Mike’s Life Insurance Advice

A personal financial plan means you are protecting your family, yourself, and your most cherished assets. A carefully chosen portfolio of insurance policies can help you to preserve your earning power and keep your belongings should the worst happen to you. Here are five policies no one should be without.

1. Life Insurance

Life insurance policies will protect the people you love from financial disaster when you die. If people depend on you for their financial well being, as a rule of thumb, you should consider having enough life insurance to take care of their needs for a minimum of five to ten years.

If you’re not a fan of generalities, another way to determine how much coverage you should own would be to figure out how much you earn at your job each year, multiply that by the number of years you plan to work, factor in the cost of burial, and purchase a policy for that amount of coverage.

2. Long-Term Disability Insurance

Everybody hopes that nothing will ever happen to them. The thought of long-term disability is terribly frightening to almost everyone. Unfortunately, some things seem to happen without rhyme or reason. The best protection to cover this harrowing possibility is purchasing a disability policy that would provide ample coverage; one that would permit you to continue enjoying your current lifestyle even if you are no longer able to work.

3. Health Insurance

Nowadays even going to the doctor for a checkup is might expensive. The cost of medical care is way out of hand. A hospital stay can cost more than staying in the most luxurious resorts in the world. For example, the minimal cost of surgery usually runs into five figures. The list goes on and on.

Yes, the escalating cost of health insurance can be a financial burden. The payments are steep. However the potential cost of not having health insurance coverage is considerably higher.

4. Automobile Insurance

Even though most states require you to have car insurance, they often do not require that you have liability insurance. Even if your car is old, consider that if you’re involved in an accident and you don’t have a substantial amount of automobile liability insurance, a lawsuit might cost you everything you own.

5. Home Insurance

For most people their home is their most valuable asset. Replacing it would be a rather expensive proposition. If this ever happens to you, having the right home insurance can make it a heck of a lot easier.

Consider a policy that would cover you for the replacement of both the structure and the contents of your home. Remember to only factor in the cost of rebuilding and not the land, since you already own the land.

You can estimate how much home insurance you need by multiplying what your local builders charge per square foot by the number of square feet you would need in your replacement home. Also include the cost of any special features you might want along with all the upgrades you would like to have. And make sure that your policy also covers you for any liability for injuries that might happen on your property.

Before purchasing any insurance policy make sure to read it carefully and have your salesperson answer any questions you might have. Make sure you know what you are covered for and how much it will cost before you sign on the dotted line.