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Sign on for Disability Insurance, Part II

Posted on: Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

In the last post we discussed some of the reasons why younger employees – just starting out in a job – may not consider life insurance or disability insurance to be something that is necessary. For such employees – often in their twenties – the thought of death is very far away in their minds; and, as far as illness or injury, they are something that surely would not happen to them.

But – as we quickly discover – both of these scenarios are inaccurate. For one, we are all going to die. And if we die while we still have young children – not to mention a spouse – who are dependent upon our income life insurance will be paramount to their financial survival. Further – as we also discover as we continue to have life experiences and see first-hand what can happen – illness and injury is not in any way confined to a particular age group. In fact, the younger we are when we experience a disability the more financially vulnerable we are; we have not had the time to build up savings accounts that may help to support us – including retirement accounts, may not have enough equity in a home to call upon, and may (as most people do in this age group) be living paycheck to paycheck. What happens when that paycheck suddenly disappears?

Disability insurance is meant to cover those who have experienced an illness or injury and are not able to return to work. This policy will just as easily cover someone who must take a short sabbatical from work as they recuperate as it does someone who finds themselves permanently disabled and unable to return to work at all. It is only a matter of finding the policy that works best for you and your family. Make the purchase of disability insurance something that you do in the beginning of your career – as one of the steps that you take in protecting your future and that of your family’s future.

Sign on for Disability Insurance, Part I

Posted on: Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Early on in our careers there are many decisions that we need to make in terms of how much money we need to take out for taxes (What number do we put in the box of dependants – this has always been a tricky one.), which health insurance is most beneficial for us (do we go barebones if we are single? Do we get a more comprehensive plan if we are married?) and how much do we put aside for retirement (Retirement? That sure seems like a long way away!)

The fact of the matter is that for most young people it is very hard to imagine anything bad happening to us. Retirement seems like a million years away, we can’t imagine getting sicker than coming down with the flu, and taxes are just something that we pay. But as we get older we find ourselves making more comprehensive plans for our healthcare as we have very quickly come to realize that we are in fact susceptible to illnesses of all kinds and beside that, we now have a family to cover; we start putting money hand over fist into our 401k plans because we have also come to discover that retirement, once a far-fetched idea, really isn’t as far off as we had thought; and, as far as those taxes, well, we hire an accountant.

Some of the other areas that may suffer from too little attention in our younger years are life insurance and disability insurance. Life insurance is often not too much of a consideration because, after all, we’re not really going to die (ahhhh, the immortality of our twenties) and disability insurance is only for those who have an illness that they think may one day prevent them from doing their job.

In the next post….we address these inaccuracies and uncover the necessity of such things as disability insurance.

Disability Insurance Plans Offer Many Options

Posted on: Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Choosing any kind of insurance plan can be overwhelming at best; especially when you consider that most insurance is meant to help us or our family in the event of a death, illness, or injury. These are not uplifting thoughts for anyone to consider; but still they must be considered in order for us to be our most responsible selves. Is it awkward and uncomfortable to go through the process of choosing life insurance – discussing the details of our hypothetical deaths? Sure it is! But it still has to be done if we are going to be able to best protect our children and our spouses – as well as the rest of our family – in the event of our death.

The same goes for disability insurance. Should we become ill or injured – deemed disabled – and unable to return to work, how will we be able to account for that missing paycheck? For most of us who are living paycheck to paycheck and still struggling to pay our bills on time, the thought of losing that paycheck for even a short amount of time is absolutely inconceivable. In short order most of us would be facing foreclosure and even bankruptcy. Disability insurance helps protect families against these possibilities by essentially replacing the paycheck that is lost when an earner cannot return to work.

There are still many decisions to be made regarding disability insurance as there are many disability insurance plans available to suit a variety of circumstances. It is only necessary to determine what your financial needs are in the present – balanced with what your financial needs would be if you were to lose a salary – to find the disability insurance policy that is best for you and insurance policy premiums that are still affordable. By changing options such as length of time you would have to wait before the policy pays out and the length of coverage time, you can change the premium costs considerably; so do your research and choose wisely.

Disability Income Insurance with Children, Part II

Posted on: Monday, November 9th, 2009

In the last post we discussed the failure of many households to purchase disability insurance – an insurance that is just as important in many ways as life insurance.Disability income insurance will financially protect a household should the policyholder become sick or injured and not be able to earn their salary.

Let us first consider the average American household with children. In many cases – as is the way of the world today – this household is reliant upon two incomes to keep up with expenses. In fact, very few households have extra money at the end of the month to put into savings plans or use towards discretionary purchases. This means that should the household lose one income due to a disability they are vulnerable to a host of financial disasters.

Of course, most of us have vacation time and sick time that we are able to call upon from our employment. But what if the disability is such that we are not able to return to work for many, many months – or not at all? Where does this leave our household in terms of mortgage payments, utilities, debt, and the day to day expenditures associated with running a modern household?

This is the situation that many young families with children find themselves in when there is no disability insurance. They may find themselves facing foreclosure, bankruptcy, and severe financial stress on top of an already physically and emotionally stressful time.

With disability insurance in place, however, we are able to protect our families from financial disaster. Should we become disabled, our disability insurance will begin paying out so we are able to meet our financial obligations head on and make other arrangements concerning long term plans. This is absolutely priceless protection for those who have children as they do not have to face moving homes, changing schools, and the other repercussions of losing an income during an already difficult time.

Disability Income Insurance with Children, Part I

Posted on: Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

There are certain things that we, as parents, do when we have children. After all, our lives have changed considerably and now we are responsible for lives other than our own. We may move our residence to somewhere safer or to an area that has better schools; we research those activities and day care situations in which we may enroll our kids and look at them from all angles to ensure that they are appropriate for our kids and will ultimately meet their needs, and we set about making financial choices that will protect our children in a variety of circumstances – including savings accounts, college funds, and life insurance.

Life insurance is especially important, we consider, because this will financially cover our kids should we die while they are still dependent upon us. We carefully choose guardians for our children and make sure that the life insurance money is guarded and carefully administered by a trusted executor. But we seldom – unfortunately – give the same thought to what would happen to our children if we were still here but unable to provide for them financially; a predicament that many families find themselves in when they are without disability insurance.

Disability income insurance is provided to protect its policyholders in the event of an accident or injury that leaves them disabled and unable to return to work for a particular period of time (that period which is defined by the policy). Households that are dependent upon their incomes – and less face it, who isn’t – must look to protect their interests if they were to lose one or multiple incomes. Disability income insurance accounts for this loss and pays out to the policyholder the money that will keep their household afloat during this difficult time.

In the next post, we’ll delver further into how disability insurance can protect families with children.