Life insurance isn't always something that I've thought very seriously about. Before I became more serious about my finances it was kind of an afterthought, especially when I was in my 20's and I didn't have a care in the world. I was single, no kids and nobody depending on me except myself. I really didn't think there was much of a reason for me to be buying life insurance when I wasn't married or didn't have kids. It was just like flushing money down the toilet, right?
The thing is, even if you're young and healthy there may be quite a few good reasons for you to buy good term life insurance. It isn't just for old people, you know!
September is life insurance awareness month, and to start the month off with a bang today Jeff Rose of Good Financial Cents and a list of 115+ personal finance bloggers and financial companies are proclaiming importance of having life insurance. To find out more about the life insurance movement, or to read articles from some of the other participants, head on over to the site’s page, or follow it on Twitter Hash Tag #LifeAWARE:
Life Insurance Movement At Good Financial Cents
So today I thought I would examine a question that a lot of people are probably asking today as they read all of these life insurance posts. Do you really need to have life insurance if you're young, unmarried and have no dependents?
The answer to that question is a resounding.. maybe. There are some pretty good reasons to consider getting life insurance, even while you're young.
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When You're Young, You're Probably Healthy
Typically most Americans will wait to buy insurance until they're a little bit older. At that point they've had years to get into bad eating habits, smoking, drinking and a whole host of other issues that can greatly affect their health. Having those health issues on your resume isn't going to be a good thing when it comes time to get life insurance, in fact, in some cases it will disqualify you from getting coverage at all! At the very least it will mean your premiums will be greatly increased to the point where it may be hard to afford a policy.
Instead of waiting until you're middle aged to get life insurance, why not buy it when you're young and healthy and in the prime of your life! The rates will be much cheaper, and you won't have to worry about being denied because of health issues.
Term Life Insurance Is Super Cheap
Another reason to consider getting insurance even when you're young is that the premiums are just so cheap. When I bought my insurance recently I was able to buy a good term life insurance policy of $500,000 for right around $30/month. That policy could have been even cheaper if I hadn't waited so long myself – I could have stood to lose a few pounds.
Rates have been dropping over the years, with standard risk term life insurance policies dropping 50% from 1994 to 2008.
Statistics prove that people are living longer, healthier lives due to the advances in medical care. This means that the need to charge high rates is simply unnecessary because the risk is much lower.
So rates are falling and you can get a decent amount of coverage for the cost of one meal out at your favorite restaurant. What's stopping you?
Do You Really Need It If Single?
If you're single, you may not technically need life insurance, but it might not be a bad idea for singles to buy life insurance while they're still young for a couple of reasons:
- Guarantee insurability: You never know when you'll have a health issue pop up, or whether or not you'll have an accident or some other issue that keeps you from getting life insurance later.
- Better rates: If you're buying when you're younger and healthier, than your rates will most likely be better.
- You have debt: If you have a large amount of debt to pay off, you may want to have a bit of life insurance to pay that off if you die – especially if there are co-signers on your debts.
Get Your Quotes Now!
The very least you can do even if you're reasonably sure that you don't want or need to get insurance – is to get a quote. Getting quotes on life insurance is easy in this day and age, just fill out a form or two and get quotes from a bunch of different companies. You can even do it through this site on our life insurance page. Check it out!
While I do see your argument I personally don’t feel I need insurance now. I’d rather pay a few bucks more a month later on than pay right now.
That said I can’t guarantee a health issue won’t pop up but it just isn’t worth insuring against right now to me.
It’s definitely a personal choice, and when I was younger I didn’t buy life insurance either. Thankfully it’s turned out OK for me, but I have heard stories where people didn’t buy then found out they had cancer and ended up dying without insurance at a young age. A scary thought..
My husband and I both have life insurance through our employers (4x our annual salary), however, we don’t have any children. For now, I think the insurance our employers provides is enough… but when we have kids we will most certainly be purchasing additional policies.