Ask people why they don't own life insurance and price is usually the first answer. Fair. Nobody's shopping for another bill. But when I ask those same folks to guess what a 20-year term policy would run them, the guesses come in high. Often way high.
Term is the simplest product in the whole insurance aisle. You pick an amount and a window, say $500,000 for 20 years. If you die inside the window, your family gets the money. If you outlive it, the coverage ends. No cash value, no moving parts. Because most people outlive their term, the insurer can charge far less for it than for permanent coverage. That's the design working, and it's why term is where most young families should start.
What moves the price? Age, health, tobacco, the length of the window, and the amount of coverage. A healthy thirty-five-year-old and a fifty-five-year-old on blood pressure meds get quoted very different numbers for the same policy, and the gap is bigger than most people expect. Underwriters sort applicants into health classes, and the class you land in matters more than which company's ad you happened to see.
Something to note: the low price has a clock on it. When your term ends, you can usually keep the coverage, but the renewal rate jumps hard, because you're now priced at your new age. If you think you'll want coverage past the window, that's a reason to look at a longer term now, or at permanent coverage, and a reason to check whether the policy is convertible. It's never a reason to skip the decision.
The one lever you control completely is when you apply. Every birthday nudges the number up, and a health surprise can move it more than a birthday ever will. If you've been meaning to put a real number on this, our term quote page takes a couple of minutes, and the term life overview covers the details I skipped here.