Life Insurance for Beginners

amother

OP ↓

Mon, May 01 2023, 7:35 am

Hi there,

My husband and I are having our first child soon and I’d like to get us life insurance.

I’d love a few examples of whole life and universal life premiums for a young healthy couple (mid 20’s)

Just to get an idea, I know I can get a quote.

Also if anyone has a policy through their employer, would like to know pros and cons of doing that.

Thanks in advance!

amother

Crocus

Mon, May 01 2023, 8:05 am

If you have a life policy through employer (it’s called group life) insurance the death benefit isn’t high enough if C”V…
Call a broker and ask for quotes. Depending on your health and risk factors quotes will be different. Ask him for a term and whole life quote.
Then you can decide.

mikayla18

Mon, May 01 2023, 9:04 am

Term is a million times better than whole. It's much less expensive (especially if you're in your 20s now) and even if it goes up in 30 years from now, you're still paying less than whole. Please please be very careful when selecting insurance and explore term and whole both before making a decision.

Amarante

Mon, May 01 2023, 10:07 am

I agree that term life is the way to go.

Whole life is a terrible investment for most people but is pushed by less than scrupulous salespeople because they receive a very high commission when they sell it.

I would also advise you as a newly wed to make an appointment with a CERTIFIED Financial Planner who works on a fee basis rather than a commission - I.e they are not trying to sell you anything.

They can give you a plan with goals to work towards including how to fund your savings for long term goals; retirement etc. and help you in terms of the amount of insurance you should get and how it fits with your overall finances.

You would then go back every year or so or when something changes in your life so that you might need to rethink your finances.

There is no con to insurance through your employer. In general it is either free for a fixed amount or you can up the coverage for less money than the open market - but obviously see what cost is for increasing coverage versus private market.

I would also suggest reading a basic book on finances in general so they you understand basic financial issues. There are some excellent books that are geared to educating people who don't know much.

amother

Bluebell ↓

Mon, May 01 2023, 10:24 am

I’m paying $23 a month for 20 year term 1 million dollar coverage for myself, a healthy 23 year old, through Haven Life Insurance. I spoke to an insurance broker who tried pushing whole life or convertible (term that can turn into whole life) onto me very aggressively but I researched and found that whole life insurance is a scam for people who aren’t tremendously wealthy and already maxing out their other, better options for investing tax free such as HSAs, IRAs etc. Whole life has high fees and commissions and you’d do a lot better taking the money you would have spent each month on whole and just investing it yourself.

Convertible would be $20 more per month and I don’t see myself ever wanting to convert to whole so I just got a simple term plan through Haven.

Haven is great - you apply online and get an immediate accurate quote and can sign up with them on the spot. It’s usually very well priced. It’s owned by Mass Mutual so it’s got a great rating and is not likely to fall apart.