smalltowngirlie
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Jun 28, 2014 11:37:30 GMT
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Post by smalltowngirlie on Dec 5, 2016 0:06:46 GMT
At what point do you think a person should get life insurance?
We just saw on Facebook that a good friend's brother died 2 days ago. They set up a GoFundMe account because he had no life insurance. He is 22 years old and is leaving behind 2 young children. They are asking for just enough to pay for a funeral.
DH and I have had life insurance since we got married. We bought a small policy for our son when he was born, enough to cover funeral costs but not much more. We have updated our policy as life events happened. We also take advantage of any policies our employer gives us for free.
My DH will not be rich when I die, but things will be paid for.
So at what point did you get life insurance or do you think someone should get it?
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Post by ntsf on Dec 5, 2016 0:08:55 GMT
the minute you have responsibilities like kids...and then.. we dropped it now that the kids are grown, we have good assets.. and we really don't have to have more money to take care of the house, etc. work has provided some insurance.. when we retire we won't need it.
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Post by Belia on Dec 5, 2016 0:10:57 GMT
We got life insurance once we had kids. Basically, when one of our incomes' would have had to be replaced upon our passing.
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Post by littlemama on Dec 5, 2016 0:12:00 GMT
We got life insurance once we could afford it. Definitely after DS was born.
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Deleted
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Apr 25, 2024 19:58:29 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2016 0:14:10 GMT
I think as long as one is single and has enough in savings to pay for their own burial they don't need life insurance. To be honest, even in the 20s since they are still on parental health insurance it wouldn't be too out of line to assume parents will be taking on the cost of burying an adultchild.
Once kids start coming along they need more to cover the costs of raising those children to adulthood (through college) then after that they can decide what the needs of aa surviving spouse might be and drop the amount down to nothing.. again, as long as they leave some sort of savings or assets that can be used to pay back burial costs.
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Post by papercrafteradvocate on Dec 5, 2016 0:17:04 GMT
1. If you have children 2. If one spouse is the only income earner 3. If you own a business 4. If both work and you have a lifestyle that if one were suddenly deceased, the loss of that income would jeopardize the rest of the family. 5. If one or more have chronic or long term health issues.
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smalltowngirlie
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Post by smalltowngirlie on Dec 5, 2016 0:17:42 GMT
Since our policies are pretty small and we started them years ago, it is not much a month. It just makes me feel so much better that if something happens my family will not be in debt because of my death.
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momto4kiddos
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Jun 26, 2014 11:45:15 GMT
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Post by momto4kiddos on Dec 5, 2016 0:18:44 GMT
My answer would be the minute you have the responsibility of children most definitely. I think dh always had life insurance through work, but when that ended we got our own and have had it ever since.
I think some would even answer that children should have it also. I guess that would depend on preference? We never had it for ours. One thing I have done though is a couple years back I had my kids to our lawyers to get health care proxy type papers/directives. My oldest two are 24 and 26, both single. God forbid something ever happens, I didn't want that in question.
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Post by dazeepetals on Dec 5, 2016 0:25:03 GMT
1. If you have children 2. If one spouse is the only income earner 3. If you own a business 4. If both work and you have a lifestyle that if one were suddenly deceased, the loss of that income would jeopardize the rest of the family. 5. If one or more have chronic or long term health issues. This. I am the primary bread-winner in our family so if I were to pass I wanted enough money to go to my hubby to pay off the house and extra to give to our kids. My hubby sells life insurance so we both have fairly large policies in place for each other. Also, if you don't have a saving account with enough money to pay for your own funeral, then have a policy so your family isn't stuck paying 10K for a funeral. Funerals aren't cheap.
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Post by hop2 on Dec 5, 2016 0:31:14 GMT
For me it was important when I was pregnant with my first child. I was 30. To me the driving factor was not my age but the fact that I was going to have a child. Before that I guess I depended on the fact that my parents were still alive and would have buried me if DH could not.
Once I had children I felt I had to provide for them.
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Post by nlwilkins on Dec 5, 2016 1:21:16 GMT
One needs to realize too, that the older you get the more expensive it is. If you start paying on a policy when young, then you don't have such large premiums when you get to be a senior citizen. In our case, it was just wise to continue to pay on life insurance even after the children were grown and our assets were enough to bury us. What if something happened to our finances and we no longer had those assets? Then we would have to pay our the wazoo to start a life insurance policy.
A person might also consider an annuity. It would cover burial expenses and then leave something more for the children. My mother had a few of those (annuities) and when she died we were at a time in our lives that a little bit extra was nice to start a trust fund for our grand kid or pay off a house so we could retire and so on.
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Post by txdancermom on Dec 5, 2016 1:26:11 GMT
When you have responsibilities, ie family, especially children. any time you not being there and earning an income would be a hardship for your loved ones.
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Post by epeanymous on Dec 5, 2016 1:28:58 GMT
You definitely should when there are people (children, a spouse) who would be reliant on income that they will lose with your death, but I am guessing that for a lot of 22-year-olds, paying for the absolute basics like housing and food won't leave money left over for something that most 22-year-olds will (fortunately) not need immediately, like life insurance.
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moodyblue
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Jun 26, 2014 21:07:23 GMT
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Post by moodyblue on Dec 5, 2016 1:37:52 GMT
We don't have kids. Both of us had small policies as part of our benefits package at work, which I always figured would be enough to pay for burial costs. When we got married (in our 40's) and built a house we each got term life insurance policies, enough to pay off the house so that a surviving spouse wouldn't be faced with tough decisions to make quickly. Either one of us could have paid for taxes and insurance but to cover those AND the mortgage on one salary would have been more difficult. We converted a portion of each policy to whole life several years ago, so there will be some payout when we die, but the bulk is still term life and will end about the time the house is fully paid off.
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Post by lisae on Dec 5, 2016 2:30:49 GMT
If you have children, you should have insurance to provide for them. I'm not surprised that a 22 year old never thought about this or had the money for insurance. Most banks have a $1000 policy that comes with the account.
I had life insurance with my job but after I left, I did not take out a policy. I don't have children or anyone who depends on me financially.
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Post by Linda on Dec 5, 2016 2:45:25 GMT
what I think one ought to do and what I've actually done aren't always the same.
I agree with the others - life insurance should cover your final expenses if you doesn't have assets (savings) in place to do so. If you have people who rely on your income, then you need life insurance to 'replace' that income. If you're a SAHP, you need insurance to 'replace' some of the unpaid work you do (will your partner have to hire daycare/nanny, housekeeper etc...if you died?)
That said - when I was a young single mother...I didn't have life insurance, heck I didn't have health insurance or renters insurance either. I was lucky to pay the rent and have food on the table and the power kept on. Would life insurance have been beneficial in case I died? Of course it would have been but I was more concerned about housing/feeding/clothing my son in the here and now not in some hypothetical future without me.
As a SAHM (for 16 years now), DH has life insurance through his job and I also have a (smaller) amount through his job. Would we be better off with more? Yes, probably
Our goal is to reach a point where we can 'self-insure' - ie have enough savings to cover funeral expenses and still leave assets not debts to our children.
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johnnysmom
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Jun 25, 2014 21:16:33 GMT
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Post by johnnysmom on Dec 5, 2016 2:52:35 GMT
I think we both got it when we got full time jobs and we've gradually increased it. We have minimal policies on the kids just to cover funeral expenses. I was surprised to learn that someone I know in their mid-30s, married with young kids, doesn't have life insurance. They just got diagnosed with cancer. Hopefully the treatment works but I'm guessing they will be uninsurable afterwards
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Post by bc2ca on Dec 5, 2016 2:54:38 GMT
When you have responsibilities, ie family, especially children. any time you not being there and earning an income would be a hardship for your loved ones. In addition to insuring DH against the loss of his income, as a SAHM, I've been insured to cover the additional expenses of raising the kids if something happened to me.
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Post by annabella on Dec 5, 2016 3:29:17 GMT
He had two kids by age 22? He should have had a decent job to support them that comes with life insurance. She could cremate his body or donate it to science. You can have a funeral without a body in a casket. The funeral industry makes a killing and you don't have to fall into that.
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Post by scraphop on Dec 5, 2016 3:55:24 GMT
I got a $20k term policy when I was in my 20's and single. A friends brother died leaving his parents to pay for the funeral and some credit cards. I didn't want to put my parents in that spot if I had died young.
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Post by freecharlie on Dec 5, 2016 3:57:59 GMT
So at what point did you get life insurance or do you think someone should get it? When you have kids or a spouse that depends on you. It is always smart to have enough to cover funeral expenses at any age.
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theshyone
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Jun 26, 2014 12:50:12 GMT
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Post by theshyone on Dec 5, 2016 7:12:29 GMT
The minute you come off your parent policy you should have your own even if they cover the cost. You cannot ever afford not to have it for a variety of reasons.
1) something may happen where you can't get it. Ever. Then you are screwed.
2) I've seen far too many crowd sourced funerals because insurance didn't exist. It's an extra stress your loved ones don't need.
3) I've had friends die without insurance and leave their loved ones absolutely destitute.
4) the younger you are when you take out your policy, the cheaper it is.
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Post by gmcwife1 on Dec 5, 2016 7:43:53 GMT
You definitely should when there are people (children, a spouse) who would be reliant on income that they will lose with your death, but I am guessing that for a lot of 22-year-olds, paying for the absolute basics like housing and food won't leave money left over for something that most 22-year-olds will (fortunately) not need immediately, like life insurance. I agree, what you should do/have and what people do can be very different. Some people also aren't taught about finances as they grow up and end up either not realizing what they should be doing or don't understand how important some things are. I believe I got life insurance after I stopped working retail/food service. When I got my first office job.
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SweetieBsMom
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Post by SweetieBsMom on Dec 5, 2016 12:21:10 GMT
We got it when we got married. Increased it when we had DS.
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Post by mikklynn on Dec 5, 2016 13:44:19 GMT
He had two kids by age 22? He should have had a decent job to support them that comes with life insurance. She could cremate his body or donate it to science. You can have a funeral without a body in a casket. The funeral industry makes a killing and you don't have to fall into that. You are right. It does not have to cost thousands.
My dad's brother died penniless. He left instructions for my dad to handle his burial, but no funds. We did it for a few hundred dollars. The county paid for the cremation. We held a simple service at my church. My mom paid for a deli tray and buns. My sisters made bars. We served coffee and water with the meal at the church. The only other expense was the small amount to the minister and organist.
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Post by librarylady on Dec 5, 2016 14:00:31 GMT
I encourage everyone to get term insurance. It is much cheaper.
The insurance should replace what your dependents need should you die.
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Post by luvmygirls on Dec 5, 2016 15:16:52 GMT
We asked FIL to get a small life insurance policy only to cover his burial (about $10,000) because he has no money at all. He got mad and asked my DH if he was trying to make mo eye off his death. Can you believe that.
DH and I have policies on us and small policies on each of our kids. It's not about making money. It's about paying funeral expenses and taking care of your family when one parent does.
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