Many people don't know enough about life insurance and therefore fall easy prey to myths and fallacies about life insurance that just aren't true. Not knowing what or who to believe, a lot of people are afraid of buying life insurance for fear of being duped by an agent into buying a policy they don't really need. What are some of the myths about life insurance you should guard against? Below we've called attention to a few you should be aware of if you want to make the best life insurance decisions. Myth 1: Everyone needs a life insurance policy! Contrary to what agents would have you believe, not everybody needs life insurance! If you don't have any debts to pay, no dependents who rely on your income for their livelihood, and enough in your bank account to pay for your funeral and cover your liabilities, chances are you don't need life insurance at all. However, if you have a large estate which may be liable to estate taxes after you die, buying a life insurance policy could help offset those taxes that a legal heir of your property would have to pay.
If you're young, just married, have a house loan, student loans, or other debts to pay off, you should definitely think of life insurance to cover those crucial years in your life that you would spend paying off your loans, putting your kids through college and building a tidy, secure retirement fund for your future. Term life insurance policies are available for 5, 10, 20 or 30 years and therefore, perfectly suit that temporary time period when you have debts to pay, savings to build and a tight budget to work with. Myth 2: People who don't earn, don't need life insurance
Because the major purpose of life insurance is to replace loss of income should the breadwinner of the family die, it may appear as if those who don't work, don't need life insurance. But not everyone who works gets a salary. Stay-at-home moms, for example, work at home. Their multi-tasking activities include caring for children, cleaning, cooking, driving their kids all over the place and running all sorts of errands but they never receive a paycheck at the end of the month. If a stay-at-home-mom were to die unexpectedly, you may need to hire a whole battery of people ranging from housekeepers, day care centers, cooks and nannies—all of which cost money. Salary.com valued the services of a stay-at-home-mom at around $135,00 a year. While her worth is priceless, her monetary value should be covered under a life insurance policy. Myth 3: Term life insurance is better than whole life insurance width="220" height="200" />