What kind of life insurance should my husband get?
We are looking to get a life insurance policy for my 25 year old husband. We have three young children so we’re trying to figure out what would best provide for the family if God forbid something were to happen to him.
Term life insurance is usually the best answer for a situation like this. Be sure you take out a policy that will last until your children are grown. Some agents might try to convince you to buy permanent insurance (universal life, for example), but there usually isn’t really a need for that. But, look at the difference in price between term life insurance and permanent insurance, and try to put away some of that extra money into savings over this time. Depending on your own employment situation, you may still need a little finanical "boost" should your husband pass away after your kids are grown (and the insurance term is up). But that is a situation you can start to cover now. If you save over the next 25 years, you will not need the coverage of permanent insurance because you will have built up your own savings nicely.
As others have said, do be sure that if you are home with the kids, you are insured as well, if the additional cost of childcare would impact your husband’s financial state. Depending on the ages of your children, where you live, and the availability of family to help out, you could be looking at $3000 in monthly day care costs. It may be worth taking out a policy on you as well if those expenses would impact your family in a bad way should something happen to you.
If you would like to get an estimate of how much insurance you should buy, you can check out www.vilkri.com/life_insurance_intro.php (currently free if you request beta testing access). This site isn’t affiliated with an insurance company, so it will not try to sell you a thing.