My husband and I were just looking at buying life insurance. *Are you looking for term life insurance or whole life insurance?

We compared rates at:
http://www.intelliquote.com

Then we filled out the initial application online for some of the cheaper companies. We were contacted almost immediately from them. They offered to set us up with an at home doctors visit the next day. So it doesn't take very long at all to get life insurance as long as you know what you want.

Transamerica (the company that was the cheapest for us) said that they could bill us before the doctors visit so that we'd be covered instantly. Then if all went well with the application and with the doctor, we'd continue to be covered.

*Term life is life insurance that usually goes for 10, 20 or 30 years. You pay the same amount every month regardless of what happens to your health. Once it runs out- assuming your health is still good- you can lock into a certain rate for another 10 or 20 years. In my opinion, the goal of life insurance is to cover you until you have enough savings to cover you and your family. By the time your ready to retire you should no longer need life insurance- but that's just an opinion.

Whole life insurance sounds pretty on paper, but it's kinda complicated. Whole life invests the money that you put towards your premiums- after the insurance company takes a cut. If you invest that money in stocks, and the stocks goes down, then the insurance company can demand a raise in premiums. The good news is, it's whole life- so it will be there even when your in your 90s. The bad news is that you'll be paying for it the whole time. It's basically like paying an insurance company to invest for you- and the premiums tend to be higher than term life insurance.

The younger you are when you apply the cheaper the insurance is. (That's probably a duh.)

If you are going with term life insurance there's a trick to figuring out how much you need. If you died, you'd want your family to keep living at the same standard (or higher) as you are right now. I would recommend getting enough insurance that 5% of it equals one year of income. I hope that makes sense. If you die your family would easily be able to invest it some where that gives them a 5% return on it. That way they can continue living the way they are now, without ever depreciating the initial amount invested.
Example: If you are currently making $40,000 a year you'd want to buy $800,000 worth of insurance. I hope that makes sense.

*Off topic- but you'll want to make sure you are completely honest in your application. If you lie about having asthma- for example- and then you die; the insurance company is going to do everything in it's power to find that lie and then use it to not shell out the insurance. So be honest even if it does mean paying a couple extra bucks a month.

Sorry this is long winded. Let me know if you have any questions.

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