I paid attention to folks who gave advice like foxtrot and bought a 20 year term policy about 2 years after I got married. I had to wait a little until my racing competition licenses had expired and decided not to take my private pilot license final to save some money. The value of my wife's is half of mine, but now that we have teenagers, we won't keep hers when the term runs in a few years. BUT, if you look at the stats, you are 4 times more likely to need disability insurance than life. So I also pay annually for a policy that pays me 70% of my current after 3 months of disability. Was still cheaper than whole and the difference I put into a brokerage account. WAY ahead of where I would have been with whole life. Will have to extend mine next year, but will likely drop the amount since my wife would not need the same amount of benefit.