People push off making a will for reasons that feel reasonable in the moment — too young, not enough assets yet, plenty of time later. Those reasons don't actually track with when a will genuinely starts mattering.

The real trigger isn't age or net worth. It's whether anyone would be affected by decisions that only a will controls. Having children changes everything, regardless of how young you are — without a will, a court decides who raises them if something happens to you, based on a general legal formula, not your actual wishes.

Owning any real property, even a modest one, means a will decides who inherits it directly, versus a state formula that might not match your actual intentions, especially for unmarried partners, who often receive nothing without a will explicitly naming them.

Any meaningful savings, even a modest amount, benefits from clear direction. Without it, the process of sorting out where that money goes takes longer, costs more in legal fees paid by the estate, and can create real conflict among family members left guessing at what you would have wanted.

The honest trigger point is simpler than people make it: if your death would leave any real decision unclear — who raises your kids, who gets your home, how your modest savings get divided — that's the moment a will already should have existed. Waiting for a specific age or net worth threshold that was never actually the real requirement just delays protecting the people who'd be affected by not having one.