[jIM_Ohio]

Insurance policies are not investments.
Insurance policies are needed as part of a sound financial picture.

In my case, we have two working spouses. We bank 1/2 of my wife's salary each month. The other half is part of the budget.

Meaning we need 1 1/2 incomes for out budget. We have 300k of term life insurance to make sure the debt (mortgage) gets paid off so other spouse could work and still be comfortable on death of spouse. Basically enough life insurance to free up the $2500 mortgage payement within budget helps either of us if something goes wrong. This is covered with a simple term policy because our mortgage should go away in 20-30 years.

We also have a permanent insurance policy to cover funeral costs. 25k each. This policy has a sub account indexed to S&P 500, so this account has a cash value which might/probably exceed the 25k policy value later in life. Provided we pay the premiums, this policy will be in force our whole life. We will die, so this policy is needed.

It was cheaper for us to get both policies when we were young. The cost of the whole life insurance at age 50 looked steep, so it made sense to us to lock in insurance rates while we were younger.

It's possible some people would argue we overspent on insurance... but we have "peace of mind" which is difficult to put a price on.

This is 650k of insurance, covering two people, for under $130/mo.

Insurance is not meant to be an investment. We could borrow the cash value in event of an emergency... but their would be much cheaper ways of doing things if we wanted an emergency fund that large (cash value should be ~100k in our late 50's).