How much does life insurance cost?
How much is life insurance? The answer is… it depends. The average cost of life insurance varies based on what type of policy you choose and how much coverage you sign up for. For example, a healthy 30-year-old woman can buy a 30-year, $250,000 Haven Term life insurance policy for about $16 per month. If that same woman purchased a whole life insurance policy, it would be closer to $200 per month. (Read on to learn more about the cost and value of these two different insurance options.)
The cost of life insurance also depends on your health, how old you are when you sign up for the policy and what kind of features your policy offers (called riders). Still, we’re happy to report that, in many cases, a term life insurance policy will cost less per month than what you’re paying for streaming media subscriptions. Or that new sweatshirt you’ve been eyeing. Or any of the other items on this list of eight everyday expenses that cost more than term life insurance.
This means that the life insurance cost can be an affordable part of nearly any budget. The average life expectancy in the United States is 78.6 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but you don’t buy life insurance because you’re worried that you might not beat the average. You buy life insurance because you want to plan ahead and help ensure your partner, children, parents and any other beneficiary has the money needed to do things like cover your funeral costs, pay off your outstanding debts, maintain their standard of living without your income and achieve dreams like graduating from college.
And if you buy life insurance right now, you’ll save money. (That isn’t a sales pitch. That’s math.)
Here’s what you need to know about how much life insurance costs and how to choose an affordable life insurance policy for you and your loved ones.
Getting life insurance now could save you money
A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that life insurance is something they won’t have to deal with until later. Maybe when the kids are a little older. Maybe when they have kids — because people without kids don’t need life insurance, right? (Wrong.)
But you’re probably thinking about purchasing life insurance now. That’s a smart move, because the younger you are when you purchase your policy, the more money you can save on your premiums over time and the cost of life insurance will be lower.
Putting off the life insurance decision could turn out to be an expensive choice. Here’s an example of how your life insurance rates may change by age:
Let’s say that you are a 38-year-old woman in excellent health. If someone like you were to take out a 20-year, $500,000 Haven Term policy, you’d pay $21.47 per month (depending on your state of residence) to protect your loved ones. That’s an expense of $257.64 per year or $5,153 over the life of the policy.
Now let’s say you wait ten years. You’re now 48. You might no longer be in excellent health. You’d no longer need a 20-year policy, but you might go for a 10-year-policy, or for 15 years to get you closer to retirement age. To get a 10-year, $500,000 Haven Term policy you’d end up paying a monthly rate of $53.09 if you’re in “good” health or $67.25 if underwriting classifies you as “average” health. That’s more than three times the cost of life insurance per month — and you’re also risking going a full decade without life insurance.