A household that depends heavily on one or two incomes carries a specific, often-overlooked risk: if something happens to one of those earners — a serious illness, a disability, the unthinkable — the household doesn't just face an emotional crisis, it can face a simultaneous financial collapse on top of it.
Here's why insurance is the right tool for this specific risk. Term life insurance is relatively inexpensive precisely because it's pure protection with no investment component — it exists solely to replace a meaningful chunk of lost income for the family left behind, for long enough that they can adjust without also losing their home or their children's education in the process. Health insurance, separately, protects against a medical event derailing years of savings in a single hospitalisation, regardless of whether it's life-threatening.
Why this matters even for households that feel financially stable: stability built entirely around one or two active incomes is stability that depends on those incomes continuing uninterrupted — which is exactly the assumption insurance exists to protect against. A household with a healthy emergency fund and steady savings can still be financially devastated by the loss of its primary earner without adequate term cover in place; the fund simply isn't sized for that scale of loss.
The practical takeaway: review whether each earner in your household has adequate term life cover and health insurance, sized to genuinely replace what would be lost, not just a token amount. It's an inexpensive way to make sure a personal tragedy doesn't also become a financial one.