Life Insurance: Are You Screwed?

The first thing you need to know about life insurance is that the younger and healthier you are, the less expensive it is. There are instances where life insurance can be beneficial even if you have no dependents, the most basic of which would be covering your own funeral expenses. Over the years, life insurance has also evolved to provide options for building wealth or tax-free investments.

Here’s a list of different scenarios that one needs to be aware of why you would want to buy life insurance at these stages. This list will help you consider various reasons to purchase life insurance and help you figure out if it is time for you to look into buying life insurance or not.

Aging Parents
If you’re single and have financially dependent parents, then you need a life policy to keep them secure if you aren’t capable of being around to care for them. In an increasing number of cases, elderly parents are becoming dependent upon the income of their adult children. It’s becoming more common as people live longer. Even if they had a substantial amount of savings and investments earlier in life, if they live long enough, they begin to outlive their money.

Sole Breadwinners
If you’re the only person earning money to support your household, you need life insurance. A wise breadwinner makes sure that he or she can provide for the family even if they lose their capacity to do so. Insurance helps breadwinners by giving a lump sum amount of money to a breadwinner’s family in case he/she gets into a situation that prevents them from earning income. These situations could vary from an accident, disability, critical illness or even when they pass away.

Children’s Future
We see the cost of higher education rising every year which means many graduates are bound to take education loans to complete their education. However, buying a life insurance may assist in your kid’s future education requirements in case you’re not around to help them.

Dealing with Debts
Life insurance can be a way of securing that your debts are paid off if you die. If you die with debts and no way for your estate to pay them, your assets and everything you worked for may be lost and will not get passed on to someone you care about. Instead, your estate may be left with debt, which could be passed to your heirs.

Work Insurance is Not Enough
It is not strategically sound to leave your life insurance in the hands of an employer. If you have life insurance through your work, you should still buy your own life insurance policy. The reason you should never only rely on life insurance at work is that you could lose your job, or decide to change jobs and once you do that, you lose that life insurance policy.

So... Am I Screwed Now?

Take the time to scout for the right insurance plan for your situation. People often say they cannot afford insurance, but the reality is that they cannot afford not to have it. 

It can save them from thousands of dollars in unplanned expenses when unexpected situations arise. You do not want to waste your money on policies that do not meet your needs, but the right insurance policy plan can protect you and your family from unforeseen disasters. 

Written by

Cheryl Toh

Last updated on

December 17th 2019, 3:50 pm

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