6 Things:

1. The amount of insurance coverage you want ($1Mil in coverage will cost more than $100k)
2. How long you want it to last. (A permanent policy that never expires will cost more than one that covers you for 20 years)
3. Your age. (Someone at 40 will pay less than someone at 50 but more than someone at 30)
4. Your biological sex. (Women are cheaper. All. The. Time.)
5. Your health. (Healthy people cost less to insure than people with medical issues)
6. Your lifestyle. (Smoking, speeding tickets, felonies - all increase price)

Most people have some life insurance from work. But there are usually two important things to know about that policy:

1. It's not enough coverage.
2. It isn't owned by you.

Check out the box "How Much is Enough" for info on the first issue.

On the second issue - because YOUR WORK owns the policy, you're only covered while you work there. The minute you no longer work there - you no longer have life insurance.

Real Life Scenario: Guy gets diagnosed with cancer and has to quit his job to literally fight for his life. He loses the fight. He also had lost his life insurance.

Real Life Scenario 2: At 45 guy leaves his job to start his own business, he now needs life insurance and it's simply MUCH MORE expensive at 45 than it is at 30.

This is simple to answer with another question:

How many years do you want your family to continue their current lifestyle before they have to consider what's next?

Let's say you make $75k/year, you provide the health benefits (which would have to be purchased if you died). You also fix some stuff around the house and maintain the lawn and cars (which would have to get hired out if you're not around.)

So, we'll say your total financial contribution to the family is about $90k/year.

A $450k life insurance policy would cover your family for 5 years. A $900k policy would cover them for 10 years.

A TERM LIFE policy is designed to cover you for a period of time - usually 20 to 30 years.

The idea is to protect your family during the years of prime earning and huge liabilities: You have young kids that are dependent, a mortgage, years of future income...

By the end of a 20 or 30 year policy - the house is paid off, the kids are grown and independent, and your obligations are much much less.

In most cases - people DO outlive their term policies and are left with nothing to show for it.

The tradeoff was that the policy was cheap during the period of coverage.

There are two alternatives that both cost more:

1. You buy a TERM POLICY with RETURN OF PREMIUM (ROP): this gives you back 75-100% of all the money you paid in over the course of those years.
2. You opt for a PERMANENT POLICY (Whole Life or IUL) as these last forever.

Dave Ramsey is NOT a fan of whole life because it tries to kill two birds with one stone:

1. Life Insurance
2. Investment

And it doesn't do either as well as doing them separately:

You can get MORE life insurance coverage for less money with TERM and you can get a higher rate of interest in most other even very conservative investments.

Dave Ramsey will tell you to price out Whole Life and then buy Term Life much cheaper and invest the difference in even an Index Fund.

There are situations, however, where Whole Life genuinely makes sense:

1. You're simply not disciplined enough to actually invest the difference. I've talked to lots of people in their 60s who were hoping to have been in a different financial position than they are now in - and getting coverage at 60 is a lot harder than it is at 40.

2. You have financial obligations that will outlive you. The idea that TERM LIFE covers you while the kids are dependent and then expires when they're moved out and independent is great - but what if it doesn't work that smoothly? What if you have a special needs child that will need care after you're gone even if you live to a ripe old age? What if you've been entrusted with the care of a grand child?

Bottom Line: If you have a solid retirement plan and healthy kids - you probably don't need whole life coverage.

The biggest factors are:

• Age: The younger you are, the less likely you are to die and the cheaper coverage is.
• Sex: Guys are more expensive. Every. Single. Time.
• Amount of Coverage: How big the payout is has a lot to do with how much you pay.
• How long you're covered: The longer you're covered the more likely it is that they'll have to pay out and obviously the more expensive it is.
• Tobacco Use: If you smoke, you pay more! Even quitting for a year can drastically lower your price. Some companies don't worry as much about chewing tobacco than smoking.

Besides those very basic things, there are other considerations:

• Your personal health: The healthier you are, the cheaper it is.
• Your family health history: If you've had parents or siblings with major health issues, that could ding you.
• Your Life Choices: Yes, felonies, DUIs, Drug/Alcohol abuse, even speeding tickets can affect your eligibility and price.

Then, simply get a FREE QUOTE!

In MOST CASES, it makes sense to keep the policy you have and simply add an additional one.

You can have more than one active policy at a time - even with different insurance companies.

Agents can be pushy - that's gross!

But life insurance is such a personalized thing, it's impossible to blindly quote online.

When you see quotes online - they're often assuming you're perfectly healthy and they keep the quote low by keeping the years of coverage low.

Here's an example I literally saw the other day on Instagram:

Get $500k Term Life Insurance for as low as $17/mo!

And then you read the fine print to learn that example is a 25 year old female who's perfectly healthy, has never smoked, and is quoted for a 10 year term.

What are the chances that 25 year old woman is going to die in the next 10 years? Of course it's cheap - it's also not realistic that even THAT particular woman is looking for that particular policy.

Request a quote - if you want to just text back and forth, we can do that!

Nope.

It's a lump sum in most cases, AND it's TAX FREE in most cases!