I would do it, because your kids are so young. I'd do a term life through the last year that you anticipate they would be in college (i.e. maybe that's a 20 year term for you). I'd do enough to cover the mortgage + any other outstanding debt you have (college loans, if you typically have a car loan) + your expectation for what you'd have saved for college had you lived (i.e. if you know you're saving $6,000 a year for college for each child, assume $12K * 16 years).

I'm a worried. I can't stand the idea that of all the problems that my family might face if I died that money or debt would be one of them. I feel if the debt is taken care of, then I know my spouse would have enough money to cover all basic needs (health care insurance being the biggest one I worry about). And if I'm not there to save the money for their college funds, at least they'd get something towards that.

I would agree that it's very unlikely your health insurance rates will drop. They rise as you age. I believe in the case of cancer, you have to be in remissions 7 years to see a drop in rates. Chronic conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes, you will never see a drop in rates.

Get the insurance you need now. Your costs will only go up. When DW was pregnant with DD, I priced a 20 year level term...but I was a overweight, and if I could have gotten my weight down 10 lbs, the rates would be lower.

Two weeks later, they diagnosed be with diabetes. So, I figured if I can get that under control, maybe I could buy insurance later....But it was getting real expensive, so I maxed out what i could get through work -- currently 6x my salary.

Fast forward...real medical issues make me uninsurable. The issue is metastatic cancer, which has as better than 70% chance of killing me in the next five years (based on statistics).

My only insurance is through my company, but my job, as a federal contractor, is unstable. I can roll it into a private plan upon separation at a cost of about 1K/month....but that is a lot of money if I am unemployed.

Between all of my assets, I am a millionair (sounded better when I was a kid): 700k in the 401K, 300K in home equity, and some other minor stuff, but DW can only make 1/5th of my salary, I will have about 950K in insurance....It will be a struggle here in northern VA (but not so much in a lower cost of living area).

Bite the bullet and get the insurance while you can.

Anonymous wrote:Only get the amount of insurance you need. For me, if DH were to die, I could live comfortable on my salary. So we only got enough insurance to pay off our mortgage.

One thing you have to consider is what additional supports that you have to pay for would you need if your spouse died so you can factor that into your costs. It's not just as simple as looking at your expenses now. Not saying that's what PP did.