Protecting Life with Life Insurance
Deciding how much life insurance to buy isn’t always an obvious decision, because there are many different considerations to keep in mind. You might think you should buy the most amount of insurance you can afford, but really you should buy the amount of insurance your beneficiaries need to keep things going after your death. This means that your age is a major factor, because the younger you are at the time of death, the more insurance you will probably want to buy for your family.
Planning for the Worst
It’s tough to think about life insurance when you’re young and healthy, but the hard fact of life is that something can happen to anyone at any time. If you are the parents of young children, you want your family’s income protected in the event of your death. If you have a lot of debt, you also need adequate insurance to pay off your debts so your family is not left with an unmanageable financial burden. In the case of senior citizens, often enough life insurance is purchased to cover burial expenses as a minimum and or enough to cover estate taxes. In addition, the life insurance can also pay off medical expenses that have been incurred.
Hoping for the Best
Some people are comfortable only purchasing the minimum amount of life insurance, while others like the peace of mind additional insurance coverage can provide. It’s very distressing when someone passes away, and there’s not enough life insurance to pay off the debts. In fact, some families are literally thrown into poverty when the primary income earner passes away without coverage, or becomes disabled.
Even though it can be a bit daunting to try and figure out how much life insurance is enough, it’s an important exercise. Usually people tell themselves to hope for the best, but in the case of life insurance, you want to think about the worse case scenario. If you passed away tomorrow, what would your beneficiary need to stay financially sound? The answer to that question is the first step towards deciding how much life insurance you need.
Shopping for Security
When you shop for life insurance, you’re actually shopping for financial security for your beneficiary. Of course, financial security can be defined in a number of ways. For some, having enough life insurance to pay all the debts is all they hope to accomplish. But for other people, they want to leave their families with true long-term financial security and not just enough money to pay off existing debts. That means you want to buy life insurance coverage that will pay off the debts and leave enough money that can be invested for ongoing income.
In the final analysis, you want to purchase as much life insurance that’s necessary to protect your family’s financial security at a price you can afford. Even if you can’t afford to buy as much insurance as you want, you should still buy some life insurance. That way you can at least make sure the cost of your medical and burial expenses does not add to your family’s debt.
There are tow basic kinds of life insurance policies you can purchase. They are called term and permanent (cash value) life insurance. The amount and kind of insurance you choose will impact the monthly premium rate. Your insurance agent can help you evaluate your insurance needs and then structure a policy that meets those needs.
Hodges & Company Insurance will shop the market to find you the best life insurance plan that meets your individual needs
Contact them today, 1.866.993.9710 or 713.993.9710.
