Top 3 Reasons That I Love Term Life Insurance and You Should Too

I Love Term Life Insurance and You Should Too

Why I love term life insuranceI am a huge fan of term life insurance, and I do not favor whole life insurance or cash value life insurance. For most people, term life insurance is the best option. Very few consumers need permanent life insurance.

There are many benefits to term life insurance that make it a great insurance product for people who are looking to protect their income and continue to provide for their families and loved ones in the event of their untimely death.

Why You Should Love Term Life Insurance

Term Life Insurance Is Cheap

The best benefit of term life insurance is its price. Term life insurance is incredibly cheap when compared to whole life or cash value life insurance products. Whole life insurance is an insurance policy that remains in place for the beneficiary’s entire life as long as they continue to make premium payments.

Cash value insurance policies are very expensive because they have a cash account component that is an investment and grows in value over the life of the insurance policy. Term life insurance is a pure policy with no cash value, and that is why it is significantly cheaper than the whole life version.

To give you an example, you can expect to purchase a $100,000 whole life insurance policy for approximately $100 per month. A $500,000 term life insurance policy will cost you about $70 or less per month. You can purchase a significantly larger amount of insurance protection for even smaller premium payments than a cash value policy.

Check out Haven Life for a quick term life insurance quote and policy comparisons if you’re in the initial research phase. It literally only took a few seconds to get a quote for my wife online. Haven Life also offers a 100% online process for buying life insurance. You apply online and can find out immediately if Haven Life approves you for life insurance coverage.

If approved, coverage starts right away. With most traditional insurers, it takes several weeks to find out if you’re approved for coverage. There’s no waiting with Haven Life. Most qualified, healthy applicants don’t have to take a medical exam.

Haven Life is backed by backed and owned by MassMutual and is now available in all 50 states. So, you know that you are dealing with a reputable life insurer with a long history of financial security and strength. 

Term Life Insurance Covers What I Need

Term life insurance is simple to understand. There so many different types of cash value insurance policies. Whole life is actually a type of cash value insurance policy. The insurance industry also offers other options such as variable life, universal life, and many others.

If you are willing to pay an additional fee on the premiums, you can really have many different types of whole life insurance policies with tons of different options that are available. But, with every different option you chose, your premiums will increase. There is a price to pay for creative insurance options.

You Should Invest Your Money Yourself

Insurance is not an investment. It is not an investment vehicle. It should not be used to earn money. One of the most popular arguments against whole life insurance and in favor of term life insurance is that you can invest the difference yourself and earn a higher rate of return.

For many cash value life insurance policies, the cash that you earn inside the policy’s investment options is a very low rate of return and barely keeps up with inflation. If the difference between a cash value policy and term life insurance policy is $50 per month or $600 per year, you could have a nest egg of over $74,000 which would be far greater than the cash value you would have built up over thirty years with a whole life or cash value insurance policy.

Term life insurance has a lot of benefits in its favor over whole life or cash value life insurance. Term life insurance is incredibly cheap when compared to its whole life insurance brethren. Not only can you save an incredible sum of money with term life insurance, but now you also are able to select the investment for the difference instead of the insurance company. Term life insurance is an incredibly simple type of policy that provides you and your family with a vast amount of protection.

Difference Between Whole Life And Term Life Insurance

Whole life is more of an investment for many people who buy those types of policies. Whole life insurance builds cash value while you’re paying those premiums. Eventually, after years of premium payments, you build up a cash value in the policy that often gives you many options.

The cash value becomes an asset itself. It can grow, increase in value, and even pay dividends in some cases depending on the type of policy you purchase. Many whole life insurance policies let you borrow against the cash value you’ve built up, cash out completely, or even build up enough cash value where it can make your premium payments for you.

And your would-be broker will mention all of these fine features when he tries to convince you to buy a policy. It’s not just insurance. It’s an investment.

What Is Term Life Insurance?

This accrual of cash value is the primary reason that whole life insurance policies are more expensive than term life insurance policies, which do not build any cash value. Term life insurance only covers you for the length of the term you’ve bought the policy — and for as long as you make the payments.

When the term is over (or you stop paying), you have nothing to show for it. Unless you die and your heirs collect the policy, it simply expires, and you would have to purchase new coverage if you want it.

So, if whole life insurance has inherent value and is more an investment than an insurance plan, why don’t more people buy it? Probably because life insurance is often a poor investment. While it produces a low but steady annual return, other types of long-term investments often outmatch the gains you can earn from it.

Whole life and term life insurance are two very distinct and different types of insurance and financial products. It’s important to understand the difference between whole life and term life. There are many differences and costs that you need to understand.

I am a huge fan of term life insurance, and I do not favor whole life insurance or cash value life insurance. For most people, term life insurance is the best option. Very few consumers need permanent life insurance.

There are many benefits to term life insurance that make it a great insurance product for people who are looking to protect their income and continue to provide for their families and loved ones in the event of their untimely death.

Why I love term life insurance

11 thoughts on “Top 3 Reasons That I Love Term Life Insurance and You Should Too”

  1. Whole life is riskier too. I’ve seen my families income fluctuate and there are times I wouldn’t have been able to afford the higher premiums. I know there are usually provisions in whole life that make it flexible. Still, it would be a much larger drain on resources when term life is so cheap.

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  2. “One of the most popular arguments against whole life insurance and in favor of term life insurance is that you can invest the difference yourself and earn a higher rate of return.”

    I’m not entirely certain about this. My roommate sells insurance and tried to get my wife and I to buy a whole-life insurance policy (we didn’t in large part because our income was subsequently cut). IIRC, it offered a 3 or 4% guaranteed return. That’s as good as any savings account I’ve ever seen, and a lot better then what’s available right now.

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    • There is one issue with your hypothesis though Edward. A savings account is not an investment. If you actually, truly invest with stocks, bonds, or mutual funds the different in savings between whole life and term life insurance, then you would earn quite about more over the long-term than 3% to 4%.

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      • Stocks were an issue that I had intended to address this morning, but I ran out of time before I had to leave for work.

        There is a question of risk tolerance. I have a very low risk tolerance. I have a small IRA entirely funded with mutual funds and primarily in income generating funds. Not going to get my the highest return, but probably the highest return that my risk tolerance will allow.

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  3. Personally, I prefer term. You have to know that for an insurance company to make money and profit, the investments will make more than they pay out. I prefer to cut out the middleman.

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    • That’s a great point! I never quite looked at it like that with the insurance company being the middleman in the investing equation.

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  4. Both term and whole life have its pros and cons. I like term because it is cheap and I like Whole because of investment aspect. That’s why I ended up adding both term and whole to my life insurance portfolio. You should not ignore whole life just because it is more expensive. It’s expensive for a reason and if you examine closely, it could be worth your money. I just don’t like that fact that I feel like I am throwing away money with term life because I’m not planning to die within 20 years.

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  5. If you have the dough it boils down to math. Can you make more by investing the whole life premium you save than you would in (whole life ineterest + term life premium). Yes: then term life is better. No: then whole life is better.

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  6. Hey Hank – thanks for the #wholeliferebellion shoutout and sharing term insurance love. Buy term and invest the rest truly is better for most people and we are excited to launch this initiative – hopefully shedding light on some of the issues that crop up with whole life insurance. We built a great term vs. whole life insurance calculator if you want to crunch the numbers. Check it out: http://www.insuranceblogbychris.com/term-vs-whole-life-insurance-comparison-calculator/

    Reply
    • Thanks for having me, Chris. I appreciate you including me and letting me talk about this great subject that everyone needs to be aware of.

      Reply

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