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Life insurance … how much? Do I need any?
As a single late 30s man I’m debating as to whether I should get some TERM life insurance (whole life is a scam).
I’m not married, have no kids, and I don’t think that’s going to change….
Yes, my parents did put money into my education and it would be a waste if something happened to me, but they don’t really need the money either. I guess for now I’d name my sibling as a beneficiary…
IDK, I’m really wondering if it’s necessary… -
38 Replies
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If you have no dependents then not really any point but you should def have disability , which you didnt mention
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How about if you have a family? What is a good amount?
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a good amount depends on who you are.
Given that you can get TERM 20 yr coverage for about 500 per mil per yr if you are in good health, it’s not a huge decision one way or another. i’d go with 3-5 mil if you have a family. that will cost you 1500-2500/yr and is not worth trying to “nail” down perfectly because the cost isn’t that big.
My thoughts.
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None.
Life insurance is for the people left behind.
Disability would be money better spent.
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Ok, what if youre the primary breadwinner with spouse and three children? Surely having life insurance is smart? I have 2 mil; is that enough?
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Thank you wisdom just saw your post.
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Quote from irfellowship2020
Ok, what if youre the primary breadwinner with spouse and three children? Surely having life insurance is smart? I have 2 mil; is that enough?
Depends on your age,. your wife’s ability to earn a living, your current net worth, your children’s anticipated future needs.
If you have nothing in the bank and a wife who isn’t also a well-paid professional and you are in your 30s, then 2 mil isn’t going to go very far.
Maybe 4-5 mil I would think. (But I’m a guy with no kids)-
Who said wife? My husband makes plenty but as a rad I just make a lot more. Check your bias.
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I have adequate disability insurance
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Interventional radiology is among the most male-dominated of all medical specialties [[link=https://www.ajronline.org/doi/full/10.2214/AJR.19.21321]1[/link]]. Fewer than 10% of practicing interventional radiologists (IRs) are women; this is less than the fraction of women among interventional radiology fellows and far less than the fraction of women among radiology residents
Bias can be based in fact
I wish my (non-existant) spouse made way more than me
Read More: [link=https://www.ajronline.org/doi/full/10.2214/AJR.19.21321]https://www.ajronline.org/doi/full/10.2214/AJR.19.21321[/link]
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Quote from irfellowship2020
Who said wife? My husband makes plenty but as a rad I just make a lot more. Check your bias.
The post I copied below from July indicates you have a wife. I suppose you were staying anonymous in this post or the prior post. Idk why you’d make a point of it now considering you already misrepresented yourself publicly on this forum. Or maybe it was a joke.
[link=https://www.auntminnie.com/Forum/showprofile.aspx?memid=50939]irfellowship2020[/link] Super Member
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[image]https://www.auntminnie.com/Forum/app_themes/Classic/image/mIcons/m1.gif[/image]Cancer early on in career? 07/13/20 11:24AM (permalink)
[image]https://www.auntminnie.com/Forum/app_themes/Classic/image/blank.gif[/image] [image]https://www.auntminnie.com/Forum/app_themes/Classic/image/menuReply.gif[/image]Reply to messageHas anyone dealt with a cancer diagnosis personally or from a close colleague?
I’m a regular poster but for obvious reasons I want to stay anonymous. Got confirmation this morning that I have a aggressive, metastatic malignancy. I have a toddler and a wife that I’ve finally just started to support on my own. I haven’t talked to colleagues about this yet.
I’m torn between quitting and seeking aggressive treatment or just working so I can make as much as possible before the inevitable. I have not been smart about planning for life insurance / retirement, as I’m very, very fresh out of training.
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.-
this should be good…
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This is an anonymous account used by different people.
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Id live life. Your job comes with life insurance of at least 200k of not 500k.
Would not bother working my butt off in your situation.
The money you will earn in a year will not make a significant difference. Id have a blast while you can -
Quote from irfellowship2020
This is an anonymous account used by different people.
hmm. Well you can hardly expect everyone to know that. Assuming that the post from your collective account came from the same person who recently stated they had a wife was pretty reasonable. Not bias.
Also, going forward I would assume most people here will forget that you are not an individual but a group, so perhaps consider that when someone responds to a post from one of the people sharing the account you use.-
Quote from BHE
Quote from irfellowship2020
This is an anonymous account used by different people.
hmm. Well you can hardly expect everyone to know that. Assuming that the post from your collective account came from the same person who recently stated they had a wife was pretty reasonable. Not bias.
Also, going forward I would assume most people here will forget that you are not an individual but a group, so perhaps consider that when someone responds to a post from one of the people sharing the account you use.
I’ve followed these forums for a few years, and I quickly realized the majority of the posts from IRfellowship2020 were annoying. The account posts lots of “advice” confidently and chimes in on other topics usually where they are not well informed and often plain wrong.
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Quote from irfellowship2020
This is an anonymous account used by different people.
Those anonymous accounts are supposed to be used only for discussions about programs for people concerned about being “outed” for posting critical information.
If you want to participate in ongoing forum discussions in general or OT, it would be good form to create an individual account.
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Quote from dergon
Quote from irfellowship2020
This is an anonymous account used by different people.
Those anonymous accounts are supposed to be used only for discussions about programs for people concerned about being “outed” for posting critical information.
If you want to participate in ongoing forum discussions in general or OT, it would be good form to create an individual account.
I presume the anonymous account used by multiple different people falls within the fourm user guidelines and is definitely not a reason to have ones account removed?
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Fantastic find ! I am nuking up some pop corns. Those should MRIs can wait…
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Quote from irfellowship2020
Ok, what if youre the primary breadwinner with spouse and three children? Surely having life insurance is smart? I have 2 mil; is that enough?
I have three term policies that are very cheap and total $3M until I am 60+. Wife is a sub-specialty physician. She could easily work and provide a similar lifestyle for her and our two children. The idea was to pay off the mortgage and leave some money to live on before retirement accounts kick in while allowing her to work less. If the spouse cannot cover current expenses then I would think you would want more. dergon;s number sounds right.-
If you buy too much life insurance, some people might think you are worth more dead.
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Quote from vonbraun
If you buy too much life insurance, some people might think you are worth more dead.
Touche VB!
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I used to like saying I was worth more dead than alive…but then I worked/invested for a few more years and that stopped being the case 😉
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As your net worth rises, the need for insurance diminishes; it is more for the efficient transfer of assets.
I know of a lot of radiologists who are way over insured.-
Take your yearly expenses and multiply by 25 (this assumes a 4% withdrawal rate which most people use) – This is the number you need to retire, also the number you should have in your life insurance policy. Actual Number will be a little less because you won’t be around and it will just be the yearly expenses of your spouse and kids. If it’s $80,000 then you need 2 million in cash – if you have no cash now, then you need a 2 million policy. It’s as easy as that.
Max out your 401k, do backdoor roth ira’s, HSA’s, Protect your assetts through strategies like tenants by entirety(if married) and an umbrella policy. There is a lot to learn and a lot more strategies to maximize your financial well being.
Also I recommend using whitecoastinvestor and bogelheads to get yourself on the right track in terms of financial planning. Fellow rads are not good at this ( other physicians for that matter aren’t good at it), the ones that are have mostly hired financial planners. I learned it through reading and those websites, many people don’t put the time in to learn it. It goes a long ways towards your wealth. Work smarter, not harder.-
If you dont have dependents who rely on your income, the answer is no.
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Missed the part where you said single and planning on staying that way…Not sure why you would even ask the question. Purpose of life insurance is so that your dependents can enjoy the same lifestyle without you being around anymore.
You should have disability insurance though. -
Striker your post above is very helpful for others as well.
He may be single now, but things in life can change.
Its cheaper to get it the younger you are.
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If you don’t have dependents, you don’t need life insurance.
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One consideration, though: If there’s any chance you [i]will[/i] have dependents or even get hitched, can be useful to get insured when you’re younger and healthier. (Depending on type of insurance you get.)
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^^^ Yes!
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Quote from DocESP
One consideration, though: If there’s any chance you [i]will[/i] have dependents or even get hitched, can be useful to get insured when you’re younger and healthier. (Depending on type of insurance you get.)
If you dont get hitched until later in life and you have a modicum of financial skill, you should have enough assets at that point that you need very little life insurance to top it off. Paying on a term policy that you don’t need for several years as a hedge against the potential that you may have dependents at some point just makes zero sense. The policy is cheaper because your risk in the early years is lower.
(Also, marrying later in life disabuses you of many romantic ideas surrounding marriage and you are more likely to ‘marry up’ economically.)
Get disability while you are young and at a level that allows you to maintain a good lifestyle if you lose your ability to make a living.
Btw. some life and disability insurers allow you to buy additional insurance at age based rate that goes of your initial health rating. -
“Paying on a term policy…makes zero sense.”
Which is why I specified it depends on the type of insurance. Not going to delve into the reasons why a “Whole Life” policy made sense in my situation, but suffice it to say I got one years before I settled down with someone…and, again, as a young, healthy guy, I got much better terms than I would have if I waited till later.
Those years let the investment-portion of the policy grow nicely in value…and now, my lady has nothing to worry about if I die first (other than having to go on without my wonderful company). -
Quote from DocESP
“Paying on a term policy…makes zero sense.”
Which is why I specified it depends on the type of insurance. Not going to delve into the reasons why a “Whole Life” policy made sense in my situation, but suffice it to say I got one years before I settled down with someone…and, again, as a young, healthy guy, I got much better terms than I would have if I waited till later.
Those years let the investment-portion of the policy grow nicely in value…and now, my lady has nothing to worry about if I die first (other than having to go on without my wonderful company).
If you believe in whole life insurance as a product, then yes it can make sense to buy earlier.
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I echo this.
Ive only been working for under 10 years and Ive learned so much about financial planning just by readings blogs, posts and articles.
WCI is great. People bare there financial chest and you get a glimpse of how other physicians in other areas or even in radiology are doing at various stages of their life. And many times how they got there.
Quote from striker79
Take your yearly expenses and multiply by 25 (this assumes a 4% withdrawal rate which most people use) – This is the number you need to retire, also the number you should have in your life insurance policy. Actual Number will be a little less because you won’t be around and it will just be the yearly expenses of your spouse and kids. If it’s $80,000 then you need 2 million in cash – if you have no cash now, then you need a 2 million policy. It’s as easy as that.
Max out your 401k, do backdoor roth ira’s, HSA’s, Protect your assetts through strategies like tenants by entirety(if married) and an umbrella policy. There is a lot to learn and a lot more strategies to maximize your financial well being.
Also I recommend using whitecoastinvestor and bogelheads to get yourself on the right track in terms of financial planning. Fellow rads are not good at this ( other physicians for that matter aren’t good at it), the ones that are have mostly hired financial planners. I learned it through reading and those websites, many people don’t put the time in to learn it. It goes a long ways towards your wealth. Work smarter, not harder.
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[blockquote] I used to like saying I was worth more dead than alive…but then I worked/invested for a few more years and that stopped being the case 😉
[/blockquote]
But you are not the same as your investments. Presumably your heirs would receive your investments AND your life insurance payout if you were to die.
Your worth is the discounted cash flow analysis applied to your expected future earnings. Since YOU are now older, you have less years of earning remaining and are therefore worth less than when you were fresh out of training 🙂
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This is helpful thank you. Looks like I need to get more coverage. Certainly my husband could provide for three kids but this would make it a whole lot easier.
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Heh. True enough!
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