I know life insurance isn’t on many people minds when dealing with debt and trying to start investing, but it’s an important part of your finances. If you’re single and have no dependents, life insurance may not be something that you need. In general, you should consider getting life insurance if you have someone depending on your income, like a spouse or your child(ren).

Factors in Life Insurance

Insurance companies weigh several factors for your life insurance premiums. Some factors you have complete control over, such as occupation and lifestyle, while others are outside your control. They include:

• Age
• Gender (women tend to live longer and that’s factored in)
• Personal and Family Health History
• Occupation
• Smoker/Non-Smoker
• Occupation (some are more hazardous than others)
• Insurance Coverage and Add-ons

As you can see, purchasing life insurance in your 20s can help you get some of the lowest rates. Depending on your health and lifestyle, you can also qualify for even lower premiums. To confirm you’re in good health, many insurance companies will have a relatively easy medical exam done either at your home or work to get some blood and urine samples.

We had both of ours done at our home after work. It was quick and easy and the nurse was completely professional and friendly. It took an hour for both of and that was due to some small talk.

Deciding on How Much Life Insurance You Need

I’m a fan of MSN’s Life Insurance Needs Estimator to get an amount that would fit for our circumstances. We discussed the results and decided that we wanted to get enough insurance to pay off the townhouse in case one of us dies. We figured having no mortgage and a bit of cash would give the surviving spouse some peace of mind.

How much do YOU need for life insurance? Some experts say you should have 8-10x your annual income. Other say enough to pay off all of your debts and enough to expenses for some years. If you have children, it’ll probably be smarter to get more insurance coverage than if you were married with no kids. If you’re planning on having kids, consider factoring that into your coverage amount.

Life Insurance Companies to Check Out

If you’re looking to shop around for the best deal on your life insurance policy, here are some of the popular companies to check out.

• Liberty Mutual
• AllState
• State Farm
• New York Life Insurance
• Colonial Penn
• Met Life

While this is not all of the life insurance companies available to compare, these companies have a reputation of offering competitive rates if you ask around. You might also consider Clarifinancial, which can reduce the amount of phone calls and time spent filling out your information.

What We Got for Our Life Insurance Policies

I have a 30 year $150,000 term life policy from our insurance agent. I qualified for the elite preferred program and I feel comfortable with what I got. My husband has a 20 year term plan for the same amount. While he blood work and urine test came out great, he’s blood pressure readings were a bit off and he was put in the regular category. He has to go to the doctor and get another test done to get a better rate.

We got a small discount on our life insurance premiums by making semi-annual payments instead of monthly payments.If you’re looking for more tips on saving on your life insurance premiums, check out an earlier post I wrote.

Your Advice on Buying Life Insurance

I’d love to hear your tips on getting the best deal on life insurance. If you have life insurance, how much coverage do you have? Do you think that’s enough? How did you determine the amount? What company gave you the best deal?

Shop around to find a good deal on renters insurance.

How Much Renters Insurance Do You Need?

You want enough to cover your needs, but you don’t want to pay too much either. Start off by doing an inventory of what you have and deciding a ballpark figure of how much it would take to recoup what you could lose if there was a fire. According to MSN Money, expect to pay $150-300/year for coverage of around $30,000.

You may also keep in mind that you have to get separate riders for earthquakes and floods if you live in high risk areas for those. Double check with the agent that you’re getting replacement value with the policy and not actual cash value. Replacement value will cover the price it takes now to replace an item, not the depreciated value of the item.

Companies to Shop Around and Compare

It really does pay to shop around for insurance. I managed to save half of my old car insurance premiums by calling different companies and comparing rates.

Discounts You May Get

In addition to finding good prices on premiums, you should work on getting as many discounts as you can qualify for. Some things that may lower your premiums include:

• Security/Alarm system
• Smoke Detector
• Sprinkler System
• Non-smokers
• Credit score

Your Take

What tips do you have on finding affordable renters insurance?

Photo Credit: striatic

Coffee insurance - something my husband might look into.

If you have dependents that need financial support if you pass away, then you should get life insurance. Even if you are a stay at home parent, you should consider purchasing life insurance. Life insurance should not be considered an investment.

How much life insurance coverage should you get?

This will vary person to person. I  used MSN’s Life Insurance Needs Estimator to get an amount that would fit for our circumstances. I entered some data and was given the ballpark figure of $100,000. Please use MSN’s helpful tool to get a ballpark figure for yourself.

Some questions you should ask yourself:

• How many years before you retire?
• Are you financially responsible for anyone other than yourself?
• In the event of your death, how much annual income would your spouse or partner be able to provide to compensate for the loss of yours?
• What is the approximate balance owed on your mortgage?

Deciding on Which Type of Life Insurance

What’s the difference between term and whole life insurance? Term life insurance is  insurance that pays the face value of the policy to the beneficiary when the insured dies. Term insurance can be for a set amount of years (typically up to 30 years).

Whole life insurance, on the other hand, involves investments that can increase in cash value. Some people, including a boss if mine, have mentioned borrowing against their whole life insurance policy. When you die, your family also receives the face value of the policy, not the money earned.

While term life insurance can be a smart choice if you choose to invest the savings, a reader made the following observation:

In all my years selling life insurance, I have not seen one person who purchased term with the idea of banking the difference between term and whole life continue their savings program longer than a year.

It’s a great idea, in theory, but you’re bucking up against human nature to spend money if it’s available. I do know many people who, in this recent financial debacle, find comfort in the fact that their whole life policies were unaffected and remain the best “investment” they have today.

I think the reader has a point, but there is a solution to that. Automate the money saved into your investments.

Your Thoughts

If you have life insurance, how much coverage do you have? How did you determine the amount?

Photo Credit: quinn.anya

Last night we canceled our car insurance with Progressive and went with Ameriprise through our Costco membership. Progressive was $118/month. It jumped about $20 this last term.

We called to see if we could do something to lower our auto insurance premiums, like adding rental insurance with them or increase our deductibles. They said it was the lowest they would go.

I shopped around for car insurance rates and Amerprise offered a little bit more for insurance coverage for $58/month.

We price different companies’ policies when our car insurance renewals come around. Last time, I didn’t have a Costco membership and I didn’t ask around at some smaller insurance companies to look at.

How to Shop For Affordable Car Insurance

1. Have a copy of your current insurance policy. You want to know what exact coverage you have and how much you’re paying for it. This will important later.

2. Shop around online to see what’s a ballpark figure for your insurance. As I’m comparing with other companies, I use my current policy to enter in what coverage I’m looking for. Some websites to check out: NetQuote, Geico , Esurance, or Progressive.

3. Check out your AAA, Costco, or other membership club’s connection. We found our current car insurance policy by checking out Costco’s benefits. We requested a quote and found a great deal.

4. Examine your top choices’ complaints at your state’s insurance department. It’s important to check the company out for their customer service. It does you no good if they don’t cover you well or offer bad service.

5. Call the insurance companies and review exact policy coverage. Have your current policy out and compare line by line the coverage amounts.

How to Save Money on Car Insurance

It doesn’t hurt to ask to see if you can get a discount on your car insurance premiums. You want to

• Maintain a good driving record. It’s obvious, but helps. Our last six month’s premiums went down because an old accident went off the record after 3 years.
• Develop and keep a good credit history. Another reason why being smart with your bills helps out.
• If you’re a college student, see if your grades qualify you for a discount. It’s usually a GPA of 3.0 and higher. Check your company to what their discount is for good students.
• Increase your deductible. Only do this if your emergency fund is in place. Don’t get a $1000 policy if you only have $500 in your emergency fund.
• Pay in one or two installments. Insurance companies tend to give a discount if you pay your premiums up front.
• If your commute has shorten a bit, let them know. It can lower your expense. Even if they don’t drop it as low as you want, you save on gas money.
• See if you can add home insurance with the company. Some companies, like Nationwide, have a discount for using them for both policies.

Your Take

What tips do you have on finding affordable auto insurance? Please let me know how you save on car insurance by leaving a comment. We can share our tips together.

Photo Credit: Team Dalog

What is Term Life Insurance and Whole Life Insurance?

You’ve been working full time for a few years now and you keep saying to yourself that you need to get some life insurance to cover your family. You’ve just been so busy you haven’t had time to get a policy. You may have heard about term life insurance and whole life insurance and don’t know the difference.

Term life insurance is basically insurance that pays the face value of the policy to the beneficiary when the insured dies. Term insurance can be for a set amount of years (up to 30). When you die your family receives the face value of the policy.

Whole life insurance involves investments that can increase in cash value. Some people borrow against their whole life insurance policy. When you die, your family also receives the face value of the policy, not the money earned. Term life insurance premiums are typically much lower than whole life premiums.

Some Information to Consider on for Coverage Amount

How much coverage should you get?  I personally used MSN’s Life Insurance Needs Estimator. I entered some data and was given the ballpark figure of $100,000. Some questions you should ask yourself:

• How many years before you retire?
• Are you financially responsible for anyone other than yourself?
• In the event of your death, how much annual income would your spouse or partner be able to provide to compensate for the loss of yours?
• What is the approximate balance owed on your mortgage?

Use MSN’s tool to get a ballpark figure for yourself.

How would this breakdown with term and whole life insurance premiums?

Term life insurance for me would be $9-12/month while whole life is around $30-40/month.  If I got term life insurance what could I do with the difference saved? Many suggest investing the money and build your own assets.

Tips When You’re Looking into Life Insurance

MSN offers some tips for those looking to get insured:

• Look at your budget before committing to a premium.
• Don’t let a policy lapse if you plan to buy another one at some point.
• If you are single and simply don’t want your relatives burdened with the cost of a funeral, consider contributing to a Totten trust savings account.
• Clean up credit issues before applying for insurance, because most companies base rates partly on credit history.
• Watch for hidden fees, including those for paying premiums by direct withdrawal from your checking account.

As with everything financial, you should check the company you’ll be insuring with to make sure your money is safe.

How many of you have life insurance? What kind do you have and why?

Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks