What is the best insurance to buy for a 23 year old with a wife and baby on the way?

Universal Life. It is cheap builds cash value and never expires. I have a policy on me and my six year old for 87.00 a month I got mine when I was a little older. The thing with term is it expires and if you have a 20 year policy then when it expires you are left with no insurance and it will be outrageuos(sp) to repurchase.

The most important thing is to make sure that you have enough coverage. Look at life insurance AND disability insurance. Skip the online quote programs. They will not review your financial situation. Call a local professional. Here is a directory of local agents: http://www.insuremylife.org

Unfortunately, the previous answers make some assumptions about your situation that may or may not be true.

Yes it is true that term insurance has, at least intially, much lower premiums than permanent insurances. IF you are cash strapped then term will be the appropriate coverage FOR NOW. Remember, approximately 95% of term life policies never pay a death benefit. This is primarily due to the premium structure of term insurance. Term comes in two basic types, yearly renewable and level.
Yearly Renewable Term premiums start very very low, lower even than level term. However, each year older you get the premium increases, with each subsequent increase being a little larger than the previous one.
Level term polices have premiums that are guaranteed to remain level for some set period, typically 10, 20 or even 30 years. The very year after the term expires, the premiums LEAP upwards, sometimes as much as tenfold, and continue to increase every year thereafter.

Permanent insurance, when properly structured, will not have the same problem later in life. If funded properly, the policy can even pay for itself in your later years. Permanent insurance will also grow in cash value on a tax deferred basis. This pool of money, while tax advantaged, does not have any strings attached to it like qualified retirement assets or 529 plan savings, making a cash value policy a very viable long term investment vehicle for funding a variety of goals such as education or early retirement.

The bottom line is term insurance is great when you have a very specific need that will exist for a very specific amount of time. (Like Trade Info mentioned, a 20 year level term policy is a great thing for your situation to cover the extra need created by your impending child; congrats, by the way!) Permanent insurance is great when you feel that there may always be a level of need and you have long term savings goals that would benefit from the tax deferred savings.

For my clients that are in your situation, I often recommend a combination of both term and permanent insurance. My best advice to you is to consult a financial planner that specializes in life insurance. DO NOT bother with a life insurance agent, especially if they only sell one carrier's products (captive agent) or if they use a "multiple of salary" approach to determining your need for coverage. Good Luck.

if you talking about life insurance, term is the way to go. very inexpensive for your age. you should buy at least a 20 year term to cover your child to age 18. check with several of the online insurance sales sites if you don't have an agent to determine the appropriate amount of insurance you need. both you and your wife need coverage.

i just took my class for insurance licensing, so i kinda know what i'm talking about. i would not buy universal or whole life. i would suggest term, and then invest the difference in a mutual fund or something.... like the first responder said, term will be the cheapest and will cover you until your child is grown. and you can renew it with some companies

Term is the way to go, 'cause considering your young age it will be inexpensive. Cash value, whole life etc are costly and not beneficial at this stage of life when you need all the extra cash possible. You'd be better off investing this extra cash in your retirement plans.
To find the best rate consider getting multiple quotes online. Also check online insurance calculators to determine the coverage you and your wife need.

Actually you should go with a cash value policy at your age will be not to much more and as long as you fund the policy it will never expire and continue to grow in cash value. If you got a 20 year term at age 43 you would have no insurance and lost all that money. Cash value insurance you have insurance plus the cash value and they normally pay 3-5 percent interest. It might be abit more costly but WELL worth it down the road

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