If you think insurance is just for your car and house, think again. It’s important to consider personal insurance as well. The obvious one is life insurance, which guarantees a lump sum to your dependents if something should happen to you. Obviously, this is crucial for women with children. Income insurance is a way of protecting your salary in the event of illness or incapacitation, and you can insure up to 75 per cent of your salary this way.

Less well known but also important is trauma insurance. While it may seem morbid to think about how your finances would be affected if you were struck with a debilitating disease, it’s important to remember one in eight Australian women will get breast cancer, for example. Suddenly trauma insurance makes a lot more sense. “In some cases, a woman with trauma insurance could receive a payment of $100,000 in the event she is diagnosed with breast cancer,” says Penelope Joye, senior financial adviser at Taylor Shadforths. “Imagine if you had that money to take care of all your expenses, and all you had to do was concentrate on getting well.”

A financial planner with WIN Financial Network, Janeece Giraldo warns that, if you’re planning a family, life insurance and trauma insurance can’t be issued during a pregnancy, so it’s best to make sure you are covered in advance.

If you’re hesitant to commit to an insurance policy, remember that it’s not a life sentence – many people correctly choose to let their policies go as they get older. “Once you have significant assets, insurance becomes less important,” she says. “You know if something happens unexpectedly, you can sell something to get you through the hard times.” But for younger women, insurance could protect you from financial disaster.