Most people don’t spend undue time worrying about an early demise when they’re still young, healthy, and seemingly invincible. But all it takes is one serious illness or injury or the death of a loved one to remind us that we’re only human, we’re fairly fragile, and that life is fleeting. In short, many adults, at some point, start to consider what kind of mess they’ll leave behind when they pass away. This can prompt them to explore the prospect of writing a will, letting a loved one know where important legal documents are kept, and of course, purchasing life insurance. But you’ll find that there are many different options when it comes to life insurance policies. The two most common categories, however, are term and whole life. The only question is, how can you decide which is right for you?
Although both term and whole life insurance will pay out in the event of your death during coverage, this is about the only way in which the two types of policies are the same – from there they diverge considerably. As you might have guessed from the names, term life insurance covers you only for a specific length of time, determined when you start coverage, whereas whole life insurance is good for life (although in both cases coverage is dependent on your ability to continue paying for the policy you have selected). So far, whole life sounds better, but don’t get ahead of yourself.