Confused about life insurance

[Flowers665]

I'm early 30s, no kids, no dependents, single. Have got a mortgage for the first time. Do I need life insurance?? Critical illness cover or income protection seems like a good idea but can you get this on its own? Confused!!

Yes, you can get them on their own.

No, you don't need life assurance.

If you were hit by the proverbial bus tomorrow, obviously you'd be sadly missed by family and friends, but you don't need the mortgage paid off, or you don't need to pay for childcare and so forth, which is what life assurance would do.

Your house would be sold and the proceeds pay off your mortgage.

Obviously you dont need life assurance as you have no dependents but income protection might be useful if for whatever reason you couldnt work - eg if you had an accident or a long term illness. However, as with all insurance, it could be money for nothing!

Check very carefully what you would be covered for; some will just pay the mortgage for a set period or more generous ones will offer an income of around half to three quarters of your pay if you are off work. Obviously the more generous schemes have higher premiums. Often it will only pay after you have been off for three months or six months so it only applies if you are long term off work.

There are various big names that offer it; just do a google search or use one of the comparison sites.

Whether you take it out depends on your attitude to risk and the amount of savings you have - would you be able to keep up your mortgage payments if you didnt work for a year? Do you have family/ others who might be able to help financially if you were in a long term illness situation? Might it be viable to sell up and move somewhere cheaper if you couldnt get a job?

Alternatively could you put what you would have paid in premiums into a separate savings account to cover any period where you had no income?

Above replies are good. However, you may still want to get it now because you may acquire dependents along the way (get married, have children, etc). Of course you can also choose to get it later when your life circumstances change but if you ever develop any conditions later on you may not be able to get coverage for them.

Life insurance is much cheaper than income protection anyway.