Your financial planner wants you to have the life insurance because he gets a commission on it.

Who is your life insurance beneficiary? You don't mention having any children, or any other people who you support or who depend on your income. If the only person you support is you, you do not need life insurance. Life insurance is so that those people who depend on you can still have a roof over their heads and survive if you die. If you and a partner split a mortgage 50/50, your partner may not be able to keep the house by themselves. In that case, you should have life insurance on each of you to cover each of your halves of the house, so your partner can continue to live there.

Some employers provide minimal life insurance as a benifit. Usually, it's about 1 year of salary. That's plenty for a person with nobody who depends on them. Maybe even overkill, but if the employer includes it at no additional cost to you, take it.

No. It worked out exactly like I intended. I really got the 80% reduction in stress that I was looking for. I couldn't have stayed at the old job due to the stress.

I took a 20% pay cut for an 80% reduction in stress once.

Tell them that you next call will be to the SIPC.

Barclay's

Popular Direct

Ally

Sallie Mae Bank

Synchrony

These are easy to deal with, no nonsense, and all have rates above 3% right now. I would pick whichever one has the highest rate. I believe that today, it is Popular at 4.26%

Check bankrate.com for additional ideas.

VFIAX. Its expense ratio is half that of the target retirement date fund.

You have many years to invest in something else, or move the money when it is age appropriate. You don't need to pay double the expense ratio for someone to do that for you.

A low cost mutual fund. And luckily, you are at the right company to do that. Consider VFIAX