This post is brought to you by LifePreserve.
As a personal finance blogger, I have posted on the importance of health insurance and reasons you need life insurance. I’ve written on car insurance and homeowner’s coverage. I have even talked about the advantages of pet insurance. But this is the first time I have posted on protecting how you pay for everything you have and do – your income!
What can stop you from earning an income?
You could lose your job.
This can be frightening, especially if it happens when you are not planning on it. How will you pay your rent or mortgage? What about money for food and other essentials? Will you be able to keep your health insurance? What about your debt obligations like credit card or student loan payments? Savings only go so far and once you have depleted them, what next?
What if you get sick or hurt and can’t work?
This can be just like losing your job but you will not be able to look for another one, possibly for months on end. Being sick or hurt has the same effect on your income and your ability to continue your lifestyle. This is where the right types of insurance comes in. Most of us need some type of disability insurance to make sure we have income when we are not working due to being sick or hurt and unable to work. Since I have never posted on this subject before, I thought sending this email on the last day of Disability Insurance Awareness Month might be appropriate.
Think it can’t happen to you? Think again –
According to the Social Security Administration, your chances of being out of work due to a disability for even a short time are higher than most of us think.
Read this information cut directly from the Social Security Administrations Disability Facts website.
“56 million Americans, or 1-in-5, live with disabilities. Thirty-eight million disabled Americans, or 1-in-10, live with severe disabilities. Disability is something many Americans, especially younger people, think can only affect the lives of other people. Tragically, thousands of young people are seriously injured or killed, often as the result of traumatic events. Many serious medical conditions, such as cancer or mental illness, can affect the young as well as the elderly. The sobering fact for 20-year-olds, insured for disability benefits, is that more than 1-in-4 of them becomes disabled before reaching retirement age.”
You can learn more interesting facts about the misconceptions regarding disability by downloading this infographic from the Council for Disability Awareness.
A disability doesn’t have to be a career ending situation, in fact – most times it isn’t. But, losing your paycheck for even a few months can be devastating. You might be unable to work due to a bad case of the flu, being injured while competing in a warrior run, getting into a car accident, even suffering from a serious illness like stroke and cancer (did you know that almost 20% of all strokes occur in people under age 45?). Watch this video posted by LIFE HAPPENS.
Make a Plan
Protecting your income is crucial for anyone who works for a living. You do this with a plan and you do this by having the right types of insurance.
A new company named LifePreserve has found a way to help with both parts of the equation, developing a plan and protecting with insurance. I suggest you check them out and consider their programs. Here’s what LifePreserve says about their mission:
“Protecting your income may not be your first priority, but it should it be. Your income pays for your home, your car, your cellphone, groceries… without it you will not be able to maintain your lifestyle. That’s why people like you need LifePreserve.
Think of LifePreserve as your personal safety net. At LifePreserve, we realize that protecting income is more than just an insurance policy. That is why we provide you with access to an Income Wellness plan where you can talk to financial wellness counselors to help you take control your financial health. The LifePreserve Income Protection Plan provides you monthly payments that work like a paycheck when you are sick or hurt and can’t work.”
LifePreserve offers an income protection guidebook that will provide you with a number of steps you should consider when putting together your Income Protection Plan. You can download the free PDF on their website.
To learn more about financial wellness and how to protect your income, visit https://lifepreserve.com today or watch their video.
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In certain situations, insurance is indeed very helpful! But for now, we’ll rely on our savings if anything should happen. The good thing is we don’t have debt to pay anymore and don’t plan on applying for any loans anytime soon.
Good job on not having debt!
This is exactly what’s keeping me focused on living as debt free as possible. Losing my job is one of those risks you just have to be prepared for. I’m trying to build back up my emergency fund to at least one year of expenses. I’m also thinking about how to start a business on the side that can bring in additional funds for the emergency fund.
Are You Prepared If Your Income Stopped Today? May 30, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner is a great article! It matches my story and it will certainly make a difference!
Roger Sweaney Story
At the age of 35, all was going great. I was a happy, healthy, and successful man. I had a stable six-figure job, a beautiful wife, two kids, an attractive home and many friends. Then my life went to pieces.
In 2003, I was diagnosed with brain cancer. While surgery successfully removed those tumors, it resulted in me getting epileptic seizures. A subsequent surgery to correct the seizures produced a stroke, causing paralysis in one arm and partial
blindness. The stroke didn’t just cause me to lose a limb and partial blindness I lost my job, my financial security and most importantly my family.
All of this happened because I failed to purchase long-term disability insurance. Unfortunately, that is an all-too-common mistake. Most people don’t comprehend what it’s like to have their lives unexpectedly stripped from them.
I have made it my mission to educate people on the importance of thinking long-term and protecting their assets.
I want to thank you for reading my story.
I didn’t have just one medical crisis; I had three –cancer, epilepsy and a stroke. However, today I am happy, healthy and alive. In the ten years since my odyssey began I’ve learned my purpose in life is to help other people–others like me facing a medical crisis. The smallest kindness can make the biggest difference to a person with cancer. I know because I was that person.
HI Michelle,
Earlier I was very reluctant to get insurance, rather I supported investing in mutual fund. But, my dad pushed me a lot to get at least one insurance so I took one insurance policy. Now I feel my dad was correct.
After reading this wonderful post I am firm conifent now about insurance policies. I am feeling confident now.
Now I am ready for financial freedom.
Thank You so much!
Avinash
Happy Saturday Michelle,
I’m a firm believer that one must always be prepared to diversify their income strategies just in case traditional employment doesn’t suffice. In my past 20+ year working career, I’ve been presented with an array of stumbling blocks. I’ve been in situations where I knew people were plotting on my downfall. I still had to sit close to them, treat them with respect, respect them, and do what was required at the time of the task being fulfilled. While I knew I was going to be ousted, I always was left high and dry, but walked away with my head held high knowing I did my part and nothing could stop me from achieving positive goals. It may take longer to succeed in entrepreneurship, but it’s all worth doing the transformation business work and never quitting. I love side hustles and online entrepreneurship because today, it affords me the opportunity to do what I love doing and networking with great people such as yourself, Marie Forleo, Ryan Biddulph from BloggingfromParadise.com, Ryan Robinson, contributing writer @ Forbes magazine, Vinny Lingham, and Timothy Sykes, along with MillennialMoney.com founder Grant Sabatier. You guys keep me inspired. Thank you for just being you Michelle! 🙂