Do any of you buy stocks/mutual funds?

[TheWife]

Originally Posted by Kristie

just don't let them sell you whole life insurance! term is always best

That's not true for everyone, it may be best for you but there are several things to think about with term life insurance. If you are 23 and go in for a 30 year term, it will expire at 53, and you may be uninsurable by then and unable to get a new policy (say you have cancer or other serious health problems), or the premium at that age will sky rocket and the amount more you'll be paying then, would have been worth the additional cost of whole in the beginning, plus you would have had cash value. A term is sufficient as long as you plan well enough that you have enough savings and assests for your family to live off of, w/o insurance, at the end of the term. So if the same guy, by age 53, had enough in assets that his family did not need/want life insurance and could pay for his funeral and living expenses for the rest of THEIR lives w/o insurance, then by all means....but I'd say 90% of the population doesn't make that happen.

[Kristie]

that's also why you want to check and update your term life insurance every year to five years.. the prices may be similar or a smidge higher but you also add 5 years to the policy.. plus, you could always up your policy to a better rated insurance. at least with term life insurance (i'm not sure about whole life), the rates stay the same for a long length of time and your not socking money away into something that really doesn't grow all that much. your better off socking that money into a mutual fund or retirement account.

my dad had whole life ins. with his church insurance and after 25 something years of adding into it, when he cashed it, he'd only accumulated $8K..that's nothing when it comes to "saving".

[TheWife]

Adding to the policy every 5 years usually requires a new health analysis and may end up hurting your premiums if you have new problems. It's really complicated and a lot of math to figure it, but I've done it enough times for enough people that it's come out worth it to have a whole policy for many of them. Keep in mind they aren't JUST getting a crappy paying investment, they will still leave their family with the lump sum of insurance if they do die, so they are still having to pay the insurance premium portion of it, so it's not the same as investing $100 a month into stocks, because if you die, that $100 a month in stocks isn't going to pay your family $500K. Anyway, it gets complicated and for many people term does work and for many whole works, I just didn't want to leave any and all readers w/ the impression that whole is a no-no, because it really depends on the situation.

[Kristie]

gotcha!