Life throws us curve balls and sometimes life will “strike” you out… literally.
Here’s what I mean; you’ve worked hard and your career is taking off. You married your sweetheart, have babies, bought that dream house, and are driving around in a new car… life is great.
Then out of nowhere… bam! You’re DEAD.
That’s tragic, but if you fail to plan, this tragedy continues. The lifestyle you’ve built is way too expensive for your spouse and children to continue without your lost income.
Think about it… if you earn $75,000 per year and have 30+ years left in your career, even if we don’t use inflation in the equation, that’s $2,250,000 of future income your family will never receive because you’re gone. You can solve this with life insurance.
Another risk to consider is instead of dying you become disabled. This can affect your income. If disabled severely… it will wreck your lifestyle. Disability insurance goes a long way to softening this tragedy.
There are many other risks you need to be aware of… do you rent an apartment? You better get renters insurance.
Your neighbor decides to deep fry a batch of chicken wings in his kitchen and burns down the building… if you don’t have renters insurance, say goodbye to your new HDTV, nice new computer, gaming console and everything else. No renters insurance… and you’re coming out of pocket to buy this stuff again.
Make sure you have adequate auto insurance. It’s a bad idea to worry only about price, focus on having the right coverage. You’ll be glad if or when your auto insurance is needed.
Here are a few tips:
When you’re looking for life insurance check out your company benefits plan first; typically, you can get a decent amount of coverage for a great price. If you need more, you can shop online for some inexpensive term coverage.
If you do not know how much you need there are a few ways to calculate this. To get started, go to this website http://www.calcxml.com/calculators/how-much-life-insurance-need. You can play around with it to get a good estimate.
Same with disability; check out those company benefits and see what is offered. If you’re confused give the Human Resources department a call… they can help out. Check out this little disability calculator for help http://www.calcxml.com/do/ins04.
I do not sell life insurance or any other insurance product. But I am a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™. Any financial plan worth a darn will address risks like these and recommend a way to handle them.
