Among the great advantages of life-insurance are these:

It eliminates worry and increases initiative. A man works much better if he knows his family is provided for.

It is absolutely safe. Among the "old line" companies there has been no failure and loss to policy-holders in a very long period. Insurance companies spread their investments over so many different forms of securities that loss is practically impossible. Moreover, the companies are closely and minutely regulated by the state.

It encourages saving. People withdraw money from a savings-bank more freely than they stop making their insurance payments. An insurance premium comes to be looked upon somehow as a fixed charge, which must be met no matter what else fails. It has an apparent element of compulsion which forces people to save.

It is a great assistance in business, investment and home buying. A man buys a home on mortgage but is afraid that his widow will not be able to meet the mortgage if he dies. A life-insurance policy for the amount of the mortgage takes care of all that. For a small cost what is known as term insurance may be bought to hedge or provide against almost any conceivable business necessity.

Another great advantage of life insurance is that after the first two or three years a policy can be borrowed upon at the company at a fixed and moderate rate of interest. It may also be surrendered for cash for an amount which steadily increases with the years, and tends to equal the face value of the policy after say twenty years. Thus one can always dispose of a life-insurance policy, which is not true of bonds, stocks, mortgages and real estate.

Nor is it necessary to pay as long as one lives on an insurance policy. After the first few years, it is possible to stop paying anything and have the insurance go right on for a smaller amount as long as you live. For example, one can stop at the end of twenty years on a policy for one thousand dollars and have five hundred and seventy-five dollars of "paid up" insurance the rest of one's life. Or at the end of twenty years one can stop paying anything and still have the whole one thousand dollars remain in force for thirteen years and five months longer.

In other words there is no catch about an insurance policy. It is all open and aboveboard. You are far more sure of what you are going to get than with any other kind of an investment, except a bank-account. It is all printed on the policy itself.

A great many people say they can invest money to greater advantage themselves. Perhaps they can if they live long enough. A man will have to be sure of living twenty or thirty years to make his money earn more than a life-insurance policy. But as a matter of fact, a very large number of people who do invest for themselves, lose their money. Life-insurance practically never loses for you.

But what is the best life-insurance policy? What is the best one especially for a young man?