When I was a 24–years old, I became a life insurance policy owner. At the time, I was a single individual, with some disposable income and no dependents.

Why did I do this? Well, the process began at my workplace. After asking a friend and colleague, Steven, about his retirement future, he shared how he intended to plan for it. He rattled off the usual, in no certain order: a 401(k) plan, Roth IRA account, personally–held stocks and bonds, a money market account. And, guess what? Life insurance.

By all means, I was surprised by that last one. Why was life insurance a part of his financial portfolio? My understanding was that we received annually renewed, term life insurance through our employer; so, basically, we were covered I thought. And of course, like many others’, I did not view life insurance as a part of any financial strategy at all.

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