I always thought I didn't need life Insurance until I had kids, but at age 35 I've realized I was wrong

Insider's experts choose the best products and services to help make smart decisions with your money (here's how). In some cases, we receive a commission from our partners, however, our opinions are our own. Terms apply to offers listed on this page.When I turned 30, I decided to do an overhaul of my finances after spending my 20s making mistakes.

I spent months meeting with financial experts and soliciting advice from friends and family members in order to put together a new money strategy.The advice I received helped me start budgeting, investing in different index funds and stocks, opening up a retirement fund, and finally having an emergency fund.I also received the advice that I should skip thinking about life insurance until later on, when I had kids. Until then, many people told me it would just be a waste and another monthly payment to think about. At the time, I was recently married and not thinking about any type of timeline for starting a family, so I thought it was smart advice to follow.However, now that I'm about to turn 35, and still don't have any kids, I'm starting to reconsider that decision and have started looking into life insurance policies.

Here's why.Life changes are loomingMy husband and I have started doing some near-term future planning and have decided to begin thinking more about having kids. Even though we're not in a rush, it makes sense to explore life insurance before I'm pregnant.One benefit of getting life insurance now is being able to take advantage of potentially getting a policy with a lower premium, because of my age. If I waited another few years, or even a decade, I could be paying much more, since the cost of life insurance depends on a variety of factors including age, medical and family history, and even lifestyle (smoking and tobacco use).Since there's a good chance I'll have dependents in the future, It could be worthwhile to lock in a policy now, at a lower rate..I have a flexible incomeMy husband and I have very different income sources.

He works a full-time job at a company and receives a steady paycheck. I am an entrepreneur and freelancer whose income varies drastically every single month. Since we rely on both of our incomes to pay for our expenses, and are able to save very little monthly, it would make sense for both of us to have life insurance policies — especially since both of us plan to work until retirement age so we can be a dual-income household.If something were to happen to one of us with life insurance, even without having kids, the other person wouldn't have to go through a financial hardship due to the loss of one of our incomes.

That person would still be able to afford our current standard of living, pay off any outstanding debt, and be able to make smart saving and investment decisions without having to take on extra jobs or stress about the future of their finances.I do have other dependentsEven though I don't have kids, I'm factoring in other dependents that I might potentially have in the future, like my parents. While right now they are in good health and have some measures in place to support them as they get older (like life insurance and long-term care insurance), I do expect to financially support them in some aspect in the future. I hope to be able to help pay for the cost of medical bills, emergencies, long-term care, and more.

That's why I'd make them beneficiaries of my life insurance plan along with my husband.If something were to happen to me while they were still alive, I'd want to make sure that my life insurance policy could help cover the costs I was planning to cover for them.While considering getting life insurance is something that can easily be pushed to the future, I set a goal to get a policy before I turn 35 — even though I don't have any kids.