Autrement dit, vous avez besoin d’assurance-vie si quelqu’un d’autre est en fonction de vos revenus. Habituellement, cela signifie que vos enfants, mais il pourrait également être utilisé pour rembourser la dette de votre conjoint ou de ses parents.
L’assurance vie est généralement pas sur une liste de twentysomething des priorités financières.
Et c’est correct. Peut être.
Si vous êtes heureusement célibataire et sans enfant, vous pouvez probablement sauter ce poste (pour l’instant). Mais si le mariage ou une famille est à l’horizon, poursuivez votre lecture.
Bien que l’âge peut jouer un rôle dans la façon dont l’assurance vie dont vous avez besoin, la décision d’acheter une assurance-vie n’a rien à voir avec l’âge. Alors, quand avez-vous besoin d’assurance-vie? Voici la règle simple:
Vous avez besoin d’acheter une assurance-vie quand quelqu’un d’autre dépend de vos revenus.
Voici quelques exemples courants:
- Si vous avez 25 ans avec une femme qui reste à la maison avec un nouveau-né, vous avez besoin d’assurance-vie.
- If you’re 29 and single, you DO NOT need life insurance.
- If you’re 27, married, and both you and your spouse work, you might not need life insurance yet, but you may want to start thinking about it anyway.
Starting a family means buying life insurance!
In most cases, you need life insurance when you start a family. Because life insurance isn’t for you—it’s to provide for your family in case you die and can no longer take care of them.
In addition, there may be special situations in which you don’t have a family of your own but may still want some life insurance protection. For example, if a parent has cosigned a large student loan or a mortgage for you, a modest life insurance policy could pay their share in the event something happens to you. *See footnote.
Most of us begin to think about life insurance when we have children. That’s what my wife and I did. Shortly after our daughter was born, we both took out term life policies in amounts that would replace each of our individual income for 20 years and cover the expected cost of our daughter’s college tuition. When our second children was born, we increased our policy to take our son’s expenses into account.
If you’re wise, you might start planning for your life insurance needs before your first child is born. For example, if you’re married, you and your spouse may want to take out life insurance for each other, even if you both work. Many couples rely on two incomes to pay monthly expenses, and if one spouse dies, the other would have to cover those same expenses on their own.
Another advantage to buying life insurance sooner is that insurance gets more expensive as you age. And, if you develop a medical condition, you may not be able to get life insurance at all. So if you think you might need life insurance in the future, the best time to get it may be now while you’re young and healthy.
How to buy life insurance
When you decide you need to think about life insurance, determine how much life insurance you need:
- Multiply your annual income by the number of years you want the insurance to cover.
- Add any fixed expenses (like kids’ college tuition).
- Finally, subtract any non-retirement savings or investments you have that could cover some of these costs in lieu of an insurance benefit.
Next, talk to your local insurance agent or get free life insurance quotes online.
You should also take time to learn more about the differences between term life insurance and whole life insurance, which is sometimes sold as a combined insurance and investment product. Lauren and I stuck with simple term life insurance, and recommend you do, too.
Summary
Life insurance is an important part of your financial toolkit—but it’s not a tool that everybody needs at the same time. It depends on your age, your family situation, and whether you have people who depend on your income.
* Dans ce cas, vous ne seriez pas besoin d’une tonne d’assurance, juste assez pour couvrir le solde impayé du prêt. Bien que les sociétés de financement vendent des politiques qui récompense un prêt si vous décédez, ces politiques ne proposent pas autant de valeur en tant que politique de la vie traditionnelle à long terme. D’une part, le bénéfice est limité au solde du prêt au moment de la mort, et non pas un montant fixe. Aussi, il est important de noter que vous n’avez pas ce genre de politique, sauf si vous avez un cosignataire qui serait encore légalement responsable de la dette après votre décès.
Ahmad Faishal is now a full-time writer and former Analyst of BPD DIY Bank. He’s Risk Management Certified. Specializing in writing about financial literacy, Faishal acknowledges the need for a world filled with education and understanding of various financial areas including topics related to managing personal finance, money and investing and considers investoguru as the best place for his knowledge and experience to come together.