How Much Life Insurance Should You Have?
Determining coverage may depend on your financial goals and needs
Making sure you have the right financial resources in place, including life insurance, is important if you have loved ones who depend on your income. Life insurance can help cover funeral and pay off remaining debts, and make managing day-to-day living expenses less burdensome for those you leave behind.
Here’s how to find out if you need life insurance at all or, if you already have it, how to evaluate your coverage needs and determine whether your policy is sufficient.
Key Takeaways
Your financial and family situation will determine whether you need life insurance and, if so, how much coverage you should have
The younger and healthier you are, generally, the less you’ll pay for premiums. However, older people can still get life insurance
It may be wise to carry as much life insurance as you need to pay off your debts plus any interest, particularly if you have a mortgage or you co-signed student loans.
Your policy’s payout should be large enough to replace your income, plus a little more to hedge against the impacts of inflation on purchasing power.
There are several ways to compute the ideal amount of coverage.
What Is Life Insurance?
Life insurance is a contract under which an insurance company agrees to pay a specified amount after the death of an insured party, as long as the premiums are paid current. The payout amount is called a death benefit.1 Policies give insured people the assurance that their loved ones will have financial protection and peace of mind after their death.
There are two main types of life insurance: permanent and term. Permanent life insurance policies do not have an expiration date, meaning you’re covered for life as long as your premiums are paid. Many permanent life insurance policies offer an investment component that allows you to build cash value by investing a portion of the premiums you pay in the stock market or earning interest on your account. Term life insurance, on the other hand, only covers you for a set number of years and does not accumulate cash value. Some policies allow you to easily renew your coverage after a certain expiration date, while others require a medical exam to do so.
A medical exam is a standard underwriting requirement for most life insurance policies. However, you may be able to purchase no-exam life insurance at a higher premium cost.
Do You Even Need Life Insurance?Â
Life insurance can be a helpful financial tool to possess, but buying a policy doesn’t make sense for everyone. You may not need life insurance if you’re single and have no dependents, have beneficiaries for your major assets, and possess enough money to cover your debts as well as your final expenses—your funeral, estate settlement, attorney fees, and other expenses. The same applies if you have dependents but enough assets to provide for them after your death.
However, if you’re the primary provider for your dependents or have a significant amount of debt that outweighs your assets, then insurance can help ensure your loved ones are well provided for if something happens to you. Having a life insurance policy may also make sense if you own a business or owe co-signed debts (such as private student loans) for which someone else could be held responsible if you pass away.
Keep in mind that life insurance by itself doesn’t cover every situation. For example, a standard life insurance policy won’t pay out if you develop a chronic illness nor will it cover long-term nursing care costs. Still, you can purchase chronic illness riders or long-term care insurance riders for an additional premium cost that can provide living benefits to cover those types of scenarios.
What’s the Minimum Amount of Life Insurance You Need?
A large part of choosing a life insurance policy is determining how much money your dependents will need. Choosing the face value—the amount that your policy pays if you die—depends on a few different factors. The minimum amount of coverage you need may be very different from what someone else requires. Financial experts often recommend purchasing at least 10 times your annual income in coverage, although your personal number may be higher or lower.2
Don’t forget about “hidden income” when deciding how much insurance you need to carry. The Insurance Information Institute (III) defines hidden income as any amounts you receive through employment beyond your base pay, such as 401(k) contributions or the employer’s share of your health insurance premium. According to III, the cost of replacing just retirement and health insurance contributions can total $2,000 per month or more.3
If you’re married, then both you and your spouse may need life insurance coverage, even if only one of you is primarily responsible for your household income.
Here are some of the most important considerations for choosing a minimum amount of life insurance.
Debt
Life insurance proceeds can be used to pay off outstanding debts, including student loans, car loans, mortgages, credit cards, and personal loans. If you have any of these debts, then your policy should include enough coverage to pay them off in full. For instance, if you have a $200,000 mortgage and a $4,000 car loan, you need at least $204,000 in your policy to cover your debts. You should take out a little more to settle any extra interest or additional charges.
Income Replacement
One of the main purposes of life insurance is to replace income. If you are the sole provider for your dependents and bring in $40,000 a year, for example, you will need a policy payout that is large enough to replace your annual income, plus a little extra to guard against inflation.
Life insurance experts suggest having enough coverage to replace at least 10 years of your salary.2 In this case that would be $400,000. You could also add some extra as a buffer for inflation and other unexpected costs. For this example, then, a $500,000 policy might be reasonable. This would replace your income for your family for at least a decade and hedge against inflation.
Once you determine the needed face value for your insurance policy, you can start shopping around by talking to an agent or using an online insurance estimator to determine how much insurance you will need.
Insuring Others
There may be other people in your life who are important to you, and you may wonder if you should insure them. As a rule, you should only insure people whose death would mean a financial loss to you. The death of a child, while emotionally devastating, does not constitute a financial loss because children cost money to raise. The death of an income-earning spouse, however, does create a situation with both emotional and financial losses.
In that case, follow the income replacement calculation shown earlier using his or her income. This also goes for business partners with whom you have a financial relationship. For example, consider someone with whom you have a shared responsibility for mortgage payments on a co-owned property. You may want to consider a policy for that person, as their death will have a big impact on your financial situation.
If you’re purchasing life insurance to cover a business partnership arrangement, then you may want to consider a key-person insurance policy versus traditional coverage.
How To Calculate Your Life Insurance Needs
Most insurance companies say a reasonable amount for life insurance is at least 10 times the amount of annual salary. If you multiply an annual salary of $50,000 by 10, for instance, you’d opt for $500,000 in coverage. Some recommend adding an additional $100,000 in coverage per child above
Years-Until-Retirement Method
Another way to calculate the amount of life insurance needed is to multiply your annual salary by the number of years left until retirement. For example, if a 40-year-old currently makes $20,000 a year, they will need $500,000 (25 years × $20,000) in life insurance to reach age 65.
Standard-of-Living Method
This method is based on the amount of money survivors would need to maintain their standard of living if the insured party dies. If your age is between 41-50, you take that amount and multiply it by 20. From 51 to 60 should multiply by 15. The thought here is that survivors can take a 5% withdrawal from the death benefit each year—the equivalent of the standard-of-living amount—while investing the death benefit principal and earning 5% or better. This type of calculation is sometimes known as human life value (HLV) approach.2
Debt, Income, Mortgage, Education (DIME) Method
Another methodology is called DIME (debt, income, mortgage, education). This is meant for a minimal amount of coverage that will cover family expenses in the event of an untimely death. With the DIME approach, your coverage should be enough to cover all your outstanding debts (including your mortgage), pay for your kids’ education, and replace your income for the years until your children reach 18 years old.2
Alternatives to Life Insurance
If you’re getting life insurance purely to cover debts and have no dependents, there are other alternatives. One is to self-insure, which occurs when someone sets aside a pool of money to be used to remedy an unexpected loss, rather than spend it on insurance. Self-insuring against certain losses may be more economical than buying insurance from a third party.
Another option is to simply forgo buying life insurance if you’re single, have beneficiaries to receive your significant assets, and your estate can cover your debts as well as the expenses related to death that would arise after you’re gone.
Who Needs Life Insurance the Most?
No one group of people need life insurance more than another group: it really depends on each individual’s circumstances. Parents with children, couples where one spouse earns most of the income, older people without significant savings, those heavily in debt, and business owners are the most likely groups to have financial needs that life insurance can address.
What Is a Rule of Thumb for How Much Life Insurance You Need?
There are several rules of thumb you can use for computing the amount of life insurance you’ll need. These often involve multiplying your current income by a number such as 10 or your number of years left until retirement. Other rules of thumb involve adding up all expenses and obligations you would need to cover for your family.
What Happens to My Life Insurance if I Lose My Job?
If you lose your job and have private life insurance that you purchased on your own, as long as you continue paying your premiums, you will have coverage. If the insurance was provided as a group plan through your employer, however, you typically will lose that coverage around one month after being terminated.4 Some group plans will give you the option to switch the coverage to your own individual policy, though the cost could be higher than what you were paying at work or might pay for new coverage.
Is Life Insurance Needed After Age 60?
You may no longer need life insurance once you retire. While life insurance is often intended to replace the economic loss of someone with a family to support in the event of their untimely death, it can be also purchased by those whose children are grown. This can be done for several purposes, including leaving an inheritance, establishing a trust upon death, contributing to a charity, or if the older individual is a key employee or partner in a business. In general, depending on the insurer and type of policy, you can get coverage up to age 100. Note, however, that premiums increase the older you are when you purchase the policy.5
Can I Cash Out My Life Insurance Policy?
If you own a permanent life insurance policy that accrues cash value (such as whole life or universal life), you can often borrow against or withdraw some or all of that value. The death benefit will typically also decline proportionally to the amount you take out of the policy. If you surrender the entire amount, you will lose all your coverage.
The Bottom Line
Your financial and family details will determine whether you need life insurance and, if so, how much you should have. If you choose to buy insurance, use one of the common methods to calculate the coverage you’ll need, such as 10 times your salary. Do this before meeting with an agent or broker to avoid buying inadequate coverage or expensive coverage that you don’t need.
As with investing, educating yourself is essential to making the right choice about whether you need life insurance and, if so, what level of coverage. Make sure to do your research to acquire the best life insurance for you.
Insurance 16
Health Insurance
When people are in the best of their physical health, the obvious question among them is why should they invest in health insurance? Especially for the people in their early career when they find themselves physically fit and miles away from any health issues, paying a premium plan for ensuring health may seem an unnecessary expenditure.
Now, there is no denying the fact that investing in the long term wealth generating investment options during your earning career is inevitable. This will definitely help you to achieve your goals and maintain the expected standard of living of yours and your dependents even after your retirement.
However, when you retire, you also become old. It is a fact that old age brings health issues along with it. And hence, it is highly necessary for you to incorporate healthcare planning within the budget of your family financial planning.
What is health insurance?
If you search the meaning of the word ‘health insurance’ on Google, you will get the result as “Insurance taken out to cover the cost of medical care.
simple words, health insurance is a contract between you (policyholder) and the insurance company, where you pay a regular premium against which the latter assumes the responsibility in meeting your medical expenses. With increasing medical costs, having a medical insurance policy has become highly important for every family in pakistan.
Although increasing access to advanced electronic media has created awareness among the people in India towards the importance of buying health insurance plans. Nonetheless, the majority of the population in India still fails to understand the importance of getting medical coverage for themselves.
If you have already realized the significance of having mediclaim for yourself and your family members, you are a step ahead from the majority. However, In case you don’t, let us help you explain why you should consider health insurance as an investment and not an expense.
6 Reasons Why You Should Get Health Insurance
- Being Medically insured can help you avoid facing financial instability in future:
Medical expenses are going up day by day. Moreover, you may need to incur any emergency medical expense at any point in time. If you have not made separate provision for the same, you have to dig into your savings or sell off your assets to meet the medical needs of yours or your family. Buying a health insurance policy gives you the assurance of financial stability during any medical urgency.
- Medical insurance enables you to get the best health treatment
Shortage of funds could make you opt for a reasonable medical treatment instead of choosing the best of the lot. Having a good mediclaim can assure you the best treatment for overcoming toughest of health conditions. - You can get the coverage of hospitalization chargesÂ
In the last few years, not only the medical costs, but even the expenses of the out-patient department and diagnostic tests have also gone up a lot. This has further increased the importance to buy a medical insurance policy. The health insurance policies not only provide adequate coverage of the hospitalization expenses but also enable meeting the costs incurred in diagnostic and OPD tests, earlier and later of a specific time period as mentioned by the policy. - The modern dynamic lifestyle demands medical insurance
Over the past few decades, our lifestyle has undergone a plethora of changes. Frequent traveling, busy work schedules, unhealthy eating habits and a rise in the level of pollution in big cities have exposed us to the risk of new health issues. And that’s why medical insurance has become a necessary part of our life. - Opting for medical insurance will help in your retirement planning
During the old age, your income may decrease but your medical expenses will be high. However, here if you already know that your health is insured, you can spend on different options of your choice after retirement.
Health insurance plans also come with lifelong renewability features. You can renew your health plans until your death and there is no such age limit for it. This is going to be of immense help in the later stage of your life. Having medical insurance will offer you a lot of flexibility and will also reduce the burden on your kids to take care of your medical expInsurance
Is there any right age to buy a health insurance policy?
However, if you buy a health plan in your early age, you need to pay quite less for opting most policies. As you grow old, the premiums which you require to pay for your health insurance policy increase will also gradually increase. The reason being that the associated health issues and risk goes up with time. Medical insurance premiums are dependent on the age of the policyholder, his/her medical history, where he/she lives, etc.
Further, an important option that you need to consider while purchasing a health insurance policy is selecting critical illness medical insurance policy. The critical illness policy offers to pay a fixed amount if you are diagnosed with any critical illness which is under the coverage of that policy. You can either buy only the critical illness insurance policy or you can also opt for purchasing it as an add-on when you buy your regular health insurance. In case you are diagnosed with a critical disease, this critical illness policy does act as a great support to your mainstream health insurance plan.
Why is opting for a health insurance plan important in a country like India?
Today, we live in a dynamic India where many of us don’t even follow a healthy lifestyle. It is resulting in a number of health conditions which require a lot of medical attention. A plethora of people in India are suffering from heart diseases and diabetes at an early age due to work stress and unhealthy lifestyle. In addition to that, respiratory issues, infectious diseases, and birth complications are also highly popular in India. Degrading health in India has really heightened the need for health insurance in the country.
So what do you think? Have you given a thought to protect yourself and your near and dear ones from health ailments? The way healthcare expenses are going up, it is getting more and more difficult with time for people to manage such costs. A wonderful way of protecting yourself from such a financial crisis is to opt for health insurance policies. So,