"HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAAAAAAAAY"
As multi-line licensed insurance and finacial agent (home, auto, life, business, etc + investments), here is my advice to you:
1> Determine your immediate needs for life insurance (you die tonight, who needs how much money to have an *same* or easier life without your income)
2> Determine your long term goals. Do you want have cash to play with in 30 years? Or, are you using other vehicles to collect cash (IRA, annuities, mutual funds, etc).
There are two kinds of life insurance: Term and permanent. Term = set amount of time and ZERO amount of cash growth. Permanent = in force until death. Term is cheaper, but limited in length of time. Permanent (whole life, univerasal life, variable universal life) is for the full life cycle, gathers cash value, and is more expensive.
I usually suggest to my clients to buy term and invest into an IRA or regular investments. Keep things simple. Some agents or CFP will come up with some elaborate financial plans, but to me it just makes things more complicated for the insured.
Take your mortgage, any credit cards debt, auto lean, student loans, used lines of credit, etc.... and add it up. Have at least that much in life insurance. For both YOU and your SPOUSE. Seperate policies. Also, the difference in $500k and $200k in coverage is very little, usually. Dont be afraid to get "quote" on more than one amount. AND>...... forget shopping around. Just go to your local New York Life agent, or if you use a captive insurance agency (State Farm, All-State, FARMERS, Allied, etc), try them out for quote. Many times, you'll get further discounts on your home and auto insurace just by haveing life insurance as well (at least with FARMERS you do
).