The insurance policy most new dads get wrong

A healthy 30 year old can get a 20 year, $500,000 term policy for around $38 a month. We've watched most new dads either skip this entirely or grab whatever number sounds big enough without doing a shred of actual math.

Term life isn't complicated, it's just skipped

Term life insurance is about as close to "boring but important" as personal finance gets. You pay a set premium for a set number of years, and if something happens to you inside that window, your family gets a payout.

No investment component, no cash value to babysit, just income replacement if the worst happens.

The two mistakes we see most often: not having any coverage at all, usually because it feels like a "someday" task that never gets a someday, or buying a policy sized around a number that just felt right without any math behind it.

"I'll get $250,000, that sounds like a lot" isn't a framework. It's a guess dressed up as a decision.

A more useful starting point: how many years of income would your family actually need replaced, and for how long? A common rule of thumb some planners use is 10 times your annual income, but we want to be clear that's a rough anchor, not gospel.

It doesn't account for your debt, your spouse's income, how many kids you've got, or how close you are to not needing coverage at all. Term length matters just as much as the amount, it should roughly track the years until your youngest kid can reasonably stand on their own, not some round number like "20 years" just because that's what popped up first in a quote.

The trap a lot of guys fall into: "I've got coverage through work." Employer life insurance is a nice bonus, usually 1x to 2x salary, but it's rarely enough on its own, and it evaporates the moment you leave the job.

It's a floor. Not the whole plan.

If term life is still parked on your "someday" list, it's item one on our free checklist for expecting and new dads. Ten minutes gets you real quotes. Link's below.

Until next week,
Mason & Bryce