Insurance priorities for all ages and stages

Young and single

In the early years of your career you’re possibly paying off student loans and spending a large portion of your pay on rent.

You might not have kids or many financial assets yet. So do you need insurance? (Spoiler alert: there's a good chance you might!)

Even if you haven’t got a lot of valuables yet, it’s still worth considering contents insurance. If your stuff was stolen or accidentally damaged would you be able to afford to replace it without insurance?

If you have a car, then you might want to think about getting car insurance. If your car is a bit of a bomb, then third party insurance will cover your liability if you damage someone else’s vehicle. If your car is a bit nicer, then think about comprehensive insurance.

Income protection insurance is also worth considering. Your ability to earn an income is your biggest financial asset. As much as we’d like to think we’re invincible, illness and accidents can affect anyone. Would you be able to pay your rent and other expenses if you were suddenly unable to work for several months? Life & Living Insurance could help ease financial burdens if you were out of action for a while.

Mortgage and/or kids

As soon as you’ve got a mortgage and people who depend on you financially, then it’s worth reviewing your living insurance cover and think about adding life insurance to the mix to take care of your household finances if you can't work for a while.

Taking out life insurance means that if you died, your loved ones could be financially looked after with the mortgage repaid, and other bills and expenses taken care of.

You need to consider how your family functions, which means that it’s not just the household’s main income earner who needs insurance. If you’re a stay-at-home parent, think about who would look after the kids if something happened to you? Would your partner give up work, or would they use childcare?

Either scenario will require money – either to make up for a lost income, or to pay for a service.

If you own a house, then house insurance is another obvious thing to consider at this stage in life. It would also be worth revisiting how much contents insurance you have – chances are you own more stuff and it’s better quality, so you may need to top up your cover.

Older with more assets

With a few more years of work under your belt, you’re possibly on the way to paying off your mortgage and building up a healthy pot of retirement savings. You might still have financial dependents or adult children living at home.

Making sure your policies still meet your needs

It’s worth regularly reviewing your policies to make sure they still meet your needs. Big life events like getting a divorce, marrying or re-partnering are all good triggers to take a look at your finances – and that should include your insurance. If your relationships have changed, or you’ve had more children, you might want to change your beneficiaries.

You should also check that your cover is at a level that will meet your needs – so you’re neither underinsured nor over insured. For example, if you’ve paid down the bulk of your mortgage, you should look at how much life insurance you have – you may want to think about reducing it.

Living insurance might be worth thinking about – a serious illness at this stage of life could derail your plans for your financial future.