"Our judgments about things vary according to the time left us to live-that we think is left us to live." -- André Gide

The best value for the lowest cost is a level premium term life insurance policy. This type of policy will allow you to purchase an amount of coverage at a fixed premium for 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30 years (the term). The greater the term, the greater the risk for the insurance company; therefore, the greater the term, the higher the premium.

An effective life insurance buying strategy is to select the shortest term that provides adequate coverage, thereby saving hundreds of dollars in premiums that would otherwise be potentially wasted on an unnecessarily long term.

How do you decide the best term? That depends on your unique situation.

For example, let's assume that you are a 32 year old male in excellent health and able to purchase $500, 000.00 of coverage for 10 years at $13.56 per month, for 20 years at $20.56 per month, and for 30 years at $36.31 per month. Two factors to consider in choosing the best term in that situation would be present affordability, and future needs.

* Present Affordability - If paying $36.31 per month for a 30 year term is going to be difficult on your budget, but you have determined that $500, 000.00 of coverage is the minimum that you require, choosing a ten year term for $13.56 might be your best choice to keep a policy affordable without lowering the death benefit amount to get a longer term.

* Future Needs - It is difficult, if not impossible, to predict the future. However, it is reasonable to predict that dependent children may become less dependent one day, that dependent parents will eventually die, and hopefully that one's wealth will increase. Those factors reduce the potential for financial hardship on others if you die, thus decrease your need for life insurance coverage over time. Will you need $500, 000.00 worth of coverage 20-30 years from now?

Consider that if you stop making payments after 10 years on the 30 year term at $36.31 per month due to affordability or changing needs, and your policy lapses, you would have wasted $2, 730.00 in premium payments over the 10 years you paid by using a 30 year term to accomplish what you could have accomplished by starting with a 10 year term.