Perhaps you are still living with your parents while settling in. Or perhaps you are eager to get out of a rental and enter a house or tie a knot. Life insurance can be the last thing on your list of things to deal with or even think about. (You are not alone.) But here are five things you may not know about life insurance – which you should probably know.
1. Life insurance is a form of protection
If you Google “life insurance”, you will get a range of informed information about how cheap life insurance can be, without detailed information. Probably because it is not very pleasant to think: this idea that we could die and someone we like can suffer financially as a result. Life insurance provides a financial reserve for the people you care about in case something happens to you. Think just because you’re single, nobody would be left in the lurch?
2. College debt cannot go away
Did someone co-sign your student loans through the bank? If so, the bank won’t discharge that debt upon your death the way that the federal government would with federal student loans. That means your co-signers would be responsible for paying the full balance — sometimes immediately.
3. If you don’t know anything about life insurance, it’s probably not best to buy on the Internet
That’s what we’re used to: you find what you need or love on Amazon, Ebay or Etsy, click on a few buttons and click POOF. It comes to your door. But life insurance is a financial planning product. Reviewing your options with an insurance professional can ensure that you get the right amount for the right time and the right price for your budget. And many people are unaware that an agent is sent and helped at no cost.
4. Social fundraising will go so far
This relatively recent phenomenon makes everyone think that they just run GoFundMe, as items go wrong in their lives. But did anyone ask about spending time running a social fundraising site? As the chances of going viral are markedly reduced, and social fundraising sites will be affected, such as the IRS. And there is absolutely no guarantee about how much – if any – the money will be raised.
5. The best time is now
You will definitely never be younger than you are today, and for most of us, the younger we are, the healthier we are. These are the two most important factors in obtaining affordable life insurance coverage. So don’t delay.
