There are important differences between Term and Whole Life Insurance, but don’t think that one is bad and the other is good. It depends on the situation. You get more term insurance than whole life per dollar spent, but this is because whole life is more than just insurance against accidental death, it is also an investment. As such you can figure it into your overall investment planning for retirement.An InvestmentHow can life insurance be an investment when most policies only pay upon death? Let me tell you a true story related to me by my mother. She said my dad bought a whole life policy within a few years after they were married. Until then he only had a Term Life policy through his work that would cover little more than burial expenses. The new whole life policy would give my mom a little extra to pay the bills should anything happen to him.This Whole Life policy helped them realize a dream come true and make extra money along the way. Several years went by. Along came one child, then two, then three and four. They bought a house in the suburbs, but their dream was to get a small parcel of acreage in Central Florida’s horse country. Finally an opportunity came–five acres. The price was right, but $1,000 was needed for the down payment; the balance could be paid off on time by monthly payments. Mom said the payments weren’t a problem. By then my dad’s salary could handle the extra for the monthly payments, but where would they get the thousand dollars?Mom said she wracked her brain every which way, but couldn’t see any way clear to get the thousand dollars. Then one day she thought of the Whole Life insurance policy they had been paying on several years. She remembered the young salesman sitting at their kitchen table explaining benefits of the whole life policy without dying versus term life in which someone else collects at death.One of the benefits was being able to borrow money from the policy. She called up the insurance company and sure enough it had accumulated over a $1,000 cash value which could be borrowed.You Can Borrow From The PolicyCan it make sense to borrow money from your insurance policy? You bet it can. The interest rate will likely be lower than anything you can get anywhere else such as a home equity loan and you won’t be on a schedule to pay it back. You should at least make regular payments on the interest accrued to keep the loan balance from getting larger. The insurance company won’t determine how much you should pay every month.The amount is up to you, so you can’t be penalized for missing a payment. You will want to repay it eventually though, since the idea behind getting life insurance in the first place was to have the cash value available to you or your heirs at some time in the future. The only reason not to pay it back would be if you used the money to make an even better investment, such as buying property that would appreciate in value.Mom said that little Whole Life insurance policy really saved the day a few other times too when they needed a few hundred dollars suddenly in an emergency. Just like the little Energizer bunny rabbit, it just kept on giving and giving. A Whole Life insurance policy may ‘literally save your life’ some time when you need money and can’t borrow money from the bank for one reason or another.If you’re searching for Term Life insurance, be sure to get a Whole Life insurance quote, too. You can obtain one over the internet. Look at each policy type various companies offer, matching them with your individual Term Life insurance needs. After all, an educated consumer is a happy consumer.