Are You Covered? Hidden Gaps in Life Insurance That Could Cost Your Family

NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast

NerdWallet Personal Finance

Investing, How To, Education, Business

4.3 • 895 Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn how to choose term vs whole life insurance and calculate your coverage so your family stays protected. How much life insurance do you really need? Which is smarter, term or whole life? Hosts Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola discuss recent smart, fun, and dumb spending to spark a quick audit of your own money habits, then pivot to right-sizing life insurance so your family isn’t left exposed. They begin with a discussion of everyday spending wins and fails, with tips and tricks on reviewing statements to catch unused subscriptions, setting guilt-free “fun” budgets that match your values, and investing in your health and home with intention. Then, insurance Nerd Kaz Weida joins Sean and Elizabeth to discuss a listener’s question about life insurance choices. They explain the DIME method for figuring out how much coverage you need, how to weigh term vs whole based on goals and risk, what costs look like at different ages, and how to handle beneficiaries, trusts, and group coverage from work. Plus: why you should periodically update your beneficiaries as life changes. How much life insurance do you need? NerdWallet’s free life insurance calculator can help you do the math: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/insurance/how-much-life-insurance-do-i-need Want us to review your budget? Fill out this form — completely anonymously if you want — and we might feature your budget in a future segment! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK53yAufsc4v5UpghhVfxtk2MoyooHzlSIRBnRxUPl3hKBig/viewform?usp=header In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: life insurance, term life insurance, whole life insurance, beneficiary designation, trust vs beneficiary, group term life insurance, life insurance cost in your 30s, life insurance cost in your 40s, cash value life insurance, indexed universal life insurance, variable universal life insurance, estate planning basics, stay-at-home parent life insurance, update life insurance beneficiaries, convert term policy, smoker vs nonsmoker life insurance rates, life insurance medical exam, term vs whole life comparison, permanent life insurance, life insurance through employer, supplemental life insurance, life insurance payout, coverage amount calculator, college fund and life insurance, mortgage protection with life insurance, and prenuptial agreement and finances. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email podcast@nerdwallet.com. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sean, we are always giving people sound financial advice, if I might say so myself.
0:05.5	But I feel like it's time to remind listeners that sometimes we go astray to.
0:10.7	Speak for yourself, Elizabeth. I have perfect financial hygiene. I never make any missteps ever.
0:15.6	So we'll talk about your mistakes.
0:17.7	We'll see about that because we're going to be talking about smart, fun, and dumb
0:21.6	money. Welcome to Nerd Wallet's Smart Money podcast, where you send us your money questions and we
0:31.3	answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles. And I'm Elizabeth Ayola. This
0:37.1	episode, we're talking about how much life insurance you need.
0:40.8	But first, it's time for another round of smart money, dumb money, fun money, where Elizabeth
0:45.7	and I talk about three different things that we spent money on recently that were, you guessed
0:50.0	it, smart, dumb, and fun.
0:52.0	Our hope is that you can revel in being a little bit nosy, hearing about
0:54.8	what Elizabeth and I spend our money on. And also, hopefully, this helps you reflect on how you spend your money, too. And I know we do quite a few segments, but this is one of my favorites, because I get to tell my business. You know, I love doing that. And I get to hear your Su-Shang. You love hearing my business. I know that. I do. Now, this time we're doing
1:12.8	things a little differently. Sean and I are going to whip out our bank statements in real time
1:17.4	and share our smart, dumb, and fun expenses. All right, first up, let's talk smart money. Do you see what
1:24.5	I did there, Sean? We're going to be talking smart money. Yeah, Clever. Yes. All right. What's the smart expense on your statement, Sean? And by statement,
1:33.3	I'm really just pulling up my credit card app. So let me look at that and swipe through my million
1:39.3	apps that I have open. Okay. So the smartest expense that I have over my last statement period is going to be the
1:47.1	amount that I paid for my prenuptial agreement. Oh, ooh. Yes. I know these are controversial and
1:54.4	weirdly still very taboo in the world of money and relationships in 2025, but my partner and I wanted to get a pre-nup before
2:02.3	we got married because we want to take care of each other in a weird way. I know that pre-ups
2:07.8	might seem very transactional and stiff and unromantic, but I view it as a really romantic act
	...

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