How Much Life Insurance do you need?

Life insurance is something you don’t buy for yourself – you buy it for the benefit of others. When should you think about buying it? Certainly, when you get married, have children or have someone who is dependent on your income. Then the question is: How much do you need?

Take a common-law couple in their early 30s we’ll call Carly and Jack. They have been in a relationship for three years and recently purchased a $350,000 two-bedroom condo in a Toronto suburb. But what if Jack suddenly died? It currently takes both Jack and Carly’s incomes to afford their $2,000 monthly mortgage payments and condo fees. Carly could sell the condo and downsize but she’d like to avoid that hassle. So, the couple decided to get life insurance to protect their new home. That way, Carly or Jack would have the money to pay off their mortgage if something happened to one of them.

Many people believe the coverage provided by their employer is sufficient. But let’s do the math. Your employer’s group insurer would likely pay your beneficiary three times your annual salary, at most. If you earn $70,000 a year, that’s $210,000. Let’s say you have a husband and two young children counting on that income for mortgage payments, daycare costs, education savings and day-to-day living expenses. It won’t take long for that lump sum to disappear.

So how much do you need? An insurance advisor will help you to fill out a needs analysis questionnaire to determine the appropriate amount, taking into consideration your annual income, net worth, debts and existing life insurance.

A general rule of thumb is you should be covered for at least 10 times your annual income, so if you earn $70,000, you’d be looking at $700,000 in coverage. But every individual situation is different and should be examined as such.

An analysis would determine what you need the money for, how much you need each month and how long you need it to last. Let’s take Jackie, a 39-year-old married mother of two. She has three goals for her insurance coverage:

1.      Pay off the $300,000 mortgage.

2.      Top up her two children’s registered education savings accounts.

3.      Replace her $60,000 income.

In simple terms, Jackie is looking at a $1 million policy. If she died, the money from her insurance could be spent this way:

·         $300,000 toward the mortgage

·         $100,000 toward the kids’ RESPs ($50,000 is the maximum amount you can contribute to an individual RESP).

·         $600,000 (her annual earnings times 10) to invest to cover day-to-day expenses that her husband Bob and children will incur over the years.

How term insurance works

Term life insurance provides temporary protection for temporary needs. Specific terms usually range from one to 20 years, so it can be an excellent, affordable option for parents with young children. For instance, a $1 million term policy on a woman in her late 30s like Jackie costs $77 per month. For a man of the same age, it’s closer to $111. Experts recommend 20-year term policies for younger couples who are buying their first homes, are recently married and have significant debt. For couples in their 40s who have little debt and have almost paid off their mortgages, 10-year term policies might be sufficient. Couples should consider joint-term, first-to-die policies, which insure two people and pay out on the death of the first insured person.

Jackie and her husband Bob decided they needed a $1 million, 20-year joint term first-to-die life policy, with a monthly premium cost of $177. They thought about going with a $500,000 life policy instead, but reconsidered at the last minute. With a significant mortgage to pay off, they wanted the security of knowing that in a worst-case scenario, they’d have that extra money for other needs.

In addition to providing affordable protection, term insurance also gives you some future flexibility. Most term insurance plans let you convert your term coverage to permanent insurance without having to answer any health-related questions. As long as your premiums are paid, your life insurance protection will stay in place for the rest of your life.

For more financial planning tips, check out:

·         Five financial products you should own

·         Critical illness insurance, simply put (Video)

·         Twelve key documents you need to gather

·         What would happen if you couldn’t work?

---

When was the last time you reviewed your personal economic plan?
Talking with your advisor can help ensure you’re on track to meet your financial and retirement goals. Don’t have an advisor? Contact me at douglas.hopkins@sunlife.com .

Learn more about available life insurance and mortgage protection insurance options. Use our life insurance calculator to get an idea of how much you might need to protect your loved ones.

My name is Doug Hopkins and I am a Sun Life Financial Advisor. These are my personal opinions, not professional advice and they do not reflect the official position of Sun Life Financial.

 

*A clear connection - Your relationship with Sun Life Financial:




http://cdn.sunlife.com/static/canada/digital_media/Clear_Connections/IND_ClearConnections_EN_E.pdf                                                                         *Sun Life Financial advisors are contracted with Sun Life Financial distributors (Canada Inc.)
*Mutual funds offered by Sun Life Financial Investment Services (Canada) Inc.

 

momstown Milton Little Scientists Explore the World of Birds!

Our momstown Milton mamas and kids had fun exploring the world of birds at our Little Scientist program recently!  I think it is safe to say that we are all breathing a sigh of relief that warmer weather is on the way.  After a long winter it is exciting to celebrate the return of Spring, and we are always happy to see the robins return to our back yards!

We had a big group of Little Scientists, and we started off by talking about what makes a bird, a bird!  The kids had many ideas about what a bird is!  We narrowed down their ideas to a couple of traits that all birds share:  Birds have feathers covering their bodies; and birds are hatched from eggs. 

I asked the group: “Do all birds fly?”.  Our smart little ones knew that all birds do not fly.  We talked about how all birds can walk, most can fly, and that some can even swim.

We read a book about birds called Sparrow, Eagle, Penguin and Seagull – What is a Bird? by Brian P. Cleary.

After the book, we talked about how Spring is nesting time for birds, and how they are very hungry after migrating back from their warmer winter homes.   Our Little Scientists got busy making pinecone bird feeders to bring home and hang outside in their back yards. 

Moms helped tie strings onto the pinecones (less messy to tie it on BEFORE the peanut butter and bird seed is applied).

Everyone had fun using butter knives to spread peanut butter on their pinecones.

 Once the peanut butter was spread on, the kids took turns shaking their pinecones in a Ziploc bag half filled with birdseed.

Voila!  A wonderful treat for our feathered friends!

After our bird feeders, our Little Scientists worked on colouring a Bird Watching list.  This was a page filled with birds that our little ones will see in our area – robin, chickadee, blue jay, cardinal, duck, goose, etc.  We named each bird and looked at a photo of each bird.  They enjoyed colouring the birds, and all were excited to start looking for the different birds as they left for home.

Thank you all for coming out to the Little Scientist group today!  See you next time!

To learn more about what momstown Milton is all about - Click Here

To register for a 6 week FREE trial membership - Click Here

If you are a business that would like to sponsor our events or advertise with us please contact info.milton@momstown.ca

 

Submitted by Paula Porter, a momstown Milton member and

 mother of two children.

  

Raspberry Hazelnut Scone Recipe great addition to any Mother's Day Tea Party

Tea has long held a great meaning and significance in my family. As children, my mother would tell us how important it was for us to sit down together and enjoy a hot cup of tea. Our child version of tea would be mostly water, nonetheless, we would feel special as though we were a part of an exclusive experience. Congregating together on a Sunday afternoon wearing pretty clothes, we would sip tea and eat sweets. To this day, I'm very fond of the tea ritual and will create any excuse to pull out my tea set and get out my baking wear in the goal of ultimately spreading butter over a warm scone.

I'm sharing a recipe that have become an important part of my child-mother bonding relationship with my own children. 

Raspberry-Hazelnut Scone Recipe 

This recipe was given to me a lovely lady who attended a moms/babies gathering that I held years ago when my first child was 5 months old. Although we've moved away from that town, I'll never forget the moments of new mother bonding and yes, we even relaxed for a little bit as the babies played on the floor... 

dianasbakery.com 

Ingredients

1/3 cup hazelnuts

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking power

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt 

2/3 cup buttermilk 

1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted 

3/4 cup fresh raspberries 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly butter a large baking sheet. Toast the hazelnuts in a small cake pan for about 12 minutes or until fragrant and the skins blister. Transfer to a kitchen towel and rub the nuts together to remove the skins. Coarsely chop the nuts and let cool.

2. Raise the oven temperature to 400F. 

3. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking power, baking soda, salt and hazelnuts. In a large measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and butter. Stir the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients just until combined. Scoop 8 equal spoonfuls of the dough onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the scones are golden. Let cool slightly before serving.

I hope you enjoy theses scones as much as I do!

 

Written by Liz Marques Kogan - a momstown Milton member and mother of 2. Her blog is: OrchidaForever.

To learn more about what momstown Milton is all about - Click Here

To register for a 6 week FREE trial membership - Click Here

 

momstown Milton Jr Chefs Explore Exotic Fruits!

Our momstown Milton Junior Chefs had a wonderful time being "little explorers"  with new and exotic fruits at our Junior Chef - exotic fruits event!

The beautiful display of colourful fruits on the table caught the eye of everyone. We started off with guessing the name of each fruit.  When we correctly identified the fruit, it was passed around the table for everyone to look at, touch and smell.  Pineapple and mango were easily guessed, but the others were a little more challenging.  The children enjoyed the guessing game, and everyone was happy to hold the fruits in their own hands.  

Once the fruit was passed around, it was time to dig in!  Each child got a butter knife, small plastic plate (or "cutting board") and a small plastic bowl.  It was time to guess what each fruit would look like on the inside!  Almost everyone guessed the papaya would be yellow, but they were surprised to see the beautiful salmon colour and black seeds.  Seeing the white flesh with tiny black seeds inside the dragon fruit (or "monster fruit" as one of our Jr Chefs called it) was surprising when the kids guessed "blue", "yellow" or "red" would be inside the vibrant pink skin.

The fruits we tried today were: Pineapple, dragon fruit, pomegranate, granadilla, mango, papaya, and star fruit.  Most of these fruits were very easy for our Junior Chefs to cut on their own with their butter knives. They also enjoyed picking out the delicious juicy pomegranate seeds from the yellow flesh.  Moms were close by to lend a helping hand, however the kids did a wonderful job making their own fruit salads. It was nice for the kids to be able to decide what they wanted to eat and when!  We were all so proud of them... everyone did such a beautiful job exploring the fruits and bravely tasted EVERYTHING!!
 

Us moms were especially amazed that each and every child tried the slimy, gelatinous yet crunchy, grey pulp of the granadilla (a kind of passion fruit).  Liam's face in the photo below is priceless.  He was a trooper... they all were!!
 

We had a really fun time today at Junior Chef.  It was wonderful to sit at the table for almost an hour, with all of the kids interested and taking part.  A part of the success of the event was the fun, bright and delicious fruit, but letting the children have their own knifes, bowls and cutting boards really seemed to make the experience special.  Sometimes the simple things are just so great.  

To learn more about what momstown Milton is all about - Click Here

To register for a 6 week FREE trial membership - Click Here

If you are a business that would like to sponsor our events or advertise with us please contact info.milton@momstown.ca

 

 

Submitted by Paula Porter, a momstown Milton member and

 mother of two children.

momstown Milton French Tales for Tots Sponsored by Scholastic Canada: Un bébé Alligator

While the spring rain pitter pattered outside, les petits enfants of momstown Milton and their families met at Indigo for an exciting and interactive French Tales for Tots- Contes pour les bouts d'choux sponsored by Scholastic Canada.

To start the morning off on a crafty note, momstown Milton mamma Sam Kassam-Macfie, showed les enfants and their families how to put together the alligator puppet perfect for an interactive reading session with the featured book: Un bébé Alligator? by Robert Munsch. 

 

After les enfants got help with cutting out the shape for the alligator body, they zealously coloured in their alligator body to their heart's content, allowing their imaginations to take free reign. Once their alligator puppets were ready to be displayed and of course, to be played with, they sat down in a circle around Miss Liz for the story time. 

The children cackled with laughter and eyes widened in interest over the hilarious chain of  events following a human family's quest to find their baby after accidentally leaving the baby at the zoo and bringing home a bunch of zoo animals instead. Eager to be an active part in the storytelling, the children made animals sounds as Miss Liz read through the story.
 

Following the reading of Un bébé Alligator?, Miss Liz held up flash cards of pictures with animals and the children repeated the French name for the animal in loud clear voices. "Zèbre!" they cried out when the picture for the zebra came up. "Ourson" they said sweetly when a bear picture was shown and Miss Liz explained that they could see it as their own little teddy bear. 

To complement the featured book, we sang the popular "Alouette" song which was a wonderful way to reinforce body part names; pointing to mouth, ears, eyes, and more, the children were learning all the while having great fun! Our next song, "Petit poisson" (little fish), is always a crowd favourite at the momstown Milton French Tales for Tots and little arms love showing their swimming motions. 

The grand finale is always the draw for the book and the lucky winner Quinton happily held his Un bébé Alligator book tight with pride! 

We can't wait to meet again next month for another French Tales for Tots - Contes pour les bouts d'choux. We'd love to have you join us! 

Register here for your FREE Trial and 

come out and meet our incredible group!

Written by Liz Marques Kogan - a momstown Milton member and mother of 2.  Her blog is: OrchidaForever. 

momstown Milton Kids Explore Recycling Bin Crafts!

Look no farther than your recycling bin for wonderful craft ideas!  Our momstown Milton kids had fun today making binoculars at our Recycled Treasures program. The momstown educational curriculum theme for the month of April is "Little Explorers", so binoculars were an obvious choice!

I have long been a fan of keeping a cupboard full of recycled items that will one day become items to spark the imagination of my girls.  When I was asked to host this group I was thrilled.  Recycling and repurposing are our way of life, and doing crafts with my daughters and nieces is a passion of mine.  Our binoculars were made from yellow Solo cups saved from my daughter's first birthday party (I knew they would come in handy some day!) and ribbon left over from my wedding day!  

This was a very simple craft.  I pre cut off the bottoms of all the cups with an x-acto knife.  Each child got two cups and a roll of tape.  The cups were taped together, then the kids had fun decorating their binoculars with colourful stickers.  Once decorated we used a hole puncher to make a hole on each side, then attached the ribbon.  

 

 

We had another craft to do today - a fun telescope, but only one of our crafty kids was interested enough to make one!  This was also a simple craft - a paper towel tube, wrapped in construction paper that we decorated with crayons and stickers. The fun part of this craft was a strip cut from a clear plastic clam shell container.  The strip was decorated with small animal stickers, then threaded through slits cut (by an adult) in the telescope.  When looking through the telescope, if you pull the strip you can see the different animals!  
 

There is something about binoculars that really sparks kids' imaginations!  My oldest daughter has been playing all day with her binoculars around her neck.  She has been exploring with them - observing the letters in her soup, watching the birds in the back yard, even watching TV.  Amazing how something so simple can provide so much entertainment for our kids.  

Thank you to everyone came out today to Recycled Treasures!  Looking forward to more fun next time, when we will be creating Spring themed paintings with recycled items!

To learn more about what momstown Milton is all about - Click Here

 

To register for a 6 week FREE trial membership - Click Here

 

If you are a business that would like to sponsor our events or advertise with us please contact info.milton@momstown.ca