Most people pay monthly for life insurance, and many consider it a necessity. However, it is not absolutely necessary to have life insurance, and you could be spending money on something you don’t really need. In order to decide if you need life insurance, you should look at your individual situation and consider whether or not that insurance payout will be needed, and is thus worth paying for now.
Dependents
If you have young children or a spouse who depends on your income, it’s a good idea to have life insurance to protect them if something happens to you. If you don’t have children or they are adults, and your spouse has their own income on which they can live, though, it’s not really necessary. The key reason to have it is to protect the people closest to you in the event of your death. If that isn’t a worry, then you really only need to have enough to pay for funeral or other similar costs, which is far less than you would need a life insurance policy to accumulate.
Saving money
Instead of paying monthly for a firm to hold a life insurance policy for you, you can put that money into your own individual savings account and basically insure yourself. While you won’t have the large amount of a life insurance policy, you are betting that you won’t die in the near future, and that money is yours and your family’s regardless of the circumstances. If you live to a ripe old age, the monthly cost of a policy is unnecessary, and it would be better to have that money accumulating and earning interest for you.
Daily risk
One key factor that should help you decide if need life insurance, if you should insure yourself, or if you just shouldn’t worry about it, is the amount of risk you take in daily life. If your job and lifestyle make it likely you will live a long time, you may not need it. If you do dangerous activities at work or for fun, or you live an unhealthy lifestyle, you probably want to think about what would happen to your loved ones if you died in the near future and what they would need to survive financially without you.Life insurance is important and incredibly useful for many people, but that doesn’t automatically mean it is a necessity for you and your family. Look closely at your circumstances and decide logically what is best for you individually before assuming you need to make this monthly payment. If you do decide that you need life insurance, be sure to compare prices and speak to several providers so you are properly covered. Through a little work and research, you can make the best choice for your family.
