Life Insurance Tips For Newlyweds

When you first get married, there’s so much excitement and so many things to think about that life insurance doesn’t often cross your mind. Let’s be honest; going on honeymoon, thanking all your guests for attending the wedding, and planning your new life together is way more exciting than doing financial admin. But life insurance is an important part of protecting your future as a married couple. To make it less overwhelming, here are the top things that you really need to know about life insurance for newlyweds.

The first thing to do is investigate exactly how life insurance works, how you take it out, what it covers, and the general process of life insurance. You’ll need to get a quote, name your beneficiaries, and provide some documentation to make sure that your policy is active and that if you were to pass away, the right people would receive the cash payout.

Secondly, make sure that you cover yourself adequately. While you’ll be required by the banks to get insurance to cover your house if you die (assuming you aren’t buying it cash), the house alone is generally not enough to maintain a lifestyle. Life insurance can act as a salary replacement or can provide for things like the kids’ school fees, or even be used to pay for childcare or driving that one spouse would have provided when they were alive. Now that you have a spouse to consider, you’ll want to make sure that you’re able to provide for them financially even if something were to happen to you. The chances are that this means your insurance needs have changed.

With adequate coverage in mind, it’s important to discuss plans for children or elderly parents. This is so that when you take out your life cover, you know roughly how many people you’re going to have to provide for. If you know for sure that your spouse’s mother is going to live with you and expect financial support when she retires, you’ll need to plan for that in your life insurance.

The same goes for children. As we all know, kids are expensive! Raising a child brings extra costs in terms of school fees, food, clothing, transport, activities, childcare and a multitude of other things. If you definitely plan to have children, basing your life insurance on your current expenses won’t be viable.

So how much cover do you need? A good rule is to multiply your salary by seven as a starting point. Of course this is just a guide and obviously this would need to increase if you have lots of debts or want eight children. If you have a paid off house and car, and are unlikely to have dependents any time soon, you could probably decrease the cover.

It’s also worth remembering that although you may have life cover in place with your employer, this typically isn’t sufficient. If you were to lose your job or get sick and have to stop working, this cover would fall away and you’d be left without cover.

Don’t delay on your insurance. It might seem that because you’re newly married and probably recovering from the costs of the wedding, you could put it off for a few years. Life insurance premiums are cheaper when you take them out while you’re still young and healthy so getting it sorted out early not only gives you peace of mind but also makes your premiums more affordable.