Life insurance is required at every point of your life. The question you need to be asking yourself is what kind of life insurance I would need at different stages of my life. When you are young the necessity for life insurance is less, but that changes after sometime as you take on more responsibilities and your family start depending on you. Let us look at stages of life and your need for insurance.
Young adulthood:
At this stage of life, you become more self-sustainable, free and do not depend on others for your financial matters. At such a point life insurance is not a concern for most folks. Some may also suggest buying health insurance now when you are healthy and the rates being low. This is a case where there is likeness of developing a medical condition at a later point of time. Your life insurance need can increase if you have dependents like grandparent or parents, where in it could provide them with continued support in case of your death.
Right after marriage:
Married couples without children normally have a less need for life insurance. As both the spouses share equal burden of the household, finances can be managed well. Upon buying a house, the state changes. It becomes difficult to maintain household along with the home loan with the salary of only one spouse (in case of death of the other). Credit card debts and other petty debts sum up to the interlock. To make sure that either spouse can carry on financially after the death of the other, it is better to insure both of them for a moderate sum of life insurance.
Family grows:
Once you have children, life insurance almost comes to an end by the time as, ideally both the parents would have been or need to be insured by then. Both spouses should carry enough life insurance to cover the lost income. If both spouses are working, then both spouses need to be insured too. If one of them dies, then it is unlikely for the other to keep up with household expenses and paying for child care.
Career growth:
Career development might mean joining a job in a new company for some or being your own boss and starting your own business. It gets important to check your insurance cover any time you leave an employer. Employer-sponsored life insurance coverage will usually end once you leave that job; you will have to find out if you are eligible for life insurance with your new employer and also need to make sure that the coverage amount is up-to-date too.
Your Retirement:
Once you reach the age of retirement, you need for life cover may change yet again. If people are not depending on your finances anymore, when you have repaid all your debts and home loans, there is less need for a life insurance.
