When a person is in their 20s they experience their first real thrills of freedom and encounter the real world of responsibilities. It’s in their 30s or 40s that they become more cognisant of prioritising needs over wants and it’s in their 50s and 60s that they tend to appreciate their sacrifices in there early years or suffer the regrets.

When we are younger, we tend to leave the important stuff for tomorrow but we are so busy relishing the materialistic and ‘fun’ aspects of life that sometimes tomorrow never comes and it’s too little too late. There is a misconception that life assurance should be taken into consideration when we are much older. Wrong! Life assurance is much cheaper to acquire when you are younger. So are disability and critical illness cover and other risk benefits.

Besides being feasible it is also easier to attain. As we get older life happens! Our health changes, accidents occur and our visits to the doctors add up. All this is taken into consideration when we apply for risk cover as the underwriters take into consideration existing health conditions and past medical events and could load or decline benefits based on the risk.

You may be perfectly hale and hearty now but because you experienced a medical event the risk of a disease rising directly or indirectly from that occurrence immediately puts you at risk. Yes, you pay premiums and don’t see any tangible benefits from it but the fact of the matter is you will be covered should something happen.

I encourage all young individuals to get into the healthy habit of good financial planning and minimising the adverse effects of risk starting now! Life altering events like accidents or cancer don’t discriminate against age! Rather be safe than sorry, young and savvy!