Life Insurance Quotes: Who Really Needs Life Insurance? PDF Print E-mail
Written by Mike Carselle   
Monday, 26 April 2010 21:44
You hear a lot of talk these days about the importance of life insurance, and with life insurance rates falling to their lowest in history, there has never been a better time to shop for life insurance quotes online. The question many people ask is-is it really necessary for me to buy life insurance?
by MikeCarselle


You hear a lot of talk these days about the importance of life insurance, and with life insurance rates falling to their lowest in history, there has never been a better time to shop for life insurance quotes online. The question many people ask is-is it really necessary for me to buy life insurance?

Okay, we all know that looking around for life insurance quotes is not most people's idea of excitement, but nevertheless the truth is that every responsible person needs to have at least some life insurance. The amount that is necessary is dependent on your individual circumstances.

For a person who is not married and has no dependents, it wont be very difficult to calculate your insurance needs. When browsing for life insurance quotes, you just need to keep in mind the amount of debt you are carrying plus the amount it would take to bury you. If you are being cremated, then this figure will be even lower. In most cases, $10,000 to $20,000 is good enough, with the amount of your debt being the main variable. If you are a relatively young and healthy person, you can usually get a term life policy for that amount of coverage for under fifty cents a day.

If you are married and/or have children, then it's a totally different story. In this case, when you obtain your life insurance quotes, they need to account for your total debt (including your house), plus your total lost income from now until your dependents will be of legal age.

For example, let's say you have 2 kids that are 3 and 7 years old, and your annual income is $40,000. Also, your total debts including your home are $200,000. In this case, you would want a 20 year term life insurance policy for about $1 million-$800,000 to compensate for income lost, and $200,000 to cover all debts. Bear in mind these are rough figures and every person's situation will be a little different.

The main thing to remember is that just about everyone who wants to be responsible needs to have some level of life insurance coverage. In the case of a single with no dependent, it's not as urgent, although it's still necessary if you want to make sure your family doesn't have to deal with a big financial mess if something were to happen to you. In the case of a person who is married and/or has kids, very few things would be more important than to make sure these loved ones are protected from the worst case scenario. If you are part of the latter group, then make sure you have an adequate amount of life insurance coverage today.

DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as information only and is not to be taken as financial advice.