Age, health and lifestyle determine your life insurance rate. If you are older, have health problems and smoke, you will pay more.

But there are always ways to lower your life insurance.

Find out the rate per $1,000 of coverage, which often drops once you pass a certain level of coverage, and will help you determine how to get the most life insurance for the least money.

Save money on your insurance premiums — quit smoking, start exercising, and lose weight. Many insurance companies charge smokers double the nonsmoker rate for insurance, and similar discounts apply if you lose enough weight to fall into a preferred category.

Avoid riders — paying extra money to cover an event that’s almost guaranteed not to happen doesn’t make sense when you’re trying to cut costs.

Compare the single-payment price to the total cost of the monthly payments and look for hidden costs.

It pays to shop around because premiums can vary widely — save time by going to a website where you can compare multiple insurance companies at once.