Life insurance is a question that most of us simply avoid thinking about too
much, especially when we’re young. However, if you have more than yourself as a
dependent on your income tax forms, life insurance is something you need in
order to ensure that if something happens to you those dependents don’t wind up
in the street.
This is going to be the only expense evaluation where I might end up encouraging
you to spend more money than you already are, but you will be able to sleep
better at night knowing that those who depend on you are secure even in the
event of something terrible happening to you.
First of all, your best option for life insurance is term insurance if
you’re under fifty. Term insurance is the best bet for younger people with their
financial head on straight. An insurance salesman might try to coax you into
whole life insurance or universal life insurance; don’t let them!
If you have one of the other types, you should strongly consider cashing it
in and buying term insurance. Term insurance is substantially cheaper per
month, enough so that it’s worth cashing in the other policy, removing the cash
value, and instead start a term policy. You can take that cash value and use it to
pay off debts; that’s more worthwhile to a healthy financial future for you and
your family than universal or whole life insurance (note that I am not a
professional financial advisor – I am not liable for any choices you make based
on what you read here. Do your own research if you’re considering making a
major choice that you might regret.).
Okay, so how much life insurance do I need? If you have no dependents
besides yourself, you don’t need any at all. In fact, if you see little chance at
having dependents in the future, just skip the rest of this entry because it really
doesn’t apply to you.
I recommend getting insurance that will cover you until you’re 70 (or close to it),
but if you’re very young, you may just want to get a 30 year term. Why? At that
point, if you’re financially responsible, your estate should be in good enough
shape that your life insurance isn’t necessary, and you can take that premium and
do something else with it.
If you have only adult dependents, you should only need two or three years’
worth of salary in life insurance. If you’re under 35, a term policy for an amount
equal to three years of your salary will be a trivial amount each month.
If you have child dependents, though, that’s when you really need good life
insurance coverage. Take out a sheet of paper, find your last Social
Security benefits statement, and do this calculation: calculate 90% of
your salary, subtract your dependent Social Security benefit from that, then
divide that amount by 0.08. That number is roughly what you should have in life
insurance if you have any dependent children.
Here’s an example. Freddy has a wife, a child, and an $85,000 a year job. His
Social Security statement reveals that his dependent benefit is about $11,000 a
year. So Freddy calculates 90% of his salary ($76,500), subtracts his dependent’s
benefits (leaving $65,500), and divides that amount by 0.08 to get $818,750 in
term life insurance.
Why so much? You want any dependents to be able to invest that money and
have the proceeds match your current salary with some breathing room. This
calculation assumes a small 8% return on investment, which hopefully they can
beat, but that’s not something you really want to bet on.
If you don’t have enough insurance, call your agent and discuss an increase
in benefits. Most insurance companies will happily revise policies upwards for
you because it means more money for them.
If you don’t have any insurance (and need some), start doing some research.
Get some quotes on 30 year term policies and see which company has the best
numbers. Then go ahead and make a purchase. This is something well worth
fitting into your budget.
Tomorrow, we’ll go back to evaluating expenses with an eye towards cutting some
money.
