Hi, I’m Jinfeng. I got my first insurance policy at 21, a MINDEF Group Term Life plan while I was serving in the army, not because I understood what I was buying, but because it was the easiest and most affordable option available to me at the time. Looking back, I did not really get insurance until a few years later, when I actually sat down and mapped my coverage against my own life.
A lot has changed since 21. I have just gotten married, we have collected the keys to our HDB flat, and for the first time, my financial decisions are not just about me anymore. That shift, from “just me” to “us,” and to the people who depend on me, is what pushed me to properly review my portfolio rather than let it sit on autopilot.
My Life Stage and Financial Context
I am in my late 20s, recently married, and we have just taken on an HDB loan together. My parents, who are approaching retirement and do not yet have a fully independent income stream of their own, are my dependants in the insurance sense. My wife and I, on the other hand, are building our financial life together, which means my coverage decisions now carry weight beyond just myself. This combination, a new home loan, a shared life with my wife, and parents I want to support as they wind down work, shapes almost every decision in my portfolio.
I think about my insurance planning through five pillars: Income Loss due to Death, Income Loss due to Critical Illness, Income Loss due to Disability, Increased Medical Expenses due to Hospitalisation, and Increased Expenses due to Long-Term Care. Each pillar answers a different “what if,” and being able to answer all five, even if the answer to one is “not yet,” is what makes a portfolio feel considered rather than accidental.
Here is what my portfolio currently looks like, and the reasoning behind each piece.
Pillar 1: Income Loss due to Death
My coverage here consists of:
- A term life plan of $1 million, until age 65
- A MINDEF Group Term plan, $200,000
- A whole life plan, $200,000
- Home Protection Scheme (HPS), covering 100% of our HDB loan for both my wife and me
Together, this is currently enough to replace my income and cover my family’s monthly expenses, my wife’s and my parents’, through to my own age 65, which is when I expect to wind down full-time work. I have also built in some buffer above strict monthly expense calculations, because our family situation may still change, whether that is children down the road or simply my parents needing more support as they age.
The term plan does the heavy lifting because it is the most cost-efficient way to get a large sum assured while my financial responsibilities are at their peak: young family, new home loan, ageing parents. The whole life plan is smaller by comparison, but it is not there to replace income. It is a permanent, guaranteed layer that stays with me even after the term plan expires, which becomes relevant in Pillar 2.
On top of these, since we took our flat from HDB, both my wife and I are covered under the Home Protection Scheme for 100% of our loan amount. This was an easy decision for two reasons. First, the premiums are relatively affordable, and we can use our CPF Ordinary Account to fund them, so it does not affect our cash flow. Second, if either of us were to pass away, the last thing we would want is for the other to be worrying about mortgage payments on top of everything else.
Pillar 2: Income Loss due to Critical Illness
I am covered for between three and five years of my annual income, plus a lump sum buffer specifically for treatment costs that typical Integrated Shield Plans do not fully anticipate: Traditional Chinese Medicine, experimental drugs, or overseas treatment. I have also added a rider that covers an additional sum during my working years, should the illness relapse or should I be diagnosed with a different critical illness down the road.
The three-to-five-year runway is meant to buy me time: time to recover, time to decide whether I return to the same role or something less demanding, without financial pressure forcing that decision prematurely. The lump sum buffer exists because recovery is not always a straight line, and I did not want a scenario where I am choosing between the approved treatment and the one I actually believe will help, based on cost alone.
This is also where my whole life plan quietly does double duty. Once I retire, income replacement becomes less relevant, since I will not have income to replace. But out-of-pocket critical illness expenses do not stop just because I have stopped working. The whole life plan is my intended buffer for exactly that stage: not to replace income, but to fund treatment I might need later in life.
Pillar 3: Income Loss due to Disability
This is the one pillar where I currently have no coverage, and I want to be upfront about that rather than gloss over it.
My role is client-facing: proposals, meetings, travel to the office to meet clients. A disability affecting my mobility or cognitive capacity could genuinely limit my ability to do this job the way I do it today. That makes this a real gap, not a hypothetical one. I have deprioritised it for now purely because of budget: between the term plan, critical illness coverage, and hospitalisation, my current premiums are already sized around what I am comfortable committing to given my increased monthly expenses.
This is a deliberate, temporary trade-off, not a permanent decision. As my income grows and my budget has more room, Disability Income is next on my list to address.
Pillar 4: Increased Medical Expenses due to Hospitalisation
I am fortunate here: my parents enrolled me on a private hospital Integrated Shield Plan with a co-payment rider when I was young, and I have kept it going.
I have chosen to stay on private coverage for a few reasons. It gives me the option to seek a second opinion from a private specialist if I ever need one, access to a wider panel of doctors, and shorter waiting times if treatment is time-sensitive. At my current age, the cash premiums for this level of coverage are still relatively affordable, so for now, I am comfortable maintaining it rather than downgrading to a public plan.
The purpose of this coverage is to protect against genuinely large medical bills, the kind that come from prolonged hospital stays or complex surgeries, which could easily reach five or six figures. The co-payment rider is there to help limit my out-of-pocket expenses, so a major hospitalisation does not also become a major financial setback.
I am aware this calculus may change as premiums rise with age, but that is a decision for a future review, not one I need to force today.
Pillar 5: Increased Expenses due to Long-Term Care
I am not yet eligible for CareShield Life, but that milestone is coming up soon. Once I am enrolled, my plan is to top up my coverage to at least $3,000 a month, enough to cover basic long-term care needs, with room to go higher if I want the flexibility to hire a domestic helper rather than rely solely on institutional care.
I am factoring this into my budget ahead of eligibility, precisely because I do not want a gap between becoming eligible and being properly covered. Long-term care costs are among the most exposed to inflation, and I would rather lock in a sensible supplement early than scramble for one later.
How My Portfolio May Evolve
Insurance planning is not a one-time task. It is something I expect to revisit at every major life event, not just once a year out of habit.
If my wife and I have children, I will need to revisit both my life and critical illness coverage, since more dependants mean a longer runway and a higher bar for what is sufficient. If my parents’ retirement plans require more support than expected, that also feeds back into my death and critical illness coverage, since they are currently counted among my dependants. And as my income grows, closing the Disability Income gap moves from “next on my list” to “overdue.”
For now, I see my portfolio as appropriately built for where I am: newly married, newly a homeowner, and newly responsible for people beyond myself. It is not complete, and the Disability Income gap is one I am fully aware of. But every policy I do hold has a clear reason for being there, tied to the family and life stage I actually have today.
A Final Thought
The biggest shift for me was not buying more insurance. It was understanding why each policy existed in the first place. At 21, I had coverage without context. Now, every policy I hold is one I can explain: what it is for, who it protects, and what would happen if I let it lapse.
If you cannot answer those three questions for a policy you are paying for, that is usually a sign it is time for a proper review. Not necessarily to add more, but to make sure what you have actually matches the life you are living now.
