<prompt> Human: Ive been a lurker for a few years, but created this account to get advice on a meeting I recently had with a financial planner from Northwestern Mutual. Some background- I am 26, not married, no kids. I make approx 65kyear, 10k in student loan debt, about 5k in emergency fund savings. My student loans have a really low interest rate so I just pay the minimum. Recommendations:- continue saving approx 500mo- Start contributing to my 401k at work. I planned on doing this anyways. I am going to contribute up to what my employer will match.- sign up for short term and long term disability through work- buy 500k in term life insurance approx 40mo and 500k approx 300mo in whole life - buy extra long term disability because my works long term disability will on pay for 60 of my base salary after taxes, and I make approx 20k out of 65k from commissions. She said buying extra long term disability will create coverage for approx 90 of what I make yearly and the benefit wont be taxed 15mo- eventually we will discuss investments down the roadI have read a lot of negative things about getting life insurance at my age, with no dependents, and especially about getting whole life, but what my financial planner told me was that I would be locking in my insurability i.e. agehealth so it would be at a lower cost. I know I want to eventually buy a house and have kids, so she told me its important to get coverage now while I am still young and healthy. Also, I like the idea of the whole life insurance because of the cash value. Does this make sense? Help! What should I do??edit 1: because I didnt know how to do bullet pointsedit 2: btw people...I am a female!! Anyways, I still dont understand the hate for whole life here. after talking to many people, specialists, advisors, I am moving forward with it. I am not completely depending on whole life for retirement funds by any means, but I think the cash value option is great. Its like an additional savings account with a death benefit. I also thought about it, and my dad really is not prepared for retirement at all so me having a death benefit could be helpful to him because I would probably support him through his retirement if I was a live. Thanks for sharing in my first post!Assistant: Along with everyone elses rejection of whole life insurance, I want to recommend passing on the short term disability as well. If youre young and healthy, you arent as likely to be sidelined by minor events, and even if you are, thats what your emergency fund is for.I personally support getting term life insurance at your age, mostly for locking in that insurability the one thing I think your adviser got right. Even though you dont have dependents, your insurance premiums will be quite a bit higher if you wait until youre married which could be 5 years away. I understand why others suggest declining the term insurance too, though.Definitely contribute to the matching 401k, and definitely beef up that emergency fund. Sounds like youre in a pretty good place.Human: I dont think my savings at this point would last me more than a couple months...and I realize disability can be related to health, but I feel like there are unknowns that could happen that arent correlated to my health. I guess the question is are those unknowns worth getting the 15month insurance to protect against them?  <response>: You have to be careful with what the disability policy considers disabled. Typically its not that you cant work at your specific job anymore. Its you cant work any job at all including minimum wage jobs. 