Life insurance, not through work.

[Anonymous]

I've been ignoring this since I'm not currently married and don't have children, but I'm 28 so I figure it may be better/cheaper to do while younger. I did recently buy my first house.

I work as an independent contractor- so no benefits through work.

How did you choose your policy/company?

Any helpful tips/things to avoid?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I went through Geico, and they bid it out. Worked for me.

[Anonymous]

Unless you want to help your parents with their retirement or provide support for a sibling who is expected to have limited earning potential, and assuming you have enough savings to pay for a funeral if something happened to you, you don't need life insurance until you have dependents. True, it will be cheaper now, but your needs and income are possibly so different now from what they will be when the kids come along that you may not be in a position now get what will make sense later.

Consider putting the money you would allocate to life insurance into buying yourself good disability insurance instead--definitely long term, and perhaps short term as well. Public benefits only pay a fraction of your income prior to the disability, and for most people, it would be hard to live on that. Private disability insurance may actually improve YOUR quality of life should you become unable to work for any reason.

If you do opt for life insurance now, be sure to get a level premium term policy with at least a thirty year term. Avoid whole life policies; they cost too much relative to what they pay on death.

[Anonymous]

agree, go for STD and LTD now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been ignoring this since I'm not currently married and don't have children, but I'm 28 so I figure it may be better/cheaper to do while younger. I did recently buy my first house.

I work as an independent contractor- so no benefits through work.

How did you choose your policy/company?

Any helpful tips/things to avoid?

Thanks!

As an independent contractor, presumably you belong to some professional associations? Look for life insurance through that. Also, presumably you have AAA automobile coverage? You can get it through them too.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the thoughts- will re-focus my efforts into finding good disability insurance instead!