bravo-charlie-yankee t1_j2ey0h2 wrote on December 31, 2022 at 7:36 PM

Term life to protect yourself and child against you suddenly dying/losing ability to work. We're going through same. Have a 3.5mo and set up living will, trust etc to avoid contesting of assets should we kick the bucket prematurely.

Our FA told us we were way underinsured for our annual cost of living and should something happen (permanent loss of income through death or disability) we would be screwed. We have life ins via work but the payouts only like 100k which is frankly nothing over the course of expected income/finance costs over decades (funeral, mortgage, college fund etc).

We thought about setting up a 529, but think maybe a traditional investment might be better (no restrictions on what to spend on), We'll probably not put too much in a 529

Suggest talking to estate attorney as they'll have a lot of good questions that you'll want to answer around assets, distributions etc and go through some basics should something happen to you.

lolheisdead59 OP t1_j2f0nnj wrote on December 31, 2022 at 7:55 PM

As a young guy, Ive never looked into life insurance. We get the default $400k life insurance through military service and I've honestly never thought about it. Thank you.

In your opinion, is there any specific clauses or terms I should look to include/exclude in life insurance?

bravo-charlie-yankee t1_j2faslw wrote on December 31, 2022 at 9:09 PM

Our FA suggested Pacific Life, and it came out to like $50/mo 20yr term for $1mil payout (not taxable) for me, my wife was slightly higher. Your rate is also based on your health, so if you'd sign up earlier, you could be preferred rate, obese or worse and it affects your rate.

You could probably shop around for that. As far as specific clauses i'm not too sure, have only just started looking more into it to protect each other, and also be secure for our child's future.

Basically we're been very fortunate (and lucky) in that we have been able to save very aggressively before talking with an FA and he said we're pretty set, BUT people who are pretty secure he "throws grenades" at our plan to see how protected we are. IE one of us dies, permanent disability can't work as the extremes, and that opened our eyes about if everything's gravy we have nothing to worry about, but still some things could completely derail our plans.

Also don't go to just any FA, make sure they're a fiduciary financial advisor so they have a legal obligation to act in best interest of their clients

Outofcontrolpilot t1_j2fhkr3 wrote on December 31, 2022 at 9:59 PM

We’ve got a far policy through Navy Mutual in addition to our SGLI. I was advised to get 10x your annual income. I figure that if I kick the bucket early, my family will be set for the next decade OR have 10 years to get their shit together financially.

bros402 t1_j2f1p71 wrote on December 31, 2022 at 8:03 PM

See if there is a fee only financial advisor near you who specializes in military families? Or maybe the military offers a service

lolheisdead59 OP t1_j2f2qc8 wrote on December 31, 2022 at 8:10 PM

Military generally does offer these services. However, the individuals providing these services do not generally have training in personal finance as financial advisors. The individuals you normally see utilizing these services are younger service members who blow their whole paycheck on cars, alcohol, trying to live off base without the allowance.