Is it worth me having life insurance if my mortgage is...

dvtrv

I'm a 40 year old male with a wife and now child.

My mortgage was paid off when I was around 36.

All this talk about how we should get LI and these ads where it says the likes of "if u were born before 1977......" etc.

It's being made out that it's almost imperative you get life insurance.

Is it so important to get?

I know it's a an amount that will help with all sorts but I feel as though there's something more to it.

Is there?

Can anyone let me know their views on this please?

Thanks in advance.

Weighty1

Could your wife cope financially bring up your child is you were dead? They might inherit the property but would they have a big enough income to pay gas/electric/council tax/food/home insurance/car costs/petrol etc etc etc? Would you want their standard of living to decrease if you were dead?

Aretnap

If you died, how would your wife and child cope financially? Does she earn enough by herself to have a comfortable standard of living, or do you have enough savings or other assets between you to make up for the loss of your income?

Whether or not you need life insurance largely depends on the answers to those questions. Obviously not having a mortgage helps them financially - but there are plenty of other bills which would still have to be paid one way or another.

dunstonh

where it says the likes of "if u were born before 1977......" etc.

Date of birth is irrelevant. I havent seen that advert as I dont watch much TV but cant see what they are aiming for there.

It's being made out that it's almost imperative you get life insurance.

Only your personal circumstances matter. Not some generic marketing.

A 40 year old single person with no dependents has little or no need for life assurance.
A 40 year old married person with children/decedents who are reliant on their income has a serious need for life assurance.

Easiest way to think of these things is to mentally kill off yourself and consider who will be financially worse off. Then kill off your spouse and go through the same process.

dvtrv

Ok.

Marvellous.

Thank a lot

p00hsticks

dunstonh wrote: »

Date of birth is irrelevant. I havent seen that advert as I dont watch much TV but cant see what they are aiming for there.

It's more likely to be an sponsored advert on social media (facebook etc). You'll have indicated your age/date of birth when you register on the website and they then tailor the adverts to make it look that they're specifically aimed at your age group to attract your attention.

ACG

As Dunston and some of the others state, it really is down to your circumstances.

According to this - http://riskreality.co.uk/gen - a 40 year old male, non smoker has a 4% chance of dieing by age 60. But it means nothing, you may be one of the unfortunate ones.

It is not a case of one or the other, but I tend to think income protection is more improtant. As bad as it sounds, if you die, you die. You stop costing money. If you are unable to work then you are still around and are now a financial burden, but you are also more likely to make a claim on an income protection policy, 20% chance you will be off work for at least 2 months before age 60.

If your partner will be financially sound if you go then there is an argument life insurance is not needed. If you think they may struggle, then chances are it will not cost more than £10-15 a month for a decent chunk of life insurance, so its worth considering - but it is not my money I am spending by saying that.

copperclock

IMO life insurance is vital if you have children/dependants.

Sure, the surviving spouse could sell the house and/or make do on their wages, but in reality who would need that kind of pressure on top of the grief of losing a partner.

EdGasket

Aretnap wrote: »

If you died, how would your wife and child cope financially?

She'd probably marry someone else; seems to happen a lot.

Kynthia

You also need to consider what will happen to your child if both yiu and your partner should die. Would you be leaving someone enough money to help raise your child? They may need money to buy a house with more bedrooms, money to cover childcare costs and fund university, etc?

Also do you both have life insurance and would you need money if something happened to your partner? It's all based on personal circumstances.