Don’t forget dependents                                                                                              Whilst you are alive you take into account all that you own and deduct all that you owe. You then embark on a financial journey to own more and owe less. If you die, however, you need to also include a provision for your income which your dependents rely upon.

The sum total is the essential amount of life assurance that you will need to have in place in the event of your death.

Whilst you are alive you should then aim to pay off the things that you owe and then build up a nest egg that you and your dependents can live off into the future.

Life assurance is the way to provide for dying too soon before you have had the time to accumulate enough to pay off debt and leave behind enough to support your dependents.

The way forward                                                                                                               So it stands to reason that you need to take a snapshot of where you are right now in relation to your debt and your monthly lifestyle needs.

You then put in place a life assurance policy to cover yourself in the first instance.

You then embark on a dedicated financial journey to wean yourself off the dependency of the life assurance policy. The more your worth improves the less life cover you will need.

Aim to accumulate enough while you are living which is what financial independence is all about. Work on being less dependent on life assurance.