Syndicated Financial Columnist, Host of the weekly talk show Steve Savant's Money, the Name of the Game, Scottsdale Arizona
Life insurance is a product that protects those who could suffer economic loss at your demise,i.e. your immediate family,business partners and charities that depend on you. If your have a family, business or charity, you need life insurance no matter what age you are. Life insurance is part of defensive financial planning.
The best age to get life insurance is when you have a need that you want to protect. E.g. getting married, having children, and buying homes are all reasons people buy life insurance. The younger you are and the healthier you are, the lower the premiums, so there is a cost advantage to getting life insurance while you are young.
President, The Firm of Steven H. Kobrin, LUTCF, 6-05 Saddle River Rd #103, Fair Lawn, NJ 07410
Best answer: six months old.
Hopefully, your parents did this for you. Hopefully, they bought you a nice whole life policy at a ridiculously low premium. A guaranteed premium. For your lifetime.
Since it is a lifetime contract, you have lots of time to grow both the cash values and the survivor benefit. They can both grow to enormous numbers if you let them.
If your parents did this for you, more power to you. If not, it’s not too late for you to do this for your children and grandchildren.
Next best answer: now.
You are single? It doesn’t matter. You don’t have any dependents? It doesn’t matter. You don’t have any obligations? It doesn’t matter.
The price will never be lower than it is now. Even if you are in perfect health, if you wait just two years to make the purchase, the price will be higher simply due to age. Why pay extra?
What’s that? You have a pre-existing condition and want to wait until it improves or stabilizes? Not a good idea. What happens if it gets worse? Then you are out of luck.
If you want life insurance, get it. You may end up paying more now. But if your health does improve, then you can re-shop the coverage and replace the current policy with a cheaper one.
And if unfortunately you don’t get better, then at least you will have a policy in force. To protect your spouse, or pay off the mortgage, or cover your business debt, or for any of the many other reasons you will need life insurance later on.
Hopefully, your parents did this for you. Hopefully, they bought you a nice whole life policy at a ridiculously low premium. A guaranteed premium. For your lifetime.
Since it is a lifetime contract, you have lots of time to grow both the cash values and the survivor benefit. They can both grow to enormous numbers if you let them.
If your parents did this for you, more power to you. If not, it’s not too late for you to do this for your children and grandchildren.
Next best answer: now.
You are single? It doesn’t matter. You don’t have any dependents? It doesn’t matter. You don’t have any obligations? It doesn’t matter.
The price will never be lower than it is now. Even if you are in perfect health, if you wait just two years to make the purchase, the price will be higher simply due to age. Why pay extra?
What’s that? You have a pre-existing condition and want to wait until it improves or stabilizes? Not a good idea. What happens if it gets worse? Then you are out of luck.
If you want life insurance, get it. You may end up paying more now. But if your health does improve, then you can re-shop the coverage and replace the current policy with a cheaper one.
And if unfortunately you don’t get better, then at least you will have a policy in force. To protect your spouse, or pay off the mortgage, or cover your business debt, or for any of the many other reasons you will need life insurance later on.