My wife doesn't work and my daughter is out of the house and in college. It would actually cost me less to live (main housing and related expenses don't change and costs directly associated with my wife, i.e. clothes, hairdresser, cabs, etc... would disappear) so why does the program recommend I carry insurance for my wife? Estate purposes possibly?
thanks,
Larry
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Larry,
It's precisely because your wife doesn't work that the program is purchasing life insurance. What's going on is that ESPlanner assumes that your wife will want to maintain your current standard of living in the event of your death. As a consequence, ESPlanner figures out, for every year, how much life insurance you would have to purchase in order for her to maintain your current standard of living. You'll notice (or should) that as you age, the insurance requirements decrease. This is because as you get older, you have to insure a smaller total living standard for your wife.
If you want to reduce the amount of insurance, I think you need to tell ESPlanner by how much your wife's standard of living will decrease in the event of your death. I don't have the program in front of me at the moment so you'll need to dig around to see where that is accomplished.
Best,
Dick Munroe
I apologize, it's not insurance I purchase (which I have plenty of), but insurance the program recommends that she purchase.