When You Need to Get Life Insurance

Insurance is one of those products that you never really quite know when the right time to buy it. The reason is that it protects against the unexpected, and since you can’t plan the unexpected, it can be hard to know when to plan for life insurance. But here are some tips on when you should consider getting life insurance.

Big Life Events

Big life events are always times to re-evaluate your personal finance life. Big life events include getting married, having a baby, or getting divorced. All of these events have big financial implications, and that includes life insurance. The big reason you need to consider getting insurance is because now you have a family to take care of – your wife or your new child. As
such, should anything happen to you, you want to make sure that they will be taken care of. This is where insurance can play an important role.

If you have a family, and you are suddenly gone, you want to make sure that they will have enough money to be able to go on without you. This is especially important if you are the only working spouse, but it can also be important regardless. You want to be able to allow your family time to grieve, and you also want to make sure that your family can still reach their long
term goals even without you. This is where having a life insurance policy that provides a benefit large enough to cover these expenses can be useful.

Anytime Someone Depends on You

Another time to consider life insurance is anytime someone else depends on you – even if it is not a spouse. For example, if you are going to be taking out private student loans to go to graduate school, your parents will most likely have to cosign. If you die before the loans are paid off, your parents will be on the hook for the loan. As such, it could make sense to get life
insurance with your parents the beneficiary so that they won’t be burdened by the debt if you die.

Personally, I’m not quite ready to pay for life insurance for my new wife, but most of that is because I don’t think my untimely death would be such a huge financial burden. It’s not like we have so many financial obligations that she wouldn’t be able to meet them without me. Use the calculator below to determine how much you need.