Affordable Insurance Online

Agents like to talk about policies you can keep throughout your life. What they sometimes won't tell you is that you don't need life insurance coverage throughout your life.

The secret to buying a life insurance policy with the right term is figuring out how long you need to be insured. Start by estimating when your children will no longer be in need of your financial support. So if your children are 3 and 5 now, you'd probably want a life insurance policy that covers you at least until the youngest is 22, so that's about a 20-year term. But this depends somewhat on your age as well.

Say you also want to cover your spouse for your lost income until what would be your normal retirement age, 65, and you're only 35 now. Then you would want a 30-year life insurance policy. Keep in mind that life insurance gets very expensive as you leave your 50s. So you may pay more to cover yourself until 65, even if you lock in a level-premium, 30-year policy when you are 35. Coverage past age 70 or so may be unattainable.

Life insurance is not a substitute for a retirement plan. Plan so that you'll have enough to live on when you retire, and you won't have to keep paying insurance premiums.