It is a good investment - for the insurance company.  For you, not so good.  When an insurance company issues a term life policy (for a specific term or amount of time) that are gambling that the policy holder does will not die.  They are pretty good at predicting the odds; most of the make a profit, by the way.

In the case of whole life, there's no gamble at all.  They've issued a policy for your whole life (hence the name) or until age 100.  They KNOW WITHOUT A DOUBT that the policyholder will collect.  It's a matter of when, not if.  The face value of the whole life policy never changes; if you buy a $50,000 whole life policy at age 29, the payout will be $50,000 at age 29, and also $50,000 at ge 99.  If you live to age 100, the payout is also $50,000.  The devil is in the details and those details account for the difference in pricing on the various policies.  And one of the biggest "good investment" killers is the various management fees most companies tack into the whole life equation.  You won't have to look hard to find a better investment, trust me.