You might be familiar with the saying “Health is wealth”. That is, if you concentrate on your health, you can save money to a great extent. By avoiding bad habits like smoking, drinking etc, you can maintain good health, so that your money doesn’t get wasted too much on medicines and higher life insurance premiums.
In UK, most of the people possess the above mentioned bad habits and many are overweight. The outcome is nothing but very bad health and thus huge premiums on life insurance. Here are some tips to maintain good health, so that you get cheaper life insurance and thus bring money saving.
Avoid smoking
It might seem difficult, but you can find a tremendous change in your life insurance premiums. Smoking, as we all know, is injurious to health, as it can cause serious disorders like strokes, lung cancer, diabetes- type 2 and various heart diseases.
The Mortality investigations with respect to smokers are still continuing and the results reveals that smoking affects each one’s life expectancy more than their gender. It has been found that the death ratio of 60 aged male smokers is 106:10000 when compared to 60 aged male non smokers whose death ratio is 48:10000. When it comes to 60 aged female smokers, it is 85:10000 when compared with the 60 aged female non smokers, whose death ratio is 35:10000.
Whatever it may be, it heavily affects your premiums. If you are a smoker, then do you know to what extent your premiums raise if you choose to take a life insurance cover for 50 years? Well, you would find it rise up to 50-60% based on the life insurer.
That is, if you stop smoking, then there is a chance that after a particular period, the insurers will consider you as a non smoker. You need to make them clear that you are an ex-smoker and you will not be loaded with premiums, if you have stopped smoking for the period insisted on by the insurers.
Reduce/Avoid alcohol intake
As for a man, the recommended alcohol consumption levels are 28 units per week up to a maximum and for a woman it is 21. According to the broker Life search’s PR manager – Mart Morris, the moment you drink more than 30 units per week, your insurer will begin to charge an interest.
Like tobacco, alcohol can also result in critical heath diseases like cancer, gastro- intestinal tract, kidney problems, nervous disorders, various liver and heart diseases. The net result is that it will affect your premiums. According to Morris, for a person drinking more than 40 units a week, the premiums may be risen up to 25-50% which can cost you around £1,500 – £3,000 over the policy life. This can vary depending on the insurer and various health factors.
Reduce weight
In the UK, according to WHO, many people are suffering from obesity. Any person with a body mass index of over 30 is called obese. It has been found that obese people are prone to various kidney and heart disorders, cancer of oesophagus, colon and diabetes-type 2. If you are one among the obese people, then your insurer may either not cover you or will load you with premiums.
Many insurers would charge nothing below 30, while some others begin to load from the moment your BMI turns 27. If you hit a BMI of 30 to 37, then according to Lifesearch, your insurers can hike your premiums up to 50% and if it hits above 37, then the insurers might refuse to cover you. That is, over a policy life of 50 years, you would have to pay an addition of £3,000.
By dropping your weight a little bit can make a huge impact on your health. If your drop your weight up to 5-10%, then less is the chance of being prone to coronary heart disease and strokes. You can prevent such diseases as diabetes and cancer by adding some exercise to your daily routine.
Give up sports fuelled by adrenaline
Sports like cliff jumping, bungee jumping, jet boating, paragliding, quad biking, mountain boarding and power kiting are risky as the chance of dying is very high. Suppose you are a person who does gliding for 100hrs, then your death ratio would be 2:1000. According to Ben Heffer, who is the principal consultant (life and pensions) for Defaqto, the chance of premature death is very high, if your hobby is jumping out of aeroplanes.
It is depending on how frequently you do the sport, that the risk of death lies. According to Morris, if you do a sport rarely, for example scuba- diving on a holiday, then it wouldn’t affect your premiums. But if you do a sport very frequently, then you would be loaded with premiums. If you are frequent paraglider, then you could find that your premiums rise up to 50%, which again can cost you around £3,000 over 50 years.
Do regular Check up
By a regular check up, you can prevent diseases to a great extent. That is if you visit a doctor regularly and check your health conditions, then any disease can be identified earlier and required treatment can be done. This helps you stay healthy and you can be truthful about your health conditions with the new insurers.
Suppose you possess high blood pressure, then your premiums would be hiked up to 50%, which can cost you very high. But if you are undergoing treatment and it has reduced the level of pressure, then the chance of being loaded with premiums is less.
Thus, this article is meant to tell you that you can save more than £15,000 in your lifetime by just following the above mentioned tips. If you give importance to your health and give up the above mentioned habits, you can easily get cheap life cover and thus save money.
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