Your agent won’t tell you, because he has a vested interest in you NOT learning, but “whole life” insurance (or “universal” or whatever is being packaged and marketed these days) – the kind that you’re probably talking about as a savings / investment vehicle – is probably the worst way to save for the future or to “invest”. The reason for that is that term life insurance for young, healthy non-smokers without extraordinary health or lifestyle risk is very, very inexpensive. So here’s how you can find out how bad a deal this is for you. Obtain some quotes from wherever you like on term insurance of the same denomination that you’re talking about with your “investment” type. So if you were thinking about a $250,000 policy for yourself (as proposed by the agent), then in order to compare apples to apples, compare his cost to the range of quotes that you’re getting. The difference – because his cost will be substantially higher (and he will say “because of the investment! – fine, we’ll get to that) is in his commission and the value of the vested amount, or the “cash value” of the policy. That cash value does build up over time – that’s true. It’s also tax-free, and that’s true, too. But look at how slowly it builds up year-over-year. That slow growth (and it is painfully, incrementally slow, compared to how much it will be costing you!) is an indication of how poorly this functions as an “investment” vehicle for you. So the better advice – and I’m not trying to “sell” this to you – I have no financial interest in how well you do or what decisions you make – is to buy the term insurance policies that appeal to you both, consider the difference between that annual policy premium and your salesman’s cost, and “invest that difference” on your own in a tax-deferred (traditional) or tax-exempt (Roth) IRA. The investment will grow faster, and you will have full control over how it is invested. In years to come you may elect to simply forget about life insurance altogether (I haven’t bought it for 17 years now) because your estate will have grown to a place where it is no longer necessary for you, because your retirement savings will be the source of whatever income you need later in life.