Being a young adult these days is hard. Life throws so many things at you with blinding speed: work, spouse, kids, mortgage, etc. Here we are, expected to be able to run with these things, when just a few years past we had to ask for permission to use the restroom at school. While some of us can easily switch from band shirts and headphones to dress shirts and ties, we can all agree that oftentimes it feels like it takes all our time and energy just to keep up with an adult life’s pace.
With this being the case, it is easy to overlook something as vital as life insurance. We are already juggling around so many other things. Why tempt fate by throwing in another ball, right? I will take care of that stuff somewhere down the road. Besides, isn’t life insurance something retired people are supposed to be worrying about, not 20 to 30 year olds?
Nope.
The best time to get life insurance is while you are young. But, regardless of your age, the time to get life insurance is now. Contrary to what you may hear, life insurance isn’t something you start working on once you are getting up there in years. Let me explain why.
The most prominent reason is that the older you start, the more your premiums will cost you. In general, life insurance premiums get locked in when you start, while the amount of the premiums are based on your age when you start. The premiums tend to have a slight increase based on your age up to age 40, but once you get past that, the increases go way up. Starting while you are in your 20s versus your 50s or 60s could be the difference between paying $13 a month to $50 a month or more.
Make sure you consider this as well: the time between when we start working and when we retire are our prime earning years. This is the time when we progress our career and save up the money to take care of ourselves and our loved ones once we decide to call it quits on our jobs. I don’t want to be Mr. Negative here, but suppose the worst happens and you pass away well before you and your family were planning on? What about all the money you would have been able to earn and save and provide for your family? While life insurance doesn’t take away the pain of loss, it can at least mitigate the financial damage done by such a disaster.
Let’s be honest: one of the main reasons that we may choose to put this off is because money is generally a little tighter when we are younger. So, while life insurance is cheaper if we start young, we may still think it is outside of the realm of financial possibility. Usually, this isn’t the case. Most people are actually pretty surprised to find out how cheap life insurance can be for young and healthy people. Take the example from above. Say your premiums are $15 a month for decent coverage. That is about $.50 a day. I think most of us should be able to afford safety and security for $.50 a day.
Life insurance is important. No one like to think about their own mortality, but we need to face reality. Sadly, we are not kids anymore. It is time to make mature and responsible decisions to protect ourselves and those we care about. We cannot allow ourselves to be without life insurance. Now is the time. Don’t put it off. I promise you will be happy you didn’t.
