How to Fit Buying Life Insurance Into Your Budget
Life Insurance
If you’re pinching pennies, check out these tips for buying Life insurance on a budget.
Many families are facing tighter budgets as a result of the financial fallout. According to a recent Household Plus Survey, 1 in 3 U.S. adults is struggling to cover expenses like food, rent, mortgage and car payments, medical expenses, and student loans.1
Term Life Insurance for Every Life Stage
Choose from a selection of Group Term Life insurance plans for the protection your family needs.
While many people are feeling the financial pinch, they are also recognizing the need to protect their families during uncertain times. Consumer demand for Life insurance has grown, with 31% of recent survey respondents reporting that the pandemic has made them more likely to buy Life insurance.2
Shopping for Life insurance starts with calculating how much coverage your family needs and then choosing a policy that makes sense for your budget right now.
So how can you buy Life insurance while trying to maintain a budget? These tips can get you started:
- Choose Term Life. It’s the simplest and cheapest type of Life insurance, especially for families strapped for cash. Term Life lasts a set number of years—typically 10 or 20—or to a specific age—often 75 or 85—and is designed to cover you while you have dependents and financial obligations such as paying off a mortgage or funding education costs. If you die during the term, your beneficiaries will receive the proceeds to use however they wish.
- Prioritize your health. Insurance companies reward healthy lifestyles. As part of your Life insurance application, an insurer may assess your body mass index, cholesterol, blood pressure, and other health indicators. They’ll also consider nicotine use, which could increase your premiums by over 200%. If you are healthy, exercise regularly, and avoid nicotine, you might just land a better rate class and lower premiums.
- Look for volume discounts. Yes, insurance companies do offer discounts: the more you buy, the more you could save. Do your research and you might find that you’re better off purchasing slightly more coverage. For example, those seeking $200,000 of Term Life could actually save by increasing their coverage to $250,000. Run quotes for several coverage amounts to see where you might find some savings.
- Don’t delay. The younger and healthier you are, the easier it is to get covered—and stay covered—at an affordable price. Life insurance premiums go up, and you also risk running into health issues, as you age, which not only makes coverage more expensive, but could also prevent you from qualifying for insurance at all.
Protecting your family’s financial future is more important than ever. Start by calculating how much insurance you need and make Life insurance an essential part of your budget.
1 “Tracking the COVID-19 Economy’s Effects on Food, Housing, and Employment Hardships,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, February, 2022.
2“2022 Insurance Barometer Study,” Life Happens and LIMRA.
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