How much life insurance coverage I need to buy was something that really wasn’t important to me until I got married. My first policy was a $250,000 30 year term life policy and I thought that was plenty. It was not until we had our first son that I quickly realized that was not nearly enough. After his birth, I decided to increase it substantially. That was over two years ago. With us in the process of building our first home and a second son on the way, I’m left wondering even with that increase if I really have bought enough life insurance. I know many struggle with this same decision so I wanted to shed some light how much life insurance is enough.
First things first, life insurance is for one purpose: income replacement. While there are times where life insurance can aid in more complex estate planning strategies, a majority of the time it’s purchased to take care of your family once you’re gone. My reasoning for purchasing life insurance is that I want to leave my wife and kids without any debt and the ability for my wife to not worry about finances in the event of my unexpected passing.
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