Do you have it? What do you think is better term or whole life? Also, if I get term do I do 10, 20, or 30 years? I think I'm going to get term for now because whole life is a lot more expensive (even though it has a cash value).
Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

Oh yes! We have term, I don't even remember how long-I believe it's a 30 year.

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

We got term calculating to finish the year our youngest graduated from college (which is in 15 years from now for us).

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Term is by far better then whole. The "savings" plan with whole life only gets you 3% on your money so you are far better taking the diference you would pay and investing it at 10%. As far as how long....it depends on how long it would take you not to need the money. The Idea is to get insurance to cover you until your personal wealth would be enough if someone died. For us being 30 we have a 30 year policy---by 60 I hope to not need insurance, but if we do, we would then get an additional 10yr policy or something of the like. hope that helps a bit

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"Families are like fudge... mostly sweet with a few nuts."
~Unknown~

We have term insurance. It's cheap, was easy to get and we're covered until our savings and investments can make it possible for us to self-insure. When we really learned the difference between term insurance and whole-life, there ws no way we'd ever buy whole-life.

You really have to think about what you want the insurance for. For our family, we wanted to make sure that 1) if DH died, I wouldn't lose the house, the kids could go to college (a state school), and I could take up to a year to find a job; and 2) if I died, DH would need to pay for childcare, housecleaning, and lots of takeout until the kids are on their own. We sat down and estimated what these things would cost. And, in our case, since most of the expenses we want insurance to cover will disappear when our kids are grown, we went with term life insurance.

I do agree that, financially, term insurance and a separate investment account is better than whole life insurance - costs are less, you have more investment choices and control over the investments, and you have much better access to that money should you need it. However, whole life products sold by reputable companies have gotten much more competitive. My MIL uses it because she recognizes she is not disciplined enough not to touch an investment account and, for her, represents a legacy for her children.

One thing I do think is HUGELY important if you go with term insurance is to get it outside of your employer. If your only insurance is with your employer and you lose your job, your insurance is gone also, and if this happens when you are 60 and in poor health, you may not qualify for any other.

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Where the advice given is good, I would urge you to find a reputable company (like NML) and a ChFC (chartered financial consultant) within the company that is local to your area and whom you feel comfortable with. They should be able to gather information from you, put it all together and give you examples of both and what they can do for your family's best interest.

You may find that a combo of both is what you are looking for. Ya just never know! I do HIGHLY recommend that you do get life insurance though. Also take into consideration job occupation. By that, if your or your DH have higher life risk you will want more coverage.

HTH

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PLEASE go to http://mommysavers.com/boards/mommys...ncer-walk.html to learn about preventative measures for all women - cancer does not discriminate!

The above advice is great, but I will add that you should try to get a term policy that is convertable. What that means is, should you choose to, you can convert the policy after twenty years to a whole policy or continue more years with the term...rated the same as you were when you got the policy. That is crutial, because who knows what your health will be like in 20 years. Good luck! Dh is starting the process for term right now and I will after the baby comes. We are both covered by work for more than we would need should one of us die, but who knows if I will continue to work and DH is diabetic so we need to get it while we are young.

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IT'S A BOY!!!

We have term life, and we did not convert it, as our kids are grown. We decided to keep the policy, as they've continued our low rates even though we didn't covert it to a new policy. If/when the rates go up, we will cancel since the kids are grown and we would be fine financially if something happened.

My parents had paid into a whole life policy since I was a child. We'd reached the high point of the cash value, and it was starting to decrease, and I cashed it out before losing any more money and to get my parents to stop paying into an insurance policy as an investment tool. It would have been much wiser to invest this money in a mutual fund instead of an insurance policy, but it was their gift, and I was very appreciative of their efforts.

Hubby and I have supplemental life insurance policies in addition to the policy that is provided by his employer. We tried to account for the 'worst case scenerio' which would be hubby and I in the same accident where he died and I was so injured I was unable to work (we were almost hit head-on by a drunk driver so we know this could have happened.) DD and I would have to change our lifestyle but we could make ends meet with the life insurance money - and other resources - if that happened.

When we were young and stupid we purchased a whole life policy (they called it something else but that was basically what it was). We cashed it out and vowed never to do that again. Our goal is to have so much in investments we don't need life insurance.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."