A friend of mine recently complained about an old college roommate who was trying to pressure him to buy whole life insurance. He was having trouble figuring out how to tell him no, because they’d been so close back then.
This is an all-too-common occurrence for young professionals in their late 20s and 30s. This is the time when friends and family are test-driving new professions — like sales gigs, for example.
Many insurance brokers push whole-life policies because they provide them with the juiciest of commissions.
Several governmental surveys suggest that the average American will change jobs more than 11 times in his life. For many of us, it’s only a matter of time before we take a sales job that pays on commission.
Why They Peer Pressure You to Buy Whole Life Insurance?
For many people starting off in the financial services industry, the mantra is “you eat what you kill.” They have to sell their product, insurance policies, investments, brokerage services, etc., because the lion’s share of their paycheck comes from commissions on the sales they bring in.
But when people take that first sales job, they’re not likely to have a big, established client base to sell to. So they turn to the contacts they do have — friends, family, and coworkers — whom they bombard with pitches to buy products that might not always be the best fit for them.
Why Whole Life Insurance Gets a Bad Rap
Most Americans are just fine with a term life insurance policy — a relatively low-cost safety net to protect the people who depend on your income and other contributions should you die prematurely.
How much you need depends on the expenses you expect it to cover — if you’re responsible for mortgage payments, or expect your income to fund your children’s college tuition, you’ll need more. But when those needs are in the past, you often don’t need much life insurance.
A whole life policy is with you for your entire life as long as you make the insurance premiums. But what do you need that money for if your kids are grown and your mortgage is paid?
A 20- or 30-year term life insurance may be a better option for many families. And it’s a whole lot cheaper. A $100,000 whole life policy for a healthy 20- or 30-something may cost about $150 per month. But the same person can often get a 30-year term life insurance policy that pays out $500,000 upon death for as little as $20 a month.
Is life insurance an asset? Do you consider your 
