For someone in their 20s, what insurance do you recommend one buying?

Hi Summer,

Ideally in this order

1) Health Insurance - Hospital bills can be catastrophic to an individuals assets and savings. My sister had 3 surgical operations for ovarian cysts in the span of 2 years that amounted up to $80k or more.
2) Personal Accident - Minor accidents such as falling and fracturing may incur bills at the A&E might not be covered under health insurance but are pretty common. Other expenses such as physiotherapy, TCM, X-ray, MRI scans can be covered here as well. Some even have dengue fever & food poisoning as well. On top of that, disability could be costly in the long term if it happens at a young age.

3) Disability income (if you are working already) - Pays a monthly income to replace your original working income to keep you going regardless of accident or illness. It need not be as drastic as being struck with Total Permanent Disability (loss of 2 arms/ legs/ eyes) or Critical Illness either.

4) Critical Illness - Most policies (term life & whole life); the younger you are, the healthier you are and the cheaper it is. Its great to "lock in" your health when you're young if possible.

5) Life insurance (death & TPD) - depending on your circumstances, if you have huge loans or need to financially support someone in the family, it could go a long way to insure yourself.

Hi Summer,

Congrats on starting the next phase of your life; some guidelines on what policies you should look at are;

1. Hospitalisation Insurance, medical expenses in Singapore will only continue to increase and it's definitely important to ensure your income is protected in the event of hospitalisation. There are 2 components in this, the base plan and the rider which subsidises the deductibles and co-insurance component.

2. Personal Accident Insurance; I think this is the next to get as this is definitely affordable and also accidents are one of the most unforeseen circumstance. Personal Accident Insurance is one of the policies that allows you to make claims when you visit GPs for a minor sprain or cut due to accidents. They would reimburse you when you visit TCM too.

3. Whole Life/ Term this is would be the next to look for as this is to provide coverage against Death, Total Permanent Disability, Critical Illness & Early Stage Critical Illness. How much you should be covered? The guideline is;

10x your annual income for Death

5x your annual income for Critical Illness

2 - 3x your annual income for Early Stage Critical Illness

I would recommend looking into a Whole Life for Critical Illness as it's something that can happen at any point of our lives. You could also get a term to have more coverage during your working years, but that can be added on later.

Do reach out if you have more questions :)​​​