When people that I meet find out what I do for a living, they often ask me “Should I buy life insurance?”  Some of them are probably just baiting me, knowing that I can make money by selling them something.  But a lot of them are seriously unsure if this is something they really need. My answer is always the same. “It depends.“

I had a professor in college that said one of the greatest gifts a teacher can give to a student is to convince them that they are going to die someday. As human beings, we don’t enjoy thinking about our own demise on a regular basis, but awareness of our own mortality is certainly useful in helping us make good long term decisions.  
 

With this in mind I encourage my friends to take a minute and imagine that they were to die tomorrow. You don’t buy life insurance for yourself. You buy it to protect others.  

So think through the people in your life that depend on you and tell me about the financial challenges that they might experience if you were no longer alive.  

These are just a few scenarios to think about. Only you know your personal situation If after thinking through how others would be financially impacted if you were gone you can decide if those are scenarios that you are okay with. If not, then buy a life insurance policy.