After sharing on our costs of insurance of about $160/month (translates to <$2,000 a year) in our fixed expenses post, we got several comments from readers (with good intentions, I must say) that appear to suggest that there is a strong possibility that we were under insured, just like many Singaporeans.

Many studies like this and that conclude that Singaporeans are not well-insured even though many are already spending a considerable proportion of their salaries (>10%) on insurance polices. Funny, isn’t it? But let’s just assume that these studies are right, even if they are commissioned by the very people who are selling insurance products (talk about vested interests).

So what’s wrong then?

The problem is that insurance agents prefer to sell a policy which provides them with more commissions and profits which is also more likely to be detrimental to the consumer.

“You do not get anything back when you buy term! I suggest a whole-life policy where there is a surrender value… ...