as you get older--no matter how excellent your health.

 

[MH8675309]

I will say this - how title to the house and lands is held is VERY important. Here in Michigan there are a few different ways for a couple to hold title and not all of them allow full rights of survivor ship to the surviving spouse. Also, here we have dower rights for women but not for men. It is worth a call to a lawyer or title company to make sure title passes the way you intended it to when the time comes.

 

[gsganzer]

The need for life insurance is something I've always stressed to the folks I work with. Especially the younger 20 year olds that are already married with kids. The younger you are when you get it, the cheaper you lock in your rate for term life.

When my brother passed away in 2006 at the age of 45, I saw first hand how important life insurance was. He was married and had a 15yo daughter and a 19 yo son. His wife worked hard, but she barely made minimum wage and certainly wouldn't have been able to sustain the house and kids. My brother had a $100K policy through his employer. That money helped buy her some time to make arrangements for selling the house and moving on with her life. It also provided some financial means if she wanted to get some schooling/training to help her job prospects, same as the kids. It wasn't a lot of money, but it certainly was better than nothing, without it she would have defaulted on the mortgage and been in dire straits in a hurry.

As some others have said, you need to look at your (you and Karen's) situation. Fortunately, you both have a sustainable income (both could make it on your own) and you're kind of in the same situation as me and Shellie. We looked at what it would take to leave the other debt free (house paid off and kids through college in our case). We decided on $250K term life policies. This is probably low and I wish I went with $500K minimum, but we both had decent retirement and brokerage accounts, so our financial burden was low.

The only drawback I saw to having a huge insurance policy, is that I'd have to start sleeping with one eye open if I ever pissed her off.:laughing:

 

[k0ua]

Things to consider. Term is like renting, you have a box full of rent receipts when you are done. Whole life is like buying. you have cash value when the policy is paid off. (if you chose that option) You can annuitize for an income or take the money including dividends and run. Another consideration is return of premium term. It pays back all of the premiums you paid in along the way when the term is over if you outlive the term, otherwise if you die, it pays the face value. Lots of ways to do this. I am not a fan of the universal life policies, as they require you to keep track of where you are in the policy, and decide how much to pay in premium. Attractive on the front end, and the policy can "eat itself" and you wind up with nothing. Not a fan, too "busy" for most people to keep track of.

 

[Travelover]

Things to consider. Term is like renting, you have a box full of rent receipts when you are done. Whole life is like buying. ........

I respectfully disagree. Do not mix insurance with investments because it gets so murky you really can't tell where you are getting hosed. Buy term insurance and invest the difference between what term and whole life would have cost you at a place like Vanguard with low fees. There is no free lunch and the selling agent has to eat.

Additionally, think about disability insurance. Sometimes getting hurt badly is worse financially than dying.

 

[k0ua]

I respectfully disagree. Do not mix insurance with investments because it gets so murky you really can't tell where you are getting hosed. Buy term insurance and invest the difference between what term and whole life would have cost you at a place like Vanguard with low fees. There is no free lunch and the selling agent has to eat.

Additionally, think about disability insurance. Sometimes getting hurt badly is worse financially than dying.

That is certainly an option, but many people do not have the discipline to invest that difference in premium. Also whole life is for your WHOLE life. If you outlive your term insurance, and will wind up with nothing when it expires. No money, and no way to buy any more insurance, because now you are old and sick. This is why he needs to find an agent he trusts to explain and show illustrations of how the money goes in and grows. Sure you can put your difference of premium between the two products in the stock market if that is what you want to do. Different strokes for different folks. I agree there is no free lunch, and I do like to eat.

 

[MossRoad]

The point of term insurance is just that, you buy it while you need the protection it offers, and hopefully you'll build up your nest egg over your working career to the point where you'll be self insured by the time you retire.

https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/the-truth-about-life-insurance/