Probably not. In addition to Council tax, electricity, gas, and telephone you will have regular bills coming in for all sorts of things. And if you or anyone in your family falls ill, you’ll inevitably have more expense. It’s a very persuasive argument for taking out protection insurance – not just to cover your mortgage but also to cover your debts and protect your income.

About 60% of all critical illness plans only cover the mortgage. Yet Bank of England figures show that, while the average mortgage is £70,000, on top of that the average credit card debt is £2,000 and unsecured loans account for another £5,000.

To put it simply, all other debts add around 10% to what is owed on the average mortgage.

In this situation it might be a good idea to consider a product that offers decreasing term cover for the mortgage – that simply means that as the amount owed on the mortgage reduces over the years, so does the sum you’d receive to pay it off.

Then, at very little extra cost, you could add level term cover for the other debts. In this case the amount of cover would remain constant throughout the life of the plan.

Deciding on the right type of cover, the amount you need and for how long are just some of the things you will need to consider. Talk to a financial adviser about the right protection for your circumstances.