Don't Forget to Make This Financial Move if You're Getting Married in 2024

Getting married means making many financial and personal changes.

It also means committing to new shared obligations. Even those couples who choose not to have a joint bank account may opt to move into an apartment or house and share the costs, or take on other obligations that require two incomes.

Since marriage is a merger of financial lives, there's one extremely important step to take after tying the knot in 2024. Here's what it is.

Put this insurance coverage in place to protect a spouse

Anyone getting married in 2024 should likely buy life insurance if they don't already have a policy in place.

Buying life insurance will protect a surviving spouse from potential disaster. Say, for example, that a married couple commits to buy a house and pay a $2,000 mortgage payment together with each person contributing $1,000 from the income they make.

If one spouse dies, the other might face foreclosure if they don't earn enough to pay the extra $1,000 that was coming from their partner's earnings -- unless life insurance is in place to provide the funds to cover those costs. A death benefit could help a surviving spouse stay in a shared home and not worry about where the money will come from to pay the bills.

Purchasing coverage right away also means there will be no concerns about whether a policy will still be available if other big lifestyle changes happen later. For example, many married couples end up having kids together. And raising a child is really expensive, with parents spending about $310,605 to raise a child until age 18.

If one spouse develops a pre-existing condition after getting married and before a child is born, that person might not be able to buy life insurance at an affordable rate (or buy it at all) when their son or daughter enters the world. If they pass away unexpectedly, the surviving parent is without the money they need to cover the child's expenses to adulthood.

Buying life insurance is simple and important

The bottom line is, spouses who share a life come to depend on each other's income or services (in the case of stay-at-home spouses or parents).

An untimely death that leads to the loss of that money or support could have huge financial consequences that are hard to cope with. No married person should take the chance of dying before they get covered, or take the chance of waiting to get covered and becoming unable to do so due to medical issues that develop unexpectedly.

There's no reason to risk a spouse's financial security when buying life insurance coverage is so simple. Most people can get quotes for affordable term life insurance policies online and sometimes they may not even need a medical exam before getting covered. Purchasing a policy that would pay a death benefit of about 10 to 12 times income is usually sufficient, and it ensures that a surviving spouse could maintain their quality of life -- and continue providing for children -- if the worst happens.

Anyone getting married in 2024, or who has gotten married recently and still doesn't have life insurance, should start shopping for a policy today before it's too late.