No, the odds are comparing the cost of not dying (paying the full policy) to the benefit of dying (one million dollars). Technically, one should subtract that average cost of the policy up until the pay out, but since a million is a lot bigger than ten thousand, it wouldn’t change the odds by more than 1% at most.
Actually, I think you need to look at “expected amount paid” which is somewhat less than 10,000 because there’s a slim chance of dying before being all paid up.
That’s why I said “a little better than 1000-1” (should be “a little better than 100-1”, as per your correction).
If you figured out a “fair” value for the premium on a 20-year term, $1,000,000 policy, for a healthy 30 year old, I bet it would be less than $50 a year. I don’t have actuarial tables in front of me.
I don’t have life insurance, other than what I have through work, because I don’t have dependents. Since no one relies on me for income, no one will be out financially if I go early.
But I did have an insurance agent once try to sell me life insurance with a rather intriguing sales pitch. After he’d gone through the usual arguments, and I’d made the usual rebuttals, he said, “What if your boyfriend kills you? If you have an insurance policy, think about the peace of mind you’d have, knowing that after your death we’d work harder than the police and your parents combined to bring him to justice.”
My boyfriend at the time (a sweet, unassuming, and rather boring fellow) was outside, and had met the agent. No idea why the agent thought pitching the “you could be dating a serial killer” argument would work.
Married - no kids. I have 2x and DeHusband has 4x. Not enough for either of us to look at knocking the other off, but enough to pay off the mortgage in the event of bad things happening.