Money Matters - Financial Fire Drill: More Insurance
BOSTON (CBS) - Your ability to earn an income is important for you and your dependents.
What you need is disability insurance if your ability to work is interrupted and you become disabled.
Disability insurance covers the loss of your income when you are out of work. Your employer may offer it as a paid benefit or offer it to you to purchase. Short term disability insurance can kick in within 30 days. Long term may take 90 days to kick in.
If you have a couple of months of living expenses set aside in an emergency fund a long term policy is all you need. The younger you are the more important disability insurance becomes. And if you are single you need to protect that income stream for yourself.
If you pay into Social Security you also have a disability policy there, but the requirements are very strict as to who receives disability benefits from Social Security.
Life insurance is used to cover the loss of your income for your dependents if you should die. A young couple with children needs lots of life insurance. You need to have enough insurance to provide a future income stream for your family and if you want to send the kids to college you'll need college money and if you want the house paid off so your spouse and kids can stay there you'll need mortgage money also.
Add that all up and you could be looking at a million dollar insurance policy. Stay at home moms and dads need life insurance also.
The cheapest way to go is to purchase term insurance. All you are buying here is life insurance. No fancy investments or savings plan, just insurance and for most individuals insurance is all you need.
Check out the Internet for some good deals and help with calculating just how much insurance is enough insurance. Quicken has teamed up with a website, InsWeb to help you find the best deals in life insurance. You can get help there for other types of insurance as well. Check out Microsoft's website also.
On my website there is an insurance needs worksheet. You can easily print it out and work on it. But you will need a calculator for the addition and subtraction.
Be sure you keep your life insurance policies in an accessible file so they can be easily found. Don't forget to put copies in your Disaster Bag.
