Do you still have life insurance? What age did you stop?

philly17

Dryer sheet aficionado
Joined
Jul 16, 2014
Messages
29
Hi, I'm 58 and my term life insurance expires in three years when my youngest child graduates college.

I have no debt and have a networth of $6.5M (IRA and non-IRA) plus my primary house.

I've thought about just cancelling my term insurance now but it is only $90 a month figure not worth it for only 3 years left.

A friend is advising I should get new life insurance so I can leave money to my kids and be more free to spend the nest egg that i have for myself/wife versus being worried I leave enough for my kids.

Do you still have life insurance? If so what type? If not what age or net worth did you elect to stop having it?
 
We had a term policy when the kids were young... But it was only enough to pay off the mortgage. We figured we had decent savings and both had ok incomes... If either if us passed they could easily support the household if the mortgage wasn't there.

When we paid off the mortgage we cancelled our term.
 
We quit having it when we retired and work no longer provided insurance.
We do not see a need for it, no dependents here other than 2 cats, why spend the money?
 
Haven't had it for maybe 30 years. Prior to that, straight term until the kiddos were out of the nest and DW's income was adequate.

Does this "friend" of yours advocating insurance just happen to be selling it?
 
DH had a term policy which expired about two years ago. I declined to renew as the new premium would have been multiples, of the old. DH had already retired by that time and had named me as 100% joint and survivor on his pension which also factored in health insurance, there was no mortgage, and the kiddos were off the dole. I had a policy through the job which allowed for 3x my salary without a physical examination, and which lapsed when I retired.
 
I had insurance through Northwestern Mutual for many years. I canceled it years ago when we achieved FI.

I still have a group policy through a professional organization. I'm keeping it for now as a lottery ticket.

ETA: term insurance is all I have ever bought.
 
I dropped my term life insurance when I turned 50. The premium increased a lot, and I had enough savings that I didn't need it anymore.
 
I got a whole life policy when I retired from the Air Force. It has paid for itself for many years and goes up in value more than the yearly payment. It will be a nice sum when I check out and will not be taxed. All those warnings many years ago about not buying whole life seem silly now.
 
We are 74 (me) and 73. We dropped our major life insurance ~5-yrs ago. We still have our tiny LI provided by our retirement systems. With zero debt our net worth is more than sufficient to take care of us.
 
Last edited:
No insurance other than $15K through my DB plan.

Always had term. Loaded up with inexpensive term life through my employer when our children were young and prior to early retirement.
 
I have a fully paid up whole life policy to provide for the young wife after I'm gone, since she doesn't get her own social security and will not get a survivor benefit due to the GPO. So when I go, the social security money stops entirely. If she takes the annuity payout it should cover the lost income.
 
Never needed life insurance but my company provided it and I was able buy an additional 4x coverage cheap. I was doing a ton of traveling and working in third world countries so it made sense. It was more of a case of "why not?".

I did not have life insurance once I retired.
 
I have a fully paid up whole life policy to provide for the young wife after I'm gone, since she doesn't get her own social security and will not get a survivor benefit due to the GPO. So when I go, the social security money stops entirely. If she takes the annuity payout it should cover the lost income.

Sounds like it makes sense for you and YW.
 
I had term on me and DW when kids were in school. Dropped coverage about 5 yrs ago. If you are FI, I don't see the need. Paying for insurance now so that heirs don't pay income/inheritance/estate tax later doesn't make sense to me.
 
We are double income with no kids.

We had term life insurance only on me (higher earner) when we were younger. Gave that up about my age 45. DW would have been fine with her salary and the survivor benefit of my military pension.
 
this month. At 52.

Once we hit our FI number and kids were graduating college.
 
I have a term policy that I took out when I retired and my employee plan ceased. We only needed it to payoff the mortgage but it’s no longer really needed though I am sure it would really help DW. That’s another cost arising from choosing to not pay the mortgage off. It’s pretty cheap actually. Good reminder to evaluate cost/need/benefits.
 
I had a universal life policy - had been letting cash value decrease as it paid the premiums until I turned 70. Noted the cost per quarter was increasing quite a bit (cost of coverage, not my quarterly payment which would stay the same but drain the cash balance faster).

Terminated it and invested the remaining surrender value.
 
I had term insurance soon after DS was born, and kept it until 2014, when I had more than enough funds to support us the rest of our lives. DH has a whole life child policy that his parents purchased when he was 5 years old. He never had to pay premiums on it, and it is small enough that there is no benefit to cashing out.
 
I am 43 and bought my first 10 yr term from AAA this year for $45/month premium @ 1 million.

When our NW doubles I can probably stop paying for it. That would be plenty.

DW has some though her employer. And she also has Spousal, and some coverage for the Children. That is pretty cheap all things considered.

I also have 2 business insurance policies through 2 different brokers, 1 worth 3 million the other worth 1 million to limit my liabilities. If we pooled all the lawyers together, maybe they would settle?

Super odd this thing expires in 2077, 53 years from now. I may need to check on that.

We are over insured...but DW doesn't know much about investing so having a cash pile if I go now might be helpful for her. Still cheaper than a 1% management fee to an advisor.

1731729516510.png
 
I had term insurance until I divorced. At that point, I didn’t need to worry about a spouse and if I was to die, there was enough for the kids to comfortably pay for college and have a good start in life.
 
I've never carried much life insurance, and have had none for decades. You do not need it now.
 
Back
Top Bottom