If you are recently married, congratulations! You may have sent out all of the wedding present thank you notes and settled down into married life. Perhaps you have bought a new house together, and, if you are both working, you may be able to put some money aside to save for your future.
Life seems good; you are young and happy, and the last thing on your mind is probably life insurance. After all, you don’t need to consider taking out a life insurance policy until you have children, right?

Actually, now is the perfect time to consider a life insurance policy. Before deciding, consider some of these questions:

  1. Can each of you afford your house payment or rent without the other’s income? As a DINK (dual income, no kids) couple, you likely qualified for a larger mortgage than either of you could have afforded on your own. If one of you passed away, would maintaining your standard of living be difficult? If you are grieving the loss of your spouse, the last thing you want to worry about is packing up, moving, and selling your home. Life insurance can give you time to grieve while remaining in familiar surroundings.
  2. Did you bring debt into the marriage? While most student loan debt is forgiven when someone dies, other types of debt such as credit card debt or failed business debt, for example, are not. You will still need to pay those debts in many cases, and life insurance can make this easier.
  3. Your rates will be lower when you are young and healthy. If you opt for term life insurance, your rates will be lower if you apply when you are young and healthy. While you may expect to stay healthy, more and more younger people are being diagnosed with conditions that used to affect people in their 50s or older such as diabetes. Once you are diagnosed with a chronic condition, life insurance rates soar.
  4. You can borrow against the insurance for medical costs. In some cases, if one of you becomes sick and has mounting medical bills, you will be able to borrow against the insurance to help you pay for current medical needs.

You may think you don’t need life insurance as a newlywed, but the answers to these questions may convince you otherwise. While an insurance agent can walk you through the different types of insurance, you can also research them yourself at a site like Genworth.
Finally, as mentioned in Money Matters: Insuring a New Marriage, if you already have life insurance that you took out before the marriage, make sure to update your policy to have your spouse as the beneficiary. Otherwise, a parent or ex-spouse who was previously listed as the beneficiary could be the one to get the life insurance policy rather than your new spouse.

Post by Melissa