How much life insurance should a 24 year old healthy male take out for his life insurance policy at work?

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no house, no kids

Zero. What happens if you quit or get laid off? You won't be covered anymore. With most life insurance at work, coverage amount is usually LIMITED to double or triple your annual gross income. So, it would be better if you get life insurance on your own because you are young and premium are low. Financial experts believe people should get coverage of ten times your annual gross income.

Since you have no house, no kids, and no wife - You should consider the reason for taking the life insurance coverage out. Determine why you need the coverage and how much financial security you are in need of providing for your financial commitments. You can probably increase your coverage amount after you get married, buy a house, or have children. So, don't take out more than you need, because you're paying for it.

http://www.term-life-online.com

Even though you said you have no dependents and don't own your home, buying life insurance at your age is still a good idea. I expect you plan on having all those things in the future and getting the policy now, especially a whole or universal life policy will get you much better rates than if you wait until you are older. Also, there is no guarantee that your health will remain good. If, God forbid, you develop something like diabetes or even just high cholesteral and high blood pressure, you will pay MUCH more for a policy. Lock in the best rates now while you are young and healthy.

Now, about the policy offered through work, like the others said, if it's free to you definately take it. If not, go to a life insurance agent. Work policies most often can not be taken with you if you change jobs and most have limitations (ie. you must die on the job, must die from an accident or specific illness, etc.) They are only intended as an extra benefit for your employer to offer, they are not intended to answer your life insurance needs.

It depends, are you single? Do you have children? These are factors to consider when choosing life insurance.

Ask your benefits department how much of the life insurance proceeds will be taxed (if you die). Also ask what type of policy it is (term, whole life, universal life). Ask about the portability of the policy (can you take it with you if/when your leave the company).

With this information in hand, talk to a financial professional about your current and future needs. If you don't have much debt and no dependents, you don't need much insurance. Do you always plan to remain debt free and dependent free your entire life?

You should also ask about disability plans - how much you have, taxes on the benefits, length of coverage etc.

There really are too many issue to rely on a message board to answer.

Talk to a professional.

If you want to be nice to your parents, take out a $10k policy so they can bury you if you died for some reason. Make sure it is a term policy. At your age it should be fairly cheap.

Fact: Insurance companies make money, generally it is your money they are earning.

Keeping that in mind, if insurance is desired, buy term life, don't buy mortgage payoff insurance, insurance with annuities or modified life insurance. If you want an investment, seek an investment. Insurance companies offer annuity (investment) riders that most often cost more and pay less than setting up an IRA fund, or some other form of investment.

Buy only the insurance that serves a purpose, no more and no less. If you have (for instance) a wife and child and the wife works earning 50,000 a year and you earn 50,000 a year, your total earnings is 100,000. The term life policy you would want my be a 1,000,000 term life. If you die, your wife could still work and make 50k and the yearly interest on the 1000k would be somewhere around 50k if it were sitting in a money market account. That means the household is maintained at the standard of living it was while you were alive; considering the cost of your needs won't exist but the additional cost of childcare may offset that cost making things somewhat equal. Ideally, you would want the insurance payoff to offer yields that keep up the standard of living for your wife and child, plus enough left over to continue to grow with the cost of living increase.

The idea is to help your survivors maintain their current lifestyle or standard of living. You don't want an untimely death to cause your survivors hardships because of the loss of income, but you don't necessarily want them to become multi-millionaires over your death, especially since that would have pinched your standard of living while you were alive trying to pay such high premiums for such a coverage.

There are other options....same scenario, but thought out better. Your wife is 25, healthy and vibrant. It might be that within 5 years she will have gone on with her life (and child) and remarry. If that is considered, you may only want to pay for a 250k policy that maintains your wife's and child's standard of living for about 5 years since it is likely that a new lifestyle and additional income will come into the picture.

Sometimes these things don't seem so cool to contemplate, but you need to do a reality check and deal with the situation objectively to achieve realistic goals for you and your family.

Concerning your present situation, be cool to your parents or whoever is going to have to cover the expenses if you croak; get a 10k policy. They'll appreciate you even when your gone.

50,000.00 or less. Unless your married, then I would take 100,000.00 or more.

enough to cover your house. I have about 3x my salary.

Why do you even need a life insurance policy? Do you have debts that you would like paid if you were to die tomorrow?

Most insurance policies that you buy trough work are not "transportable." That is, one you leave your employer, your policy ends.

At your age, you probably will not stay more than several years at your present employer. Also at your age, the chances of dying are very low.

If you do not have a wife, children, or any other dependents, you really do not need a life insurance policy at this time.

My advice- if the company offers you a specific amount of life insurance for free, as part of your benefit package, of course, take it. I would not purchase any additional life insurance at this time. Save your money. Invest what you would have spent on the life insurance into your company's retirement plan.

Lots of variables. Do you have a wife? children? I think the formula being used now is approximately 10x's your annual salary. Hope it helps. Best to speak with a rep from the company.

$5,000, just enough to bury you. Unless you have that in the bank, then you don't need it at all.

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