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We each have a term policy that ends right when our retirement benefits kick in.

ETA: both of our jobs offer 1X salary as a benefit. We didn't elect to pay for additional through the the job.

I am having issues getting life insurance (I had a brain tumor a few years ago), so its definitely something you want to jump on ASAP! My husband is our primary earner and has term life insurance until he is 55 and he took out a very large policy - something to pay off our mortgage, pay for our kid's college funds, and allow me to live comfortably for several years when he turned 30 and its not very expensive. He figured that put him on the clock to adequately save for retirement over 25 years, and if he lives/works longer than that, gravy.

He coupled it with long term disability insurance that is roughly 60% of his current monthly income, although the insurance company has offered more money for a slightly higher premium each year, but since he's an attorney and professor, he would have to have something totally catastrophic (like complete paralysis or blindness) for him to be unable to work. DH figures with things like SSDI, it will be enough for us to live on. If its a chronic terminal illness, he figures the long-term disability and life insurance will dovetail into each other pretty well. The disability insurance kicks in 6 months after his disability begins, so we will eventually have a 6-9 month emergency fund once our student loans are paid off (we're doing the Dave Ramsey snowball).

Each of our jobs offers 2.5x salary. We also have a mix of term and whole life. Most of it is term, but we have some whole life as a low risk (but also low return) investment.

We have term that covers most of mortgage and some extra coverage from work.

my husband has term; I'll get it too after we have children. I wouldn't get whole.

We both have term for the cost of 10 years of our salary. I also have a supplemental policy through worm that is 1 or 2 years of salary, I think, at no cost. In retrospect, though, we should have also considered our student loans and mortgage costs. However, we have large families that would hopefully be supportive if things got financilly difficult.

We got the policies early before kids, to lock in lower rates and before any "bad" diagnoses.

@Mrs. Lion: most life insurance policies you buy through work include a waiver of premium benefit. Basically it means that if you are disabled you are able to waive premiums until age 60 or so, which means even if you left your job due to a disability you would still be covered.

@Mrs. Lion: I don't think most people realize it's there, but it should be on any benefit summary or certificate you have. Your hr may not even realize it's there either, but it's likely included. One of the few perks of working for an insurance company is knowing random details like this!

We both have 30 year term. Mine is about equivalent to our mortgage and my husbands is twice that (he's a much higher earner than I am). Term life insurance is extremely affordable, even at a high face value, if you buy it when you're young and healthy.

@Miss Ariel: ah gotcha, thanks!

We have a bunch of life insurance, ha!

DH has a term policy at work worth 1x his annual salary
He has a small term policy he opened when he was younger (100k)
He has another large term policy on himself (250k)
I have a large term policy on myself (250k)
I have another large term policy paid for by my aunt, as a gift to me and to her son-in-law who sells insurance (250k)
She also opened a small term policy in my LOs name (50k)

We follow the recommendation to have at least 10x our annual income in term insurance. We most likely will never have a whole life policy. They are not good products.

If you don't have term life insurance in place, get it right away! It is cheap, and you don't want something to come up medically that disqualifies you in the future. Having term life insurance in place means your family is taken care of should something happen to you. Everyone needs it regardless of whether or not you work. If you stay home, your spouse will have to hire childcare if you pass, and that insurance money will help pay for it.

@DillonLion: Curious as to why you don't think whole life products are bad?

@DillonLion: Sorry...I reworded the end of my sentence and forgot to edit the beginning!

Is there a reason you don't like whole life policies? My schooling essentially tells me that the term life policies are where money is essentially being thrown away.

@2PeasinaPod: I'm probably not going to be able to explain it as eloquently as others, but I'll give my best try. The returns on the investment portion are much poorer than if you went into the market yourself. The policies are more expensive than term. There are so many more examples, but I don't think I'll be able to describe them correctly. There are endless articles online about their bad features.

I'm of the opinion that life insurance is only meant to exist during a time when you aren't self insured. My goal is to save and invest enough myself that whenever my term insurance policies expire, I don't need them anyway. Obviously, shit happens, but it is one of the big reasons we are so passionate about saving and investing above most other ways to spend money.

YMMV, but that's where I come from in this conversation. I hope that somewhat clarifies my position!

@DillonLion: It does! And I guess I disagree with a lot of those articles that try to say how bad whole life is for you. Term life, while cheap is dishing money into a policy that has no value after the term is up. It's why we have a mix of both. I would like the money I put into my whole life policy to go to someone after my passing. Even if that means I'm 90 and it goes to my children and grandchildren. And while most articles argue that growth takes 40+ years to realize, it's why I have the policy...it's there in case it's needed, but will have the realized growth once I've had it for 40 years.

When our family members have passed, there are usually a good amount of medical bills that pile up. And once a term policy expires, converting that to whole life is far more expensive when you're older with health issues than when you're 30/35 and healthy. Having that whole life policy ensures that any outstanding medical bills are paid for, and there's something to leave my kids once I've passed.

I know you didn't ask my position on whole life, but wanted to make some points in case anyone was thinking about whole life. It's all about what's best for you at that time in your life and what you're able to afford.

@2PeasinaPod: I guess I view it the same way as say...health insurance or car insurance. You don't expect to have a stack of cash after paying for those policies, right?

I agree that I'm taking a huge gamble in the fact that I may or may not have money leftover at the end of my life, but hopefully continuing with good financial habits and saving and investing like crazy mean that I'll be able to pay any outstanding expenses and still lave something for my kids. But who knows what could happen? Having a chunk of life insurance no matter what would be great, as long as the premiums get paid and the policy doesn't lapse! I guess there's risks either way (either not having enough saved, or having the policy go away unexpectedly)

@DillonLion: & @Truth Bombs: Fair enough, and isn't that the truth on car/health insurance.

I think making sure you're diversified in the investments you make whether it be life insurance or stock/bond, retirement accounts is key. We're not super wealthy by any means, but this helps to give me peace of mind that my kids' inheritance won't be diminished because of outstanding medical bills.

DH is seeing this right now with his uncle. He left him a very sweet classic car that will likely need to be sold off to pay for his outstanding medical bills from when he passed. I'm sure that's not what his uncle intended, but such is life!

We have a bunch of life insurance:

I have a very large term life policy and that's it for me. We took it out when I was 25, so it's super cheap.

DH has 3x his salary on a work policy. He also has 2 whole life 15-pay policies, with a guaranteed option to take out another one every 5 years until he is 40. They were set up after a health scare in case there was some reason he wouldn't be insurable later. He also has a very large term policy like me.

Our plan is when his first 15-pay policy is paid off in about 2 years, I'll take one out for myself. That way we both have whole life insurance completely paid for when we are older. We live far away from family, so we wanted to make sure the other one was completely taken care of without the other's salary for a good number of years.

ETA: We liked the idea of paying for a whole life policy for each of us that was fully funded after 15 years. My grandparents struggled to maintain life insurance for burials, and it was hard on my parents. We didn't want that to happen to our kids. My mom has 15 pay policy that she completed a number of years back, and it gives me a lot of peace of mind. The goal was to have the 15 pay policies taken out when we were younger and, therefore, cheaper. They should all be fully funded when our term life expires around age 50.